Stardock Forums
If I choose "Replace Start 10 search with Cortana" and then whenever I press Start and start typing, my first character always get lost. i.e. if I type "bluestacks", cortana will search for "luestacks".
I am facing this issue from last several years, but nobody care about fixing it
Yes, I believe it was addressed on V1.95 checked out the version history listing https://www.stardock.com/products/start10/history
No. It's not.
I was very excited when I saw the changelog and immediately upgraded. But no improvement at all. The same issue even today.
This has to do with how Cortana responds when called, not with how Start10 works.
We cant make Cortana respond any faster than it is.
Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager
But you can fix the lost character issue by other solutions like blocking/capturing the character input and re-sending it when the windows search is activated.
I am a programmer so please don't tell me that it's impossible.
Unfortunately it doesn't work quite like that.
The issue is you block the input and save the char, but then you discover the user has typed quickly and there is now another character in the keyboard buffer ahead of the first character.
End result the first two letters get swapped.
Start10 does capture the first character and it does send it on. It is a delicate balance between leaving too long for the search to show (and thus being out of order) and being too quick and losing the first letter.
Just want to update that this issue remains chronic.
I dream of a fix from Stardock!
FYI, I've had some limited success with ensuring that I am "signed in" to Cortana. Because I don't like Cortana, in the past I didn't bother to have it signed in.
Signed in seems to help with the lost first character issue 
I decided to gave up any hopes and moved to a different product (Open Shell for those who are curious). It's been 2.5 years since the issue was reported and I don't think they are ever going to fix it.
Thats a curious choice given that product doesn't seem have an option to search Cortana from the menu at all?
I am using it for 2 weeks now. While I miss Cortana a bit, but its inbuilt search is excellent and doing a great job. Very good reliability makes it a very good alternative. Classic Shell was not good, but Open Shell is great.
I also had this issue with Start 10 too.
What issue did you have with the inbuilt search with Start10 that made you use Cortana search?
The latest update resolved an issue with high cpu with search.
I'm just going to chime in and say that I've been dealing with the same issue. The problem appears to be experienced by fast typers. Maybe include an experimental feature to increase the type buffer for fast typers, just a simple toggle, or maybe make it a time interval based on how long it takes generally for Cortana to pop up instead of how long you think it takes the average person to type a letter. Should be less variability in Cortana response time than user type-speed. Just giving some ability to adjust would make a huge difference. Maybe find a way to poll Cortana once, capture the response time in ms and adjust your buffer time accordingly. This is all possible in C++ or Java or whatever. It's not good to have hardcoded workarounds where they need to be flexible. If this sounds too complicated for the average user to want to mess with then add it to an "advanced search functions" window.
I would prefer to use Start10's search function, but it misses many files and programs on the system. If I have a program that is portable then it's missed for instance. With Cortana search I can pretty much reliably search for anything I'm thinking of on my system (although curiously sometimes it misses newly installed programs I haven't run yet).
Jankiest solution, but better than nothing: Add "Something missing? Try Cortana" to Start10's search. So if I search with Start10's search and don't get the results I'm looking for I can just tap that button and it takes my entire query and pops it into Cortana. I'd rather have 1 extra mouse click than 5-10 backspaces every time I type a search, or have to remember another keyboard shortcut.
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