as you can see from the images below, cortana search is somewhat broken and won't search my applications instead keep suggesting store apps and telling me to search the web.
I've started the windows search service from services.msc and restarted windows explorer but it didn't fix the problem at all.
Without searching features the cortana search is pretty much useless
please help
Open an elevated Command Prompt window (press win + X, and then press A)
Type "Powershell"
Run the command (in one line):
Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
This should resolve your problem.
Source: Cortana Search is not finding applications on Windows 10
Cortana will find them without manually registering the app in the manifest. It just takes about 8 hours for it to work. You can reinstall windows until you're blue in the face it won't change the fact that cortana is not complete and that part of windows needs updating. Also there is a limit of about 500 apps that it will index total no matter what. So this nonsense about reinstalling windows because your search isn't instant is hogwash.
Note: If you actually type in the commands for device manager "devmgmt" or "control" they will come up in the start bar.
See my post here. Windows 10: Cortana Search is not finding portable applications
