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Fix: Start Menu & Cortana not Opening in Windows 10

Update: It seems that the final version of Windows 10 is also affected by the issue. The start menu fails to open after upgrading from a previous version of Windows.
Windows 10 is currently available as Technical Preview which means that there are still a lot of issues and bugs which need fixing before the Operating System gets ready for use by consumers. Some users using the Windows 10 Technical Preview (build 9926) are facing an odd issue where the Start Menu (and Cortana/Search) would not work/open anymore, no matter if they click on the Start Button, Press the Windows key on the keyboard or press Ctrl + Esc. System Restore seems to be the cause of this error, but there can be more. Anyways, here’s how to sort it out.

Making the Windows 10 Start Menu Work Again

There can be multiple reasons for the broken Start Menu and as usual, one solution cannot fit everywhere. Still, you should definitely give the following a try and who knows, the Start Menu starts working again, saving you from a full reset or reinstalling Windows 10 again.

Do backup any data you’ve saved in the Modern Apps  as all of them will be re-installed. Desktop software and apps won’t be affected though.
  1. Open Windows PowerShell as Administrator
    1. Right click Start button
    2. Choose Command prompt (Admin)
    3. Key in Powershell in the black window and hit Enter
  2. Paste the following command in the Administrator: Windows PowerShell window and press Enter key:
    Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
  3. Wait for PowerShell to execute and complete the command. Ignore the few errors (in red color) that may pop up.
  4. When it finishes, try hitting Start and hopefully it’ll start working. If not, this solution won’t apply to you, unfortunately.windows 10 start button and menu

Are you able to solve it for you by following the procedure mentioned above or it fails? If it it fails, do make sure that you ran Powershell as Administrator (window will be called Administrator: Windows PowerShell ) and gave the command enough time to execute.

Other Fixes Suggested by Visitors

Uninstall Dropbox and then Disable AutostartRobert Gavick suggested in comments that uninstalling dropbox fixed the issue for him. So if you have dropbox installed on your Windows 10 PC, just uninstall it. You can then re-install it, but set it to not to autostart at boot.

Boot into Safe ModeDebbie W. mentioned in comments that booting the PC into safe mode and then normally fixed this problem on multiple PCs. Others have also confirmed it to be working for them. So do give it a shot if you’ve exhausted all other options. Read more in her comment.

Uninstall CCleaner or Avast AntiVirus – CCleaner and Avast AntiVirus are two known softwares culprit of causing this error. So if you have any of these installed, just get rid of them soon.

Still no luck? You can get everything to work fine by creating a new user account and working under it. You will lose some of your user data, but most of the files and documents can be transferred over by copying the data from Desktop, Documents, Pictures and other libraries.

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  • How f’n stupid is windows again? Only in this alternate reality can windows be running most computers, and yet have such idiotic problems. If I didn’t need this crappy program for work, I surely would NOT buy it.

  • I remember Unix. I remember Spectrum. I remember mini-computers and mainframes. I remember DOS. I remember Linux. I remember Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups,………And in the year 2017 I have Windows 10 Professional.

    How old is Windows 10? Well, if Windows 3.0 is from 1990, previous versions were extremely shaky, let’s say Windows is old, well 27 years. Hey boys and girls, 27 (twenty-seven) years!!!!

    And 27 years later, what do we have from the Gates evil empire? We have a so called “Professional” product that looses hotkeys, blocks it’s central command / Start button, blocks Notifications and forces users to distroy everything in boot partition and start whole process of installation and settings over and over again…. And what does the evil empire say? Pretty much – nothing. Or as one user said – it just brush us off.

    Maybe we deserve that – who knows?

  • I have had countless problems with windows 10. My PC had to be returned for a new main board since then programs sometimes work sometimes don’t, the Lower symbols on the F keys have never worked. It has now decided not to open Mail on the windows app store without which I cant fix the mail. The start menu starts OK but neither the mail box in the start menu or outlook are working. Outlook opens but shows no mail. Tried to correct mail account settings but wont got passed a certain point even though the correct password has been input. I’m am well fed up with it and if it wasn’t for employment reasons, I am trying to do and online IT course, I wouldn’t be using Windows as also had a Mac book which I can honestly say is well worth the money. No worries about virsues etc with that run like a dream even though its an older model. How can I now get my mail to open, luckily I can use my phone but will need outlook later for the course Desperate for advice

  • If none of the solutions proposed in this article worked, you can try to suppress the child keys under this registry key :
    HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx\AppxAllUserStore\UpdatedApplications
    Worked fine for me

  • what if a new user account still doesn’t fix the unresponsive taskbar? I already did everything I could search in google and here, please i can’t even reset my laptop, its saying ‘an error has occured. No changes has been made.” I dont know what to do now,

    • That’s so unfortunate, Evan. Did your laptop come with some sort of recovery media? You might be able to use that to reset the system to the factory state.

      • Sadly, I don’t have any recovery media that came with the laptop. Further, it seems that even in Safe Mode, the taskbar is still unresponsive some changes that I did was deleting a certain folder called TileDataLayer which does nothing for me.

        • Now in this situation, Evan. I believe a full re-install of Windows using a bootable USB/DVD will be your last option. You might want to bring it to the store from where you purchased it.
          Or if you can do it yourself, you can download the ISO files from Microsoft and create a bootable USB drive to re-install Windows.

  • Hallo mates,
    I have same problem with the start menu and other menu parts of windows ledge, what accured now, after 6 months of smooth, good run of win10. Trouble is, that r-click on programs running also does not work so I am not able to run powershell as admin. Have tried other options mentioned here and on other forums, like SFC /SCANNOW command, whitch found NO data corruption, re-run the explorer etc, only power shell as non-admin does not work (access denied ofc.). I dont use avast (t-630 or symantec, here users dont comply on similar problems) but one last installation of other software (in my case was trial version of acrobat) tried to force me to install avast, whitch I cannot find under my programs cause I declined the installation in the process. For users who have simillar problem i really recommend to install C-Cleaner and run library fix to clean avast out of temporatory files, libraries etc, than reboot and run the windows backup to previous system saved point (dont do a point yourself cause avast will again appear). Than uninstall c-cleaner and reboot again. Fixed for me – good luck.

  • my son gave me a gift a Lenovo laptop (windows 10) but every time I want to do something in the computer because is on my son-in law names (john) appears on the screen and in some others program.how can I remove my son-in law names and install mine’

  • And how do you open Windows Powershell? This is sorely insufficient instruction; it’s the web, so why haven’t you hotlinked instructions to an explanation what that is and instructions where to find it and how to open it? We’re already frustrated that the start menu isn’t working so where are we supposed to find this? Instead I have to go open another browser page to find out. I think I’ll use another set of instructions instead since this started poorly for me.

    • Oh wow! Maybe you didn’t actually read this out. The very first step has a 3-point instructions on how to open powershell.

      • Does anyone here have an issue with cortana search box not working but start button does? if so, can you open the “Cortana and search settings” menu? I can start typing that, it shows up, but clicking it does nothing. Im curious to know if that is apparent for anyone els too.

  • This has happened to me twice now in the last year. First time creating a local account worked. Yesterday it happened again and I cannot even create a new account… I found the best fix; …… Windows 7 Reinstalled. Microsoft should be totally ashamed of touting a new OS that added a start button to fix complaints in Win 8 and this is the result. Win7 until 2020 for this company.

  • I have done all of the above and start menu, task bar and sometimes task manager (from ctrl+alt+del) will not run. Windows update is non-existent. Windows 10 reminds me too much of Windows ME which prior to Windows 10 was the worst operating system Microsoft ever had. Windows 10 is crap.

  • hi . am having this problem – my start edge playstore notifications and rightclick on task bar are not working ! I have tried all possible solutions i found on the net – using powershell ,scannow,dism cmd( it shows source file not found),start menu trouble shooter(apps not installed properly error found but could not automatically fix it ),restarting/ending explorer,regedit.exe checking , killing RuntimeBroker, opening in safe mode,disabling fast reboot ,toggling start menu and task bar , adding new account(which i was not able to do in settings only from cmd i was able to do )and finally reinstalled windows 10 with keep my files option .It just doesnt seem to work ! Please please someone tell me how to fix this . its driving me crazy .
    Thanks in advance

  • I get this problem from time to time. I don’t know why, but the following worked for me:
    1. Right click Start button
    2. Choose Command prompt (Admin)
    3. Type in SFC/SCANNOW
    4. When it’s done (it will probably tell you it found no problem), restart the computer.

  • Alternative way, so to settings > Personalization > Start > Turn off “Use Full Screen”.

    Restart the computer. This worked for me.

  • While researching why Start wasn’t working on one of my systems, I saw mention of disabling shell extensions which seemed a valid thing to check. There’s a small program to view shell extensions, but I don’t know its creator: ShellMenuView

    Running it shows lot of stuff but after sorting by Company names, one thing that I noticed was that Malwarebytes had installed a shell extension. I was sure their shell extension wasn’t needed, so I uninstalled the program to see what would happen and BAM!, my Start button started working again.

    And another happy customer. Whew!

  • Start menu and search was stuck.
    After following this procedure it initially did not work, but after a reboot it worked without going in to safe mode or uninstalling dropbox.
    Please add this suggestion as this worked.

    Kind regards,

    Martijn Kamminga

  • dear all, after trying everything above, and many other fixes, I gave up. I deleted the user account that was having the issue (going into settings from my administrator account), restarted the computer, then re-added the damaged profile. BINGO. Worked. I did have to add back a few programs to the user profile, but most items were restored automatically as part of the outlook.com user profile. so all in all, it took less time to just start over with a fresh user profile.

    hope this helps anyone else who is at the end of their rope.

  • This is so frustrating for me. Not a whiz on the computer but I can follow the much appreciated simple steps listed by others. I have tried almost every single solution listed above and nothing works.
    restarting in safe mode
    uninstalling dropbox
    uninstalling our Security System (ESET)

    I can’t seem to add a new user…which is a last resort. Can anyone walk me though trying to install a new user? It wont allow me to which is why I am having the issue.

    I also have an issue with Excell, which can open existing files, but if I save an excell file that was emailed to me I can’t open. It states that I can’t open the file as I don’t have enough memory…trust me not the case.
    Any additional suggestions from anyone? Solutions above have fixed the other computers in our office, but not mine. :-/

    We didn’t have any issues when we bought the computer with Windows 10, but some update along the way created the problem.

  • Thanks, it worked for me, but the same problem crops up every now and then. I am wondering if and when Microsoft will permanently solve this issue…

  • Mine hasn’t been working for almost a week, I’ll admit I was very skeptical but this actually worked! I’m so so happy! Thanks!

  • Thanks so much for suggesting Restart in Safe Mode. I upgraded to Windows 10 from Win8 a few months ago, and all was working fine. Last week I had a day when I could not get a right click menu to select recently opened documents and then noticed the Start Menu would not work. I restart each day, so one day it did work, and then several days it didn’t. I finally searched for the issue. I tried restarting the “Tile Data Model Server” service, restarting the WindowsExplorer process, entering that code into admin Powershell, adding the Registry edit to add UseExperience, I do not have Dropbox, CCleaner or Avast on my PC. When I finally restarted into Safe Mode by going Windows Explorer to Control Panel, Recovery and followed the steps until I could select Enable Safe Mode on restart. The menu came up and I selected Safe Mode. Once there, I checked and things were working. I rebooted and right click on Taskbar as well as the Start Menu work again. Super Sweet! 😀

  • Not sure how starting it up in safe mode and restarting in normal mode worked…. But, thank you so very much. Now I’m contemplating going back to Windows 7.

  • OMGOSH it worked!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I’ve been like this for weeks and finally decided to look online for answers. Thank you!

  • Guys,
    This is a problem associated with Dropbox.
    The best way to solve the “Critical Error” message is to uninstall the Dropbox application.

    1. Launch control panel (right click on the start menu)
    2. Go to the Programs.
    3. Uninstall Dropbox
    4. Reboot.

    Now the menu , search , cortana should work normally.
    You can re-install Dropbox app now but remember to disable the launch of Dropbox at the Windows start.

  • Quick and Easy fix for Start, Search, Notification and other system icons not working or missing on Task Bar!
    After trying different fixes that didn’t work, I have fixed mine, my husband’s and my mom’s (Windows 10 Home) computers that had this same issue. The following was a very quick and easy fix……..
    1. Go to your Desktop and right click anywhere then hover your cursor over “New” and then click “Shortcut”.
    2. When you are making the shortcut it will ask you to “Type the location of the item”, Type in “msconfig” (without quotation marks) then click “Next” then it will ask you to “Type a name for this shortcut”, name it anything you want, just something you can remember and identify for this procedure. Click “Finish”.
    3. The shortcut you just created for msconfig will show up on your desktop. Double click to open the shortcut to bring up the “System Configuration” box and click on the “Boot” tab at the top. Once in the boot tab, (with your current OS highlighted) underneath “Boot options” click to enable “Safe boot” then click to enable “Network” underneath Safe boot and then click “Apply” then “OK” and restart when prompted.
    4. Your system will be restarted in Safe Mode. (If you see a blue error box that says, “This app can’t open……can’t be opened using the Built-in Administrator account. Sign in with a different account and try again.”….just click “Close”.) Then go back to the msconfig shortcut you created double clicking to open “System Configuration” box again and click on the “Boot” tab at the top. Once in the boot tab, with your current OS highlighted, underneath “Boot options” click to disable “Safe boot” then click “Apply” and “OK” and restart again. Things should return to normal. I hope this helps!

    • This one worked for me as well, thank you!

      P.s. You could also open msconfig by right clicking start menu, opening ‘Run’ and entering ‘msconfig’ in the textbox.

    • You are a L E G E N D !!!!! I’ve been cracking my head on how to fix this stupid issue and now have finally found the answer.

      Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

    • Thank you so much, Debbie W! Your instructions were wonderfully clear and effective. You should be paid! The only strange thing that happened for me is that I did get that blue error box you mentioned, but I didn’t have to re-do the operation because my Start and Search buttons started working without it. Thanks again!

    • holaaa … mil gracias !!! esto me soluciono el problema, con el otro al rato seme iba .. ya me va bien… no se que le abran echo pa que no fuera, apenas cojo el pc solo mi marioo y mi hijay mira que les digo que cuando no sepan algo que lo pregunten …. uffff casi todos los dias estoy arreglandolo … sino es por una cosa otraa… en fin… mil graciasss!!! ???????

    • Debbie, thanks for the simple suggestion, but unfortunately this one did not work for me either. There’s one strange thing I found though. When right-clicking on the desktop, and selecting “New”, my computer lists (Empty) as the only “option”. There was no folder, shortcut, etc to choose from. Does this indicate anything to you?

      So, to run msconfig, I did Window+R, and typed “msconfig” instead of doing it by shortcut as you suggested.

      • I should add, I have already uninstalled dropbox, I only have Norton antivirus installed, and this missing menu is only affecting one of the three users on this brand new Windows 10 computers. There is nothing unique about my daughter’s user account, yet she is solely affected.

    • Thanks Debby; tried a lot of other fixes but this simple start in safe mode worked. Plus a neat way to get to safe mode 🙂

    • I LOVE YOU!!! After a mind-boggling 12-ish hours trying to figure out how to fix this, I found your suggestion and it worked for me! Thank you SO much!

    • Thanks so much for taking the time to write this out. I’ve been running into the non working start menu and no right click options on task bar icons when creating new accounts on Windows 10. This has been happening on many Win 10 systems (Home and Pro) I support.

      Safe Mode using your guide resolved the issue.

      Thanks again Deb. As a result of finding your post I have a little bit of hair left on my head.

      I love you sooooooo much Microsoft……

  • Thanks! This appears to have solved the “last link” of a “my bad” attempt at renaming the user profile directory for the “hidden admin” account after it was accidentally confusingly “at unveiling time” incorrectly named. It saved a total system restore. Not suggested for the faint of heart but I guessed wrong by assuming the windows 7 method might work. This technique of creating a temporary admin authorized ID, logging in with that and renaming the C:\Users\wrongname to C”\Userd\rightname. Then I went into the registry (as if in Win 7) and updated as explained here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/19834.how-to-rename-a-windows-7-user-account-and-related-profile-folder.aspx and then I restarted Windows 10. Not only would the Startup window and the wireless network table not display, but my apps were failing one by one (old-school ones; I don’t use the new cute-app suite so much, well none of them at all actually). Firefox wouldn’t even load so I went to another PC for some research and decided to do a trial of Registry Workshop, find all occurrences of \Users\wrongname and do a global change to \Users\rightname. I had to re-run it and reboot 3 times and ended up with about 15 items that were locked and couldn’t be changed but continued on anyway. At this point after a re-boot, all the old-school apps seemed to be working again but still with the exception of the Start Menu (I use Classic Shell but still an issue) and the wireless selection menu. Running your script seems to have brought everything back to life; so thanks! True, I could have probably just created a new account except for the fact I am using the main administrator account (detesting the “admin-like” accounts while with them being “are you sured to death” with the security “features” that keep getting added to Windows has me choosing the admin account, worth the risk to be productive since human conditioning after time makes one always say “yes” to the “are you sure?” questions without even reading the dialog after a short period of time anyway. But all talks of Windows politics and “admin police” aside, I got what I wanted and that’s a working Windows 10 admin account renamed. Will keep my fingers crossed nothing else pops up. Maybe it will force the choice for system updates to come back. (Joke.) Did I tell you how much I detest Windows 10 yet? I am sure you’ve heard it before. The final demise of user control. Just another iteration here of the eagle and the mouse – the last act of defiance 😉

    • There is MUCH more user control in Windows 10. You just need to discover the new ways of doing things. 🙂
      I would never go back to Windows 7. I have converted all my 5 PCs to 10 successfully and all run much faster and more reliably.
      I am a technician so I do have advantages over the average home user, so I can sympathize with those users. Of course they are not expected to know the technical side, and perhaps (because Windows 10 is so much more security conscious) those users will see more “problems” which they may not be able to fix themselves. They think it is Windows 10 that is causing the problems, when in fact the setup on their machine is not correct. Anyway, keep at it. The release in September of the “Anniversary” release of Windows 10 may improve things for you. All the best. 🙂

  • that was awsome……..it worked for me……….actually i don’t believe in such web ideas……but…after this worked for me ….i have to change my mind set…….thanks for whom ever the person behind this great idea…..may god bless google…….

    • I have discovered an easy way to fix this problem (which is caused by memory leaks from the programs
      running on the Windows Desktop (when you click the Start Button or press the Windows key on your keyboard).
      Simply do the following:

      1. Create a batch file using notepad and call it (for want of a better name) “FixLockedDesktopProcs.cmd”
      2. Type the following instructions in the batch file:
      @echo off
      cd %SystemDirectory%
      Taskkill /F /IM Runtimebroker.exe > nul
      RuntimeBroker.exe
      3. Save the batch file to somewhere on your computer, then create a desktop shortcut to it.

      Whenever the Start Menu or Cortana or Windows Edge cease functioning, simply run this batch file
      by double-clicking on the desktop shortcut.

      It is quicker than restarting or logging off then back on.

      Deeper insight into why this problem is happening can be found at this link under “Memory Leaks”:
      http://www.groovypost.com/howto/runtimebroker-exe-process-windows-8-running/

      I hope this discovery helps others.

      • Thank you Chris, that actually worked. It even fixed up a couple other issues I was having. Like the fact that Outlook wasn’t making a sounds when I received new mail.

      • Sorry to say, this fix is not working for me. I’ve already tried the “do a windows update” solution, and what it seems to me after much research is there is no actual Microsoft SOLUTION to this issue. Most people cannot deal with this kind of problem, having to use “run” menu commands to navigate the computer. It’s ridiculous to me.

    • My windows 10 worked correctly until it updated today. then right clicking on any of the programs wouldn’t bring up a menu. this fix worked great for me. Thank you very much.

  • I tried all of the above and id didn’t work at all. It is a ROYAL PAIN to have to set up a new account because I use Thunderbird mailer which looks for profiles under the old user name, and I don’t see a way to transfer those files since under the new user name, the files under /users/oldname are not visible.

  • You’ve gotta love a tutorial to fix your unworking Start menu and the first step is to click the Start menu.

    If I could do that I wouldn’t need to fix it.

    • There’s a difference between a left click and a right click. If it doesn’t respond on a right click either, then this doesn’t apply to you 🙂

  • Thank you so so so so so Much!
    I’ve trying since last 2 weeks and could not able to figure it out!
    But finally your thread (y)

  • I was just watching a movie on a Windows 10 computer. It restarted itself in the middle of a movie, and is installing updates right now. No warning, no option to postpone. Thanks Microsoft. I am installing 7 tomorrow and fck you.

    • Windows 10 schedules an automatic restart which is forced at some time. Usually it is scheduled during the time a PC is left idle. Probably your media player didn’t made the system feel like somersetting was running.

  • Great suggestion but it didn’t work, unfortunately – I’ll give it a bit longer to see if it works eventually, but I’m not very hopeful. My Windows 10 was fine until the Start Menu stopped working yesterday, Thanks, anyway.

  • Nothing works for me on this Win 10 disaster. I gave up on Windows a year ago and now do 99% of my work with my Mac. But, I use one program on my PC (Paint) and now I can’t use it because I can’t access it on my PC. I’m ov the same opinion as Narender Singh above – we users shouldn’t be the testing ground for MS.

  • Nice! Nothing else worked on my Surface Pro 3 until this. No fixes from MS Support solved the problem. My Start Button and Taskbar both work as expected now. (My Start Menu needs a little rebuilding; it looks like it was hit by digital shrapnel, but otherwise everything looks good.) Unbelievable that Microsoft’s OS requires these types of fixes from enlightened third parties such as yourself. It was a godsend for me, but fixes like this are functionally impractical for the general population to employ.

  • Spent so much time trying to get my computer to work with Windows 10 that I might as well not even have one. All it does is update fill up my drive or have some problem.

  • We shouldn’t have to go through these geeky machinations. We’re users, not techies. It’s irresponsible of MicroS**t to release an operating system that’s such a piece of garbage.

    • I fully agree with you, William. The past years have been all the same. Microsoft doesn’t have a clear strategy. They keep trying things, abandoning them and switching over to trying something new. It is always done internally, but MS here is using End Users for this testing.

    • quit shitting your pants, stop crying like a baby and get with it, Bend down and thank Microsoft for keeping such an evolution going for years, millions of people have jobs, idiot.

    • If creating a new user account has failed you as well, I’m afriad to say that resetting the PC would be your only option.

  • i got the same problem and when i used this command powershell show “53 activities not show”..what does this mean?

  • That worked!! I can log on in a second and don’t have to wait 20-30 seconds. Right click menu on the task bar icons is responsive again. Also left click on the task bar battery icon, wifi icon, speaker icon all are fast again. Strange that only my Surface Pro 3 had the problem but on my Dell laptop no issues. They both have the same Windows 10 Pro 10586 Build.

  • I had a similar issue. My normal user account could get to the start menu, but clicking the cortana menu or trying to search in the start menu wouldn’t do anything.

    I saw a post where a suggestion was to create a new account and copy my files over from the old to the new using an admin account. Tried it. It worked fine BEFORE I copied the files over, but after the copy I had the same result but didn’t have access to the start menu at all.

    So, I started experimenting with the file system. Setting groups of directories to .old and then logging into my normal account and see if it fixed the problem to gradually narrow down the problem. After about 45 minutes, I narrowed it down to a file in C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat.

    I changed this UsrClass.dat to UsrClass.old.dat. When you log in, Windows doesn’t find UsrClass.dat and creates a new one, but now Cortana is working and I can search in the start menu and nothing in the start menu has changed. There must have been some kind of bad data in that file.

  • I try everything I found on google, but menu not working, then I try Windows repair from Tweaking.com and this utility help me painless.

  • Best solution I found was connecting to Microsoft help chat. They worked with to figure out that this version was corrupted. They reinstalled a healthy version for me. Save yourselves the headache and contact them.

  • I have updated my windows 7 to windows ten, i have sony vaio fit e 15… menu bar doesnt open. But i dont know wha powershell is and how can i become an admin? Th
    anks

  • Worked nicely thank you, had the problem for some time – i am using Avast Antivirus free and CCleaner (since today)

  • Worked for me, but, unfortunately, the same problem occurred twice more by now. What the heck is causing it?

    • 2 known culprits I’m aware of are- Avast Antivirus and ccleaner. Do you happen to have one of these?

    • I have eventually fixed this after trying all the for mentioned fixes and it seems a corrupt log file was the issue. If you have an event ID of 412 in Application logs (Right Start –> Click –> Run –> eventvwr.exe) – check this for these events indicatring a log file and browse to the location then rename the log that is indicated and then reboot.

      Example with the path:
      svchost (2288) TILEREPOSITORYS-1-5-21-527542830-3975116416-1082821314-1001: Unable to read the header of logfile C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database\EDB00046.log. Error -530.

  • Thanks..i have been searching for the best solution…until I’m thinking of giving up.
    I’ve tried this solution and my problem was fixed. I was supposed to post here the image as a proof…bytheway thank you.

  • Narender,

    you are a master! I followed your instructions and I recovered the start menu and the Store. The only thing not working is Cortana, but I can live without her for now…

    Thanks so much!

    • Re Cortana: you need to make sure that your location settings are set to US-EN. This is for now the only location where its enabled.

  • My start and store buttons are not working……i followed the directions to running the powershell under the administrator: windows powershell….how long does this process take, its been running about 15 minutes now.

  • Unfortunately Windows 10 has wreaked havoc with my PC and absolutely no fixes including your suggestion has worked. I found a back door in the task manager (typing in explore) to at least access my personal files to save on external hardrive. Some programs I had, win 10 turned into apps which are now not accessible. Again going through a back doir into programs allowed me to save to desk top where I could transport to external. I will be removing win 10 and advise all to not download win 10 free. It’s a hit n miss program and don’t want others to go through what I and others have gone through.
    Thanks for you help tho

  • None of the fixes are working for me. I’m seriously choked right now as I am unable to access any of my files on my PC.

  • I could not open menu other than right click. Tried scan fsc/scannow and said all okay. Could not paste error message but tried starting on/off did not fix…tried re-start when page open and message error said an App preventing re-starting and did I wish to proceed ? did so and shut down and re-started on auto and then Menu 10 all okay and start working again ?? not sure what worked me or time but re-start picked up an App causing a problem sooo…….

  • did not work for me, have tried all thwe trix and fixes for this problem and nothing seems to work, no start menu, no search…nothing in taskbar will work, cale.exe not working, edge not working and a few other windows apps not working….not sure where to go from here except to reinstall windows 7 the redo windows 10…any thoughts?

  • It actually worked, thank you so much. I’ve been looking for a solution for days now and resetting my Windows was not an option. Thank you : )

    • Yep sounds like it, but still pretty troublesome to import docs, files and a lot of apps need reinstalling. Still better than reinstalling Windows though 🙂

  • I’ve run the powershell fix which worked however I now have a similar problem to Mark, annoyingly it means I cannot download images such as those created on canva.com which quite key for me. I didn’t even think an app could impact the download of an image and I’ve tried via google and explorer edge and it doesn’t work.
    Any idea how to fix those apps?
    Many thanks

  • Ive run the powershell fix which worked however I now have a similar problem to Mark, annoyingly it means I cannot download images such as those created on canva.com which quite key for me. I didn’t even think an app could impact the download of an image and I’ve tried via google and explorer edge and it doesn’t work.
    Any idea how to fix those apps?
    Many thanks

  • After I performed this, some of my microsoft applications now appear as follows: @{microsof.GetStarted and cannot be opened. Any solution?

  • I tried this method, unfortunately it didn’t worked out. In some of the PC’s its working fine and in some its not. So there is an alternative for it. You can use the .BAT file to solve the issue. Download the .BAT from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1p-7ya9G3bBX1RTYmNtRnF3UDA/view?pref=2&pli=1 Its just 6.2 KB. Anyhow, thanks admin for the post. Bookmarked this site

    Source: http://www.silentpoints.com/windows/taskbar-startmenu-cortana-fixes/

  • how do I run powershell as an admin, if I can´t open it since menu… could you please explain a liitle more, remember we are not all pc genious

    • Open windows task manager by right clicking on the taskbar. Once task manager is open, click file, then run new task. Type in powershell and click the box that says create this task with administrative privileges. Then click OK. This should get you to powershell.

    • It worked!

      But… first of all, how can you open windows powershell if start menu isn´t working?

      Open a file, go to C: and then make a search… “powershell”… you´ll get a lot of files, I used the one named powershell.common, there you can find the powershell, right mouse button, run as administrator, and… Voila, it worked

      if you cannot find it yet, copy at the address bar

      C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0

      and there you get it

  • Thanks this worked fine for my laptop. I tried several other fixes that did not work. So very relieved this worked thanks again!

  • This means nothing at all to me. You use sophisticated computer expressions which are meaningless. I installed Windows 10 in September 2015, after a great deal of prompting and pressure from Microsoft. IT HAS BEEN AN UNMITIGATED DISASTER!
    My system has drastically slowed down in almost every respect. Today the start menu won’t open, I cannot access any programmes. To open my internet connection I had to first open Skype from list beside Desktop.
    I wish to revert ot Windows 7 as soon a spossible so I can continue my work.

  • In addition to the above problem, Windows 10 will not work with my Avast virus checker. When the virus checker is on no task bar, no start menu, no printers, no access to anything. Switch off the virus checker it all comes back. Now lets see – shall I have a virus checker or windows 10? How do you get back to Windows 8.1?

      • I received this reply from Avast: The Cortana and Start button issue, are unfortunately related to Windows 10, this is a known issue with Windows which millions of Microsoft users are currently facing. Unfortunately there are a lot of triggers with this issue and unfortunately it has been known that Avast can trigger this issue also.
        So far we have found that the fix described in this article has been the most reliable: https://www.techmesto.com/fix-start-menu-broken-windows-10-technical-preview/
        I have already tried a number of fixes and they work for a time – but the problem comes back.
        I went back to windows 8.1 last night! If it is under a month since you ‘upgraded’ to windows 10 you can get back through opening the Start menu and select Settings. Click the “Update & security” icon and select “Recovery.” You should see a “Go back to Windows 7” or “Go back to Windows 8.1” option. Click the Get started button to get rid of your Windows 10 install and restore your previous Windows. I left it to work overnight and all back to ‘normal’ this morning.

  • Worked great. Thanks. Solved the problem in five minutes. Should have looked for this before I wasted two hours in chat with Microsoft support!

  • Thanks a lot………………..man
    it worked and i am able to get windows and search working again……..

  • I did this once and it broke about 15 of my apps.

    The only way I could get the apps back was to do a complete re-install of Windows 10.

    Problem with that is if you re-install windows 10 when it is already installed, there is no way back to a previous version Windows 8.2 for example.

    I did it anyway and that solved my start menu problem and fixed all the broken apps.

    After that Windows 10 worked for a while with no problems, but then the original start menu problem re-occurred and I was back to square one. A subsequent update seemed to fix it again temporarily but now I am there again.

    There is no way I am going to risk the nauseous process of re-installing Windows 10 from scratch again, it takes hours. So I am hoping that Microsoft will do an update that solves this problem once and for all, it is the most fundamental activity of the operating system and as such should be completely bullet proof. Sadly it isn’t

    • Downgrading to previous version of Widows is a temporary option anyways though and it is only there for 30 days, if I’m not wrong.
      One thing that you can try is create a new user account and use that. There’s high chance that the Start menu will work in the new account. And most of your apps/softwares will be available there, without the user data ofcourse.
      Also, if you haven’t tried it, did you restart the PC? Because Windows 10 loses its Start Menu temporarily after hours of continuous operation and a restart fixes it.

      • I am happy with Windows 10 when it works, so going back to a previous version wasn’t really what I wanted. I have read about setting up as a new user as a solution, so when I have time I will try that.

        Just so you know I switch my PC off each evening but I do tend to leave it on all day, so perhaps that is a problem. I will power off and on again to see if that works. But again, you really shouldn’t need to do that.

        Thanks for the feedback though, it is appreciated.

  • Tried your method and it worked!!! Thanks. But whenever I restart the PC, the same problem recurs, Is there a permanent way to resolve the issue?

    • There is some conflicting app/software installed on your system which is causing it to happen again. In case you have CCleaner or Avast Anti Virus, remove them as these 2 are known conflicts.

  • It worked. Thanks so much!

    I waited about 5 minutes before I did anything to anyone trying this for the first time or anyone who had any trouble with it.

  • Just my search was broken. This not only didn’t work, but it broke my start icon and installed a virus on my computer. Don’t do this.

  • I can’t open Powershell. Whether I try to run it via the windows open or make a shortcut and ‘run as admin’ it just blinks/closes. I’ve even tried to make a new user account with no luck. Just won’t create. Don’t know what to do and don’t want to do a repair install and lose all my programs. Any other suggestions?

  • What worked for me was to do a shutdown using “%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 0”, I created a desktop shortcut and pasted the path (without inverted commas. Last character is a numeric zero) into the target line. When you click on the shortcut it shuts the computer down. When restarted the start button worked. Did this on x2 PCs and it fixed the problem on both.

    • That’s stupid, that’s just shutting down the computer.

      Also, you can just type “Shutdown /s /t 0” or, more efficiently, “shutdown /r /t 0” to reboot.

      But rebooting does the same thing!!

  • Hi.Thank you. But unfortunately it didnt work for me. the error occurs ( Access is denied ) . I typed it in cmd as admin. but dont know why it occurs. help me plz

  • 2 hours on the download screen on powershell (as admin) and nothing is happening , just tells me its been initialized and sits there blinking at me , how can they get away with making us fix their broken crap ???

      • No, nothing I’ve tried can fix them. This guy should really remove this fix and post a fix for this fix, because now I can’t use Windows Store or any other Windows app.

        • Honestly speaking Cannash, this was not supposed to cause that. All that it was to do is to re-install those system apps. If Microsoft is so fucked up to have left such issues in their Operating System, I really can’t help. All I know is that this post has helped MANY and there was a very rare percentage of them who faced this issue or probably nobody uses that Windows store. Speaking of myself, I did not face such a thing when I used this.
          The reason that your store and Windows apps are not opening is something else. Not this seriously. Initiated by this, but the reason is something else. Also, are you upgraded to the latest public release of Windows 10? MS has pushed a new update in the not-so-distant past.
          And and.. Would you please try running the same thing over again and see if this fixes it? IF not do give a try to manually reinstall an app, say Calculator.

  • Ran CMD as admin, got into powershell, did command perfect, gave a crapload of red errors. When it finished I restarted PC, no change. Start menu nor Cortana search work at all. Tried SFC, no errors. Virus scan came up clean. Chkdsk on startup counts down from 10 and stops at 5 seconds, then just boots into Windows without any keys being hit. ‘check disk’ option under hard drive properties finds no problems. Safe mode doesn’t change start menu/cortana failure. Running out of options before wiping PC.

  • Get-AppXPackage : Access is denied.
    Access is denied.
    At line:1 char:1
    + Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopm …
    + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-AppxPackage], UnauthorizedAccessException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.UnauthorizedAccessException,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.GetApp
    xPackageCommand

    • It shouldn’t actually do that, but I wouldn’t deny that there are certain cases when that actually happens. Blame it on Microsoft for messing a lot of things in Windows 10.

    • yeah seems to have broken all those things on my computer, but I’d rather have the taskbar working. The only thing I’ll probably miss is the calculator but I can replace that too I suppose.

  • When I key in Powershell in Command prompt (Admin) and hit enter, no new window pops up, and “Administrator: Command Prompt” becomes “Administrator: Command Prompt – Powershell” not “Administrator: Windows Powershell”.
    I tried entering the given code in “Administrator: Command Prompt – Powershell”, but nothing happens.

    • That title is okay as it seems they changed the name in latest update. When you paste the command and press enter, just nothing happens? No error or movement? That’ actually very strange.

      • Okay, thanks.
        Well, something did happen. I green field did pop up after I pasted the command and hit enter. I can’t exactly remember what it said, something with “process” and a file location. However, after that popped up, the window seemed to freeze, for I could not type in any more text or anything. I’m not sure if that’s a problem or not.
        But all that said, today, when I logged on, the start menu opened like it never had a problem! Does shutting my computer down have anything to do with that?
        Regardless of what the problem is, it’s working now. Thank you!

        • Yes. In Windows 10, when you keep the PC running for like half a day, loaded with work or games, the start menu will initially start showing and if you continue to use the PC then will then eventually stop opening. A restart is all you need in such a situation.
          If your PC was not running for multiple hours, then the code pasted in the Powershell might have helped. I can’t say for sure 🙂 Your start menu is back to work and that’s what we needed, no matter how it happened. Enjoy!

  • Windows key is still not working. And now neither is Windows Store and Calculator. You should remove this “solution”, really, or find out how to back it out.

  • Just gives the message:
    Deployment operation progress: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.VCLibs.120.00_12.0.21005.1_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe\App
    Initialized
    and nothing more happens ???

  • Your Windows PowerShell as Administrator command worked!!!! I have been working on this for days. Thank you!!!

  • Thanks, this worked couple of times but not any more!
    Cannot open the Command Prompt with admin (popup window appears asking permission to change the pc but nothing after that), still cannot open start window, no settings, …
    How can I go back to Win 7 or 8? !!!

    • You cannot downgrade at this stage. You may either do a clean install or use the recovery system that your PC manufacturer provided.

    • If no way to go back (without a clean install) how to get Command Prompt or PowerShell open with admin rights?
      When attempting to open Command Prompt (Admin) it opens a pop-up window asking “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your PC?”
      Whan answering “Yes” the window disappeares but nothing happens after that, nothing.
      The command prompt window doesn’t open.

  • That issue was starting to wear on me, but this worked like a charm. Thanks a lot and ahappy new year to you all.

  • That’s what appeard

    Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073D06, The package could not be installed because a higher
    version of this package is already installed.
    Windows cannot install package Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.1.1_1.1.23118.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe because it has version
    1.1.23118.0. A higher version 1.1.23406.0 of this package is already installed.
    NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] 3f720ef3-435d-0001-5c47-733f5d43d101 in the Event Log or use
    the command line Get-AppxLog -ActivityID 3f720ef3-435d-0001-5c47-733f5d43d101
    At line:1 char:38
    + … | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.I …
    + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (C:\Program File…ppXManifest.xml:String) [Add-AppxPackage], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.AddAppxPackageCommand

    Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073D02, The package could not be installed because resources it
    modifies are currently in use.
    error 0x80004004: Unable to install because the following apps need to be closed
    Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI.
    NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] 3f720ef3-435d-0000-7681-733f5d43d101 in the Event Log or use
    the command line Get-AppxLog -ActivityID 3f720ef3-435d-0000-7681-733f5d43d101
    At line:1 char:38
    + … | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.I …
    + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (C:\Windows\Syst…ppXManifest.xml:String) [Add-AppxPackage], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.AddAppxPackageCommand

  • I ran this and now I am unable to connect to the internet via ethernet cable or wifi. Does this command do anything with those interfaces?

  • I have tried this several times but it’s not working for me.
    I can afford to be reset my Windows and be reinstalling app like that.
    Microsoft gotta do something about this.

  • This worked for me too! I had upgraded my laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Cortana worked just fine from the start. I added a second user account for my Fiancé, and Cortana never worked. No search, no response when clicking the icon for Cortana on the taskbar. I was able to open Control Panel and Search for “Cortana”, which returned something like “Cortana – Search Settings” which did absolutely nothing when clicked, just like the behavior of the search bar and Cortana icon on the Taskbar.

    Thank you very much for the fix!

  • It didn’t work for me and I cannot create another user account.
    I get the error message: Explorer.exe Class not registered …

  • Thank you so much. It worked like a charm.

    As a non geek (I use the term with much respect and admiration) I appreciate you taking the time to help folks like me out. You will probably say that it wasn’t a big deal, but is to folks like me.

    Thanks again

  • We check YouTube videos, and did the PowerShell didn’t work and the sfc / scannow and say : Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations but start menu don’t work I really don’t care for the Cortana but because is in the system is messing up my start menu, please help me to fix it! cause is messing up other programs and I don’t think is fair we have to do a bunch a backups with an error that we didn’t create and because our system keep asking to update and we can’t because this error

  • If the start menu doesn’t work, what good it right-clicking it?? and windows+X doesn’t do anything fr me, either. Microsoft sucks…

  • So I’ve tried doing the copy-paste in powershell (and I did run it as administrator) but it just stays on “processing” for over 15 minutes. Is it supposed to take that long? There’s no progress in the little progress dots.

  • it executed, i opened it as an admin, it said about 50 activities not shown, but it didnt work. i still cant open start menu:(

  • I followed your istruction but now i’ve got some problem, first the app (mail ecc..) crash when i open they, so i reboot system but now there is a black screen with white word that say “Error loading operating system_”
    Please help me

  • It did not work, I copied and pasted, but once I hit the enter button, it says that the command is not recognized.
    besides, when I right clicked on the shell, it did not paste, it opened an list of items to chose from, and one of the items was pate.

  • My Windows is crashing it was all fine.
    Got a msg saying start menu n cortana not working.
    Now it is stucking every now n then
    Plz help!!!!

  • worked GREAT. Just follow instructions
    Main issue is ADMINISTRATOR COMMAND
    PROMPT. USE windows key and X. Press at
    the same time.

  • It worked, but now my utilities aren’t working – the calculator app, etc, are crashing and their icons are all messed up… HELP!

    • Would you try running this again? And let it run for quite sometime until it finishes. If it throws errors, maybe they can give you a clue about what’s wrong.

    • The “refresh your pc” worked for me:

      Refresh your PC

      As a last resort, you can ‘refresh’ your Windows 10 installation, which is much the same as reinstalling the operating system. Your documents won’t be affected, but you’ll need to reinstall any applications that aren’t part of Windows.

      1. Restart Windows in Troubleshooting mode

      Close any open applications and press the [Windows] + [L] keys to log out of your Windows account — or just restart Windows. On the login screen, click the Powericon at the bottom right, hold down the [Shift] key and select the Restart option.

      2. Reset your PC

      When the blue Choose an option screen appears, click Troubleshoot, followed byReset this PC. finally, click the Keep my files option and follow the on-screen instructions.

  • Thanks it worked! I had tried other fixes that didn’t do a thing

    The menu is not look exactly like it was before, but at least I can access the programs that I don’t have a desktop short cut for. and everything else on the task bar now works. I will bookmark this site.

  • Buenas noches, estoy muy indignado. He intentado de todo, busque cientos de tutoriales, realice todos los pasos, ingrese todas las claves en powershell y hasta el momento nada se ha solucionado. Por favor les pido encarecidamente que me ayuden a solucionar este problema, sin tener que recurrir a formatear la notebook ni crear en ultima instancia una cuenta de usuario nueva. Muchas gracias.

    • Good evening, I am very angry . I’ve tried everything , find hundreds of tutorials , perform all the steps , enter all the keys in powershell and so far nothing has been solved. Please strongly encouraged to help me solve this problem without having to resort to format the notebook and ultimately create new user account I ask. Thank you.

      • I get your point, Cristian, but unfortunately Resetting or New User Account would be the only option you’re left with. Some strange things with Windows 10 will never be sorted out.

  • Worked but now many of my apps (e.g., Office 365, Outlook 2016, Fitbit, Quicken, Google Chrome,…) can’t be started from Start. They show up under All Apps list, but can’t be started. These all have a down V or up ^ arrow next to them that alternates between up/down whenever you click on them. Also the icon for each of these is just a “folder” that opens/closes when the app is clicked on. The app can be run if an icon shows on the desktop (e.g., Quicken) but I don’t know how to start others (e.g., Office).

    Any thoughts on how to resolve this issue?

  • Hi all,

    Thanks for the fix.
    During the setup phase of installing W10 it dropped out when establishing an outlook account.

    Saved me a lot of stress as the usual fixes involve access to the menu,

    Cheers, Adam

  • Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

    this worked for me ..
    thanks

  • Right click on the start button doesn’t do anything either, so this solution doesn’t work for me. My laptop was working fine, then I decided to shut down but nothing happened when I clicked on start. I shut it down by selecting shutdown from the menu I got with ctrl-alt-del. This morning, not only does the start menu still not work, but I’ve lost my apps that were pinned to the task bar. And anything I start from the shortcut on my desktop doesn’t show up on the taskbar as an active task, so if I minimize it then it’s gone.

  • Also, W10 ran perfectly for 3 months before the problem showed up. It appeared after I attempted to make display changes in order to get HDMI port to work….another successful microshit feature…..not that anybody would possibly want to hook a computer to a HDTV.

    • Damn it. It relates so well to my story. I also started experiencing it when I switched from the DVI to HDMI and made the appropriate changes in display settings. I was thinking that I only experienced it now because maybe the PC has not stayed on for this long in the past.
      Microsoft has shown unprofessional behavior with Windows 10. Hopefully they will continue pushing fixes and updates to fix such issues.

  • Ok everyone. My problem is that d start menu worksfine nd everyting but after leaving my computer on for a long time say overnight then d start nd cortana wont work. Was windows 10 set to be like this? should i follow these ibstructions as well?

    • Yes. That’s something I face as well. Long hours of PC ON and sometimes start works, but search doesn’t and at other times both don’t.
      This method will not solve this issue, because it seems like some inherent issue with Windows 10. It starts behaving weird after long hours. This tutorial was only where Start completely stopped working and restart or whatever does not bring it back.

    • I have this problem too and the simple solution (quick fix) is to open the task manager (right click on taskbar) and I restart Windows Explorer. For me this problem start after the big updates I had a couple weeks ago. Before that everything was fine. (By the way it was a fresh windows 10 install not an upgrade)

  • How long is Powershell supposed to take?
    It’s been at it for about 30min and doesn’t seem to be doing anything…

  • Great – at last! (so far) fixed all the problems I have been having since JULY – now have no explorer scrashes and a start menu and a desktop.

  • idiot microsoft..for a normal user like..start menju did not work..I am sure for many people it will not work. why still microsft is not solving the issue.
    i am running the powershell it sloved the issue.

  • This is not a fix but is a work-a-round that worked for me. I finally, after trying all the above with nothing but a different user working (a pain!), installed “Classic Shell” (http://classicshell.net/) and I now have a fully functioning Start menu. I’s just not the Windows 10 start menu.

  • Just want to thank you for this fix. Had this issue just seemingly randomly occur after using Windows 10 for a few months. Solved my issue!

  • I tried to do this, but it tells me the following:
    ‘Get-AppXPackage’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
    operable program or batch file.

    And yes, I was running Command prompt (Admin)
    Directory
    C:\WINDOWS\system32>

  • I tried to do this, but it tells me the following:
    ‘Get-AppXPackage’ is not recognized as an internal or external command

    And yes, I was running Command prompt (Admin)
    Directory
    C:\WINDOWS\system32>

  • Hey guys,

    I ran the command stated above. How long do I have to wait for it to finish? Running only a 3Mbps connection at home. Thanks in advance!

  • Perfectamundo!I ran power shell as administrator and pasted that “Get AppsX pkg” like you said above, hit enter, waited for it to process, then I ignored the few red comments at the end. Hit start menu window, it came right up…moved over to action center, clicked that and it came right up….You, Narender are a life saver!! Thanks!!!

    • Equally happy that it has helped you get out of the issue. I’m just disappointed with Microsoft that their OS crashes one of its key component so often. Never happened to me in earlier versions of Windows.

  • It worked!!! Searched around and didn’t have any success with other options. Just bookmarked your site in case i have other issues with Windows 10.

  • Follow following steps :

    1. Go to run (Windows + r)
    2. type regedit and press enter.
    3. click ok when notification window prompt.
    4. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Explorer>Advance
    5. Create a Dword with name ‘EnableXamlStartMenu’.
    6. Give it value 0
    7. Log off and login again.
    Your start menu should work now.

    • Hi there,

      Should I delete the entry named “EnableStartMenu” after having creating the “EnableXamStartMenu” ?
      Another question : If I have a 64bit windows, shouldn’t I create a QWORD instead of QWORD ?

      I’m asking these questions after having followed your instructions 🙁

      Many thanx for helping me out.

      Anthony

  • I recommend to all of those who suffered with this prob to use tweaking windows repair tool. It Fixed my problem and it will repair yours(100% sure).

      • The Get-AppXPackage unfortunately didn’t work for me. However I created another user account and the Start Menu work under that. The only problem is I don’t know how to transfer files and Apps from the old user account that doesn’t work to the new one – Can you advise ?

        • Store apps you need to install again. Desktop softwares which are installed for multiple users will be available within start or via program Files.
          You can transfer other files and folders using cut and paste.

  • I found another fix for this that was much simpler. I’d recommend people try this if they have any other issues, or want to try a simpler fix first.

    CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to open task manager. Kill process “Desktop Window Manager”

    This fixed it for me.

    • Thanks for this, but I believe this won’t work for everyone. In your case, even a system restart would’ve worked.

  • I had the same problem. I had upgraded from Win 7 and had been working well for months and just recently after some updates noticed the start button no longer worked, and I had the calculator pinned to the task bar and it wouldn’t open. All else worked okay. I used the powershell command supplied above, and am now working 100%. Thanks.

  • Great job. I have been searching for an answer to this problem for about 2 weeks. The Powershell command worked as promised. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  • I tried Powershell as mentioned by typing:

    Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

    Successfully worked! Many thanks!

  • It might be a update need to be installed If you selected notify me to install updates in the settings then its easy just sign out now in the critical error dialogue Box. Then click restart in the lock screen of windows 10 and that’s it the start menu and cortana will work fine…

  • Friend.. I update.. Windows 10.. Was windows 8. And on windows 10. All installed.but… Not show me desktop.. When I …will on.. Pc.. Shows me only black screen what I can do-? Not shows me nothing

  • Hi there. This worked for me about 10 days ago, for which many thanks. However, I have just had to run it again. Any idea why the fix is not permanent?
    Best wishes,
    Phil

    • Probably a program installed on your system is conflicting and causing it. Avast and CCleaner are two known culprits.

      • Thanks Narender.
        I do have CCleaner on my PC and have run it recently. Is there a setting I can change in it or should I not use it?
        I have the same on my laptop but have not had any problems.
        Best wishes,
        Phil

        • I’m unsure. I only know that it has caused trouble to many out here. So many reported that this regular issue stopped appearing after removing CCleaner. I don’t know what all it does, because I don’t use it myself.
          What I feel is that it is deleting some files which it feels are junk, but actually important configuration files for the Start Menu.

  • Every time I right click on the start menu and select Command Prompt (admin) it say that I need to buy express zip because my 14 day trial is up, what is going on?

  • ‘Get-AppXPackage’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
    operable program or batch file. This is the error i’m getting kindly tell me what has to be done

    • That’s because you did not follow the steps properly. You need to run it in Powershell and not command prompt 😛

  • Still unable to work in private domain with Start Menu & Cortana and Taskbar Search but able to work with local Admin. Please Help!

  • I had to hit about 4 times!!! some come back some not, like my Twitter, News, Weather and few more. But if you find the new way let me know . I will still try.

  • YAY it worked!!!!! i was so frustrated so my last resort was to ask google. this was the first link and I’m so glad it didn’t give me a virus or anything

  • Solution Windows 10 Build 10565:

    Move English (United States) up on top , in Windows display language.

    When fixed, move native languge up on top again.

    • This fix did not work for me, neither did creating a new profile. Not only that when I shut down my computer I rebooted the next day and I could not access either profile and the computer went through a crazy automatic fix, diagnosing pc loop that went on for hours. I could not restart, reboot, could not do system restore, could not roll back to a previous version. My only fix in the end was to reset the computer to factory settings which removed Win 10 and rolled me back to Win 8.1 – disappointed is an understatement.

      • Nothing more than a conflicting app which removes or alters some key entries and hence breaks it. Avast Antivirus and CCleaner are two known utilities to cause this.

        • This seems to be my problem. The above recommendation did not work and now I cannot access Microsoft OneDrive after I ran the powershell app reinstall. Do you have any recommendations?

        • I have both Avast and CCleaner; is there a way to figure out which one is causing the start menu and Cortana to stop working? And if there is, is there a way to get it to quit making it do that?

          • I’m not sure about that because some users said removing avast from the system worked, others that removing CCleaner worked. You have both of them and both are known to cause conflicts. Maybe you can switch to alternative programs for both.
            If Avast includes some Cleanup function that removes registry clutter and all, its the one causing it. Same for Ccleaner.

    • It seems to have worked now to try my laptop as both the Start Menus stopped at the same time. Don’t know how as everyone else didn’t have the same problems when they logged on.

  • It’s not working for me tho.. :/

    “Deployment operation in progress…” in Powershell..

    It’s been an hour already and progressbar is not moving..

      • Yeah.. after quitting and redoing there is just “Initializing…”
        After PC restart still the same song…

        Also I wasn’t able to create a new user.. (It just froze).

        But never mind… I saw you said here that Avast may cause the problem.. so I uninstalled my Avast and it suddenly started to work.. What a crap..

        Thanks BTW!

        • Ah! Glad that it is somehow fixed. Long since Avast is causing issues and they still haven’t managed to fix it.
          Enjoy, buddy 🙂

  • Thanks for your assistance, the search box in my start menu was unresponsive, after applying your fix it has come to life and all seems to be as it should.

    Thanks again.

    Jon.

  • Thanks a lot for this post, just installed the free upgrade this was really annoying me haha. I really appreciate it.

  • Sadly, this did not work for me… I’m not sure what’s going on. My NVIDIA graphics card keeps crashing as well. I can’t even open my GeForce Experience program.

    • Solution just re-installed all the modern apps which play a role in the start menu. The issue is caused by some incompatible program on your computer (known ones are Avast, CCcleaner; but there will be others) or a System Restore.

  • This worked!! Thanks so much. I have been trying for 3 days and was just about to uninstall software to reimage the computer. Saved me the hassle and time.

  • Hi it worked for me too ! Thanks, the other apps were also not working like Microsoft EDGE and PHOTOs application etc. Now I hope they work. Still windows need to work on this and fix it!

  • thank you so much, tried to find a solution everywhere. was highly considering downgrading because of the lack of a search feature that was working, now it works!

  • Thank you Thank you! I have been googling the heck! outta this problem and finally found this! It worked! Been struggling with dealing with right clicking and finding programs and files the hard way for a month now! Again, can’t thank you enough!!!!

  • OMGOMG!!! This solution WORKED!! Thank you so much! I’ve been trying things that didn’t work for days. You rock!

    Thanks again

    -Dave

    • This fix worked for me but as soon as I shut down it is back to the same problem again. The fix works again and again but still when I shut down I’m back to the same problem again. I wish I’d never upgraded because now it is past the easy “go back” to W7 and I am going to have to reinstall many things……..any other ideas?

      • There’s something that is causing it to return back. Do you have some sort of Registry Cleaner installed? Or an incompatible AntiVirus?
        Go through your list of AutoStart programs (Task manager> Startup) and disable the ones you do not need.

        • I removed McAfee and AOL computer checkup before my last comment but I will go back and check my startup as you suggested and hopefully find the culprit. It is also keeping my updates from downloading and installing.

  • This worked perfectly! Thanks for posting it…I was at my wits end trying to figure out why right-clicking did not work, Microsoft Edge would not open, and the Start button did nothing.

  • This is the 3rd time, my start menu, has broken! My son fixed it, but now is not in town. I’m unable to right click! How do I get to power shell admin? I read that avast, my virus protection, maybe why this keeps happening. So, please help me get to power she’ll admin!! Thanks..

  • Worked for me. Thanks a ton. This issue was troubling me since morning. Guess Windows 10 isn’t that great as it was promised to be!

  • Not sure why it worked but following the advise of someone with the same problem, I restarted and kept hitting the F8 button. The safe mode did not open but when it finally restarted all issues were fixed

  • Here’s a fix that worked for me:

    Go to C: \ Users \ [your user name] \ AppData \ Local \ TileDataLayer \ and remove anything starting with EDB and ending in .log. In my case, the start menu popped up on it’s own after I moved the files and everything was fine after that.

  • Just ran it on my laptop, but now my start button and my Windows key don’t work at all. Did a System Restore to last week, now I’m back to the error. Not sure what’s next.