Laptop won't boot after deleting some apps

[msm-327]

I deleted the app Cortana and a few others thinking it would speed up this old laptop. Now it boots into a blue screen and wants to start with adding a keyboard and so on. I tried the repair features that are available but it wants to wipe out everything and reinstall. I can get to the C:\ prompt and thought if I could find the recycle-bin and somehow restore the apps I deleted but that's not working very well. I'm not ready to go through a complete setup of a new laptop but need this one for running Allen Bradley rslogix 5000.  Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated and I know one thought is why did the idiot delete apps without first knowing what would happen. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

[WAWood]

@msm-327 

While I agree with you regarding Cortana, there is a safe way to remove it -- and had you asked here first, I could have directed you to the Windows 10 forums.  But, that's too late now.

Need to know specifically what version of Win10 you are running.  If you don't know that, open the Search and enter "winver" (without the quotes) and report back here what it says.

[msm-327]

I can only get to the c:\ prompt and it's Windows 10 pro version 10.0.19041.1

[WAWood]

@msm-327 

That's a really OLD version of Windows. But what I would suggest is seeing if a Repair-Install will work.  

Use that information and the instructions in this thread to download an ISO file from Microsoft:  https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Knowledge-Base/Getting-older-builds-of-Windows-10-from-Micro...

Use RUFUS utility to create Windows boot media from that ISO file. You can get RUFUS from here:  https://rufus.ie/

Insert the Windows 10 USB stick into your PC (do NOT boot from it), find the folder containing the media, select the setup.exe file, right-click that and select Run as Administrator.  This will start an in-place Upgrade which could then take a couple of hours to complete.

If you are presented with a window asking for a product key, down near the bottom is a entry you can click to skip that. Do NOT enter a product key, as it will reuse your existing key and when you finish and get back online, Windows will automatically activate.