windows 10 cortena not working

I got my free upgrade to windows 10 from windows 7 a few months ago.  Lately I log on and I get a message that cortena is not working properly and that I have to sign in again, while the system attempts to correct the problem in the meantime.  Sometimes this will not work after repeated attempts.  When this happened the last time I hit restart and that worked.

Any ideas?  Thanks in advance.

dreux

Hi dreux,

sorry to hear of the issues with Cortana,

I think the easist first step for you to consider is to use a System Restore Point created before the issue with Cortana started, to set back your computer in time to when everything on Win 10 was working well.

This may well do the trick for you…. if you still have issues with it after setting it back in time by using a System Restore Point created when it was working Ok, then the next step might be performaing a  refresh… see below for instructions:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/refresh-is-part-of-reset-in-windows-10

Just a thought before you start…. are you absolutely sure that you want to have Cortana and your security settings, set so that your privacy is potentially compromised???

Some folks are quite happy with that and feel  that the benefits of Cortana access, far outweigh the security and privacy concerns…. whereas other folks are dead set against it…. as always it's your choice….. there are of course lots of folks who do not appreciate that there are any potential privacy concerns at all….those folks may need to do a little reading to inform themselves of the situation.

Post back and let us know how you get on.

Regards

paws

System Restore is disabled by default in Windows 10, at least on every Windows 10 system I've setup so far, which is 20 or so.

To enable it,

Right click on This PC and select Properties.

Click Advanced system settings at left.

Click the System protection tab.

Select the boot drive then click the Configure button.

Select Turn on system protection and click OK.

Click Create to make your first restore point.

Others should be created weekly or as needed.

Good point Rich, thanks for pointing it out.

I have become so used to enabling "system restore" for customers with new Win 10 installations as a matter of course that I had overlooked that some folks were either unaware of the new approach by Microsoft to disable it, (or at least not enable it) as a default position, that it had not ocurred to me that a home user would have left it disabled…!

There are folks who understand the situation and have taken the informed decision to leave it disabled, but as a general rule for my customers I always have it enabled.

With automatic "Windows Updates" in place for most home users, there is scope for additional "troubles" to be unintentially introduced…. along  with the usual mishaps that can occur from time to time, and for a lot of home users a good System Restore Point can be a quick and simple fix, it's no substitute for a tried and tested back up strategy, of course, but for any folks who come across this topic, perhaps via a search engine, then it's well worth considering carefully if it would be wise to enable the System Restore utility, and selecting an appropriate amount of hard drive space to allocate to it…( the default amount is usually OK for a lot of people, but depends sometimes on the amount of free space available on their hard drive.

Once again Rich many thanks for your valuable and correct posts.

Regards

paws

Not any help for this problem unfortunately.

I don't understand why MS defaulted to OFF for System Restore.

I wonder if running sfc /scannow might help?

Thanks to both of you for your help.  I just created a restore point.  After I first  posted my problem it seemed to go away so I didn't follow up, do what was needed and report back.  This morning I had the same problem and I solved it but I'm not sure how exactly.  I tried a warm boot and a full shut down/cold start and saw the same message that Cortena was not working properly.  I did another shutdown/cold start and that worked, then I had to got to work.  When I got home it started up fine.  I'll have to do more research on this issue but I should be ok for now.

Thanks again.

dreux

Make another system restore point quickly before anything else goes wrong!

and

if its all working well now make a disc image as well.

Regards

paws