Paul wrote:

Eric Stevens wrote:

But whether by typing or microphone Cortana still remains deaf
and dumb while task manager tells me it is contemplating it's
navel at great length. I would be greatful for any polite
suggestions as to what to do next.

Remember, your desktop is a "SmartPhone".

Dumb but true.

Cortana needs "microphone permissions". Check Settings.

I first learned of this, when trying to get the Camera App to work
with my webcam. I had to enable *both* the microphone on the
webcam as well as the video on the webcam, before Camera App would
"touch" the webcam.

And it's annoying when you suspect something has one of those
permission problems, but you can't be sure whether there is a
permission hiding some where blocking it or not.

And don't ask me how the permission model varies with win32
programs versus "Apps", as I don't know the answer. You might see
some permission entry which makes an oblique reference to win32,
but you really can't be sure whether that covers what you're doing
or not. This "sea of sliders" concept is so stupid.

Now, a design I like when running the computer, is the "onion
skin" approach. I try to run a gnuwin32 program. A dialog pops up
"you need blarg.dll to do this". You copy blarg.dll into the
folder. "You need arglebargle.dll". You copy that in. Eventually,
the application runs and there's a big smile on your face. Why
can't the "steeplechase manifest" for these stupid Apps, guide you
somehow ? "Oh, you'll need the microphone and flush toilet
permissions to run this" said Cortana.

I looked at the original poster's reply, so this is hindsight,
but... I think originally he said text input is not working either.