search won't work in anniversary update of windows 10

After the Anniversary update (version 1607 via Windows Update), Search doesn't work properly
- i no longer have a search icon in my taskbar. i do have a cortana icon. is this by design?
- when i try to key something into where it says "ask me anything", i cannot enter any characters. i can click on the microphone and then talk to cortana, but i don't want to use that feature. i prefer the old style search.
- i will not be using cortana, but i suspect that i no longer have the option to turn it off and use only search. correct?

After the Anniversary update (version 1607 via Windows Update), Search doesn't work properly
- i no longer have a search icon in my taskbar. i do have a cortana icon. is this by design?
- when i try to key something into where it says "ask me anything", i cannot enter any characters. i can click on the microphone and then talk to cortana, but i don't want to use that feature. i prefer the old style search.
- i will not be using cortana, but i suspect that i no longer have the option to turn it off and use only search. correct?

There are several ways to preform search in Windows 10. You can also disable Cortana. Look at Tutorials by Brink - How to turn Cortana on and off.

Simple way to search is to just click on start (that Windows button in low left corner) and start typing what you are searching for.

Simple way to search is to just click on start (that Windows button in low left corner) and start typing what you are searching for.

if i click on the start button, i do not get any place to start keying in my search request.

Just start typing

Just start typing

i tried that. soon the window that i would expect to be keying into shows up, but nothing that i am typing is displayed.

This happens when I type settings: sometimes it says: didn't find anything...

 

This happens when I type settings: sometimes it says: didn't find anything...

i get nothing. type being input is not recognized. does search work without cortana?

Yes, search works very well without Cortana. Just press the START button and start typing.

i get nothing. type being input is not recognized. does search work without cortana?

Yes, but it won't search all type of files and in all places. Indexing have to be turn on (not 100% sure). Try to change some settings.

If it won't work for you, you can try program called Everything. A lot of people here on blog like it...

Right click on Task Bar >> toolbars >> Search,
check if the option is still available.