start menu not working in windows 10 after upgrading

[WPCentral Question]

my windows start menu is not working after upgrading to windows 10 yesterday

 

[Todd Graham]

I have the same issue.

 

[Crystal Cuffley]

I'm having the same issue. And it took over 5 minutes to turn on. This is very frustrating since I run my business from home on my laptop.

 

[Miriam Joy]

Yeah, it's not happening at my end either. And the computer is also being very slow. When I try and open one of the few programmes that I can still access (I hate desktop shortcuts, so I need my Start menu!), it takes ages, particularly troubleshooters, network things etc.

 

[realwarder]

When you say not working, what do you mean?
Press and never comes up? Press and takes ages to come up? Something else?

 

[Miriam Joy]

For me, it wasn't appearing at all. The button would go blue, but nothing would happen.

HOWEVER it has just worked for the first time ever! It may have been restarting my computer lots of times (mostly by means of improper shutdowns, because it kept freezing on me; hope that won't continue), as I didn't do anything else much. Anyway, fingers crossed that it continues to work, and that the other things which were broken are now no longer broken.

 

[Windsara]

I've had the same issue the past 2 days.... It starts with Start Menu and all apps, volume, notification tab etc... not working, meaning click on and nothing happens.... Shut down computer (desktop) ....start computer back up later (after work) and error notice shows "start menu and cantina not working" ...... Needed to fully power down computer and restart 4 times before this notice goes away and for everything to work again ...and this whole process starts over the next time the computer is powered down :angry:

 

[Miriam Joy]

this whole process starts over the next time the computer is powered down

Oh gods, I'm not sure I can cope with doing this again. *considers leaving computer on forever* Never had an error message, though, just things freezing and dying on me. Blah.

ETA: Just turned it off for a while and turned it back on, all seems to be working. One thing I did do was connect to my (pre-existing) Microsoft account, which I use on my tablet, so that may have helped? Idk.

 

[Todd Graham]

I am having similar problems as you windsara - annoying it still doesn't work for me and no solutions yet posted on this in the other two threads on this topic...

 

[Alex Wales]

Guys I've just had a similar problem on my desktop PC. I got it working again using the method described in another thread called "Startmenu and taskbar not working in windows 10", but all the program folders were empty.

I was just about resigned to having to link them all in manually when I thought I would check the registry for errors using CCleaner (I use this all the time).

About 30% of the way through all the programs started appearing in all the folders.

It might not work for you but it's worth a try, or try your usual registry checker

I use the free version of CCleaner.

 

[Wryman]

I've had this problem too but in my case it seemed related to setting up my home network. It seems that when I try to network by sharing files with another computer it makes the start button and other new apps fail. Legacy programs work ok.

 

[Liamhughess]

I think I may have found the problem... Do those dealing with this problem have avast antivirus installed? If so, I believe that is what is causing the 'critical error'. I uninstalled the software and upon reboot my start button and cortana were working perfectly again. Now I'm sure you all know how to uninstall software on your PCs but it may not work in normal mode with the critical error as it didn't with me. Therefore I uninstalled in safe mode. Incase you arent familiar with how to access safe mode on windows 10, heres how: You press ctrl+alt+delete, and in the bottom right hand corner you click the power button. Before you click 'restart', hold down the shift key until the next screen is displayed (blue). Then click troubleshoot, advanced options, start-up settings, restart. Once it restarts, press the F4 key, and when it restarts you will be in safe mode. Now just do the normal thing to uninstall avast and then reboot following the installation and it should be fixed!

I also posted this response on the Microsoft forum: 'Windows 10 Critical error fix, Start menu and cortana not working" bug when logging in with MSA?'

Hope this can help some people! it was hella frustrating trying to fix this!
-LiamHughess

 

[Grumpy yorkie]

I had the same problem and the way it was fixed for me was to create a new account and work from there and everything ok. I also have avast antivirus running but it is still working.

 

[Liamhughess]

But if you uninstalled avast the original user account will work, hopefully. It did with mine. Avast worked the whole time but I believe it was affecting the start bar and Cortana

 

[ashram]

had the same issue, but all universal apps and notifications wouldn't work either. avast wasn't my issue as I never had it installed Tried various fixes, all failed, including SFC /scannow and various DISM commands.

it wouldn't let me roll back to 8.1 either. The interesting thing, the 1 pc that gave the issue initially had Windows 7, then upgraded to 8, then 8.1, then a repair install (reinstall, keep data) and with every attempt to roll back from 10, it asked it I wanted to go back to 7, 8 or 8.1 randomly, and then fail at 99%.

Luckily, it did attach itself to my MS account (it said I was using my local account, but couldn't link it to the MS account) so a clean install of 10 was possible on a new drive, then moved ALL of my data back.

 

[Gtown Goon]

I cant create a new account.... when i go to my accounts from the control panel, it says in blue, add a new account in pc settings... I cant access pc settings though without the start key working.... it doesnt work if i push the key on my computer either... this is really starting to **** me off!!!

 

[Windsara]

Well came home to turn on the desktop and sure enough ....the blue box Critical Error showed up "Start menu and Contana aren't working. We'll try to fix it the next time you sign in." ...nothing works, no buttons to click, can't right click, nothing ....which by the way , they can't fix it (not sure if they are even trying lol) ...only a force shut down will temp. clear it ........ I do have Advast, so to see if that is what is doing it, I have uninstalled it and we will see if that takes care of it :eck:

 

[astondg]

This seems highly unlikely but... when I upgraded from W8.1 to one of the later W10 dev preview builds my start menu and store apps stopped working. I tracked the problem down to a permissions issue on my user account folder (i.e. C:\Users\[UserName]), during the upgrade my user account was removed as the folder owner and the 'System' account took ownership instead.

I rolled back to 8.1 and upgraded again and it was all ok.

Like I said, highly unlikely that this is the issue but I thought I'd share just in case.

 

[Markus Angel]

my windows start menu is not working after upgrading to windows 10 yesterday

you may try to download also the driver to keep your computer running smoothly ( as for my case, i had updated my Intel Driver to let my screen working)....i'd been through it since i had had my pc upgraded last february....

 

[taymur]

Yeah, it's not happening at my end either. And the computer is also being very slow. When I try and open one of the few programmes that I can still access (I hate desktop shortcuts, so I need my Start menu!), it takes ages, particularly troubleshooters, network things etc.

type the software you want in Cortana if that is possible... its the only way i open software any way.