In the case of Avast at least, once you switch the shields back on, the Start menu search may continue working as it should. You could just try disabling your Avast shields temporarily, which should get the Start menu search back. ( Windows Defender itself has become a viable, secure option in recent years.) Avast is one culprit, so try uninstalling that if you have it, then find an alternative if need be. To be clear, we’re not suggesting here that you should disable and completely remove all third-party antivirus software from your device, but based on feedback here and across the Internet, certain programs cause Windows Search to malfunction. What it does is that when you type the search term in the search box in the new tab page, it will redirect you to the address bar, which uses the browser’s default search engine. It put the cursor in the search box where you expect it. So to make things a bit more consistently, I’d recommend to enable and set the Configure the new tab page search box experience policy to Address bar. As I recall, google always used to behave nicely when opening a new window or tab. Disable/Restart Third-Party Antivirus, Enable Windows Firewall For whatever reason, when I open google, the cursor no longer appears in the search box, ready for me to make an entry. In addition, running the SFC utility in Windows 10 Safe Mode could solve the problem for you, so that’s worth a shot if doing it in regular Windows 10 fails. Give that the Start menu search is a system process, any errors in it should be detected by using the SFC utility. This will scan your system files for any errors and corruptions and automatically attempt to fix them.

Google search box not working