"Critical Error: Start menu and Cortana aren't working." help?

[Monsieur Fudge]

Ok I'm kinda new here so pardon if I do anything wrong. Anyway I was playing a game (osu!) when it suddenly froze, when i restarted it, it didn't play any songs anymore (its a music game btw). Since I found it weird I tried playing some of my songs and videos but it always ended with an error saying "The wait operation timed out". Also when i try pressing the windows key it seems to be unresponsive (the start menu doesn't appear), any ideas? I have windows 10 on a lenovo z50 if it helps.

Update: After opening my laptop this morning, im greeted with a notif saying: "Critical Error Start menu and Cortana aren't working. We'll try to fix it the next time you sign in" What now?

 

[Monsieur Fudge]

did a system file check, nothing out of the ordinary there

 

[Monsieur Fudge]

Never mind, managed to do a system restore so everything is good I think... well start menu is working again and i can play videos again which is good enough for me.

 

[Chris Dudley]

had the exact same prob.. game freeze and everything..
do this..
crt alt del to bring up task manager
click file
run new task
enter msconfig w/admin privileges
go to boot section, click on safeboot and network
ok to restart
after restart just repeat the process but unclick the safe boot square in msconfig
restart again..
you should be good.

 

[SergioQuesada27]

Thx Man! (Y)

 

[ChezAmigo]

had the exact same prob.. game freeze and everything..
do this..
crt alt del to bring up task manager
click file
run new task
enter msconfig w/admin privileges
go to boot section, click on safeboot and network
ok to restart
after restart just repeat the process but unclick the safe boot square in msconfig
restart again..
you should be good.

 

[ChezAmigo]

You saved me, Chris Dudley! Thank you!

 

[anon(5671481)]

My issue went away when I uninstalled Avast.

I now use Windows defender and it's all good.

 

[aliasger mhowwala]

Uninstall avast or any other anti-virus you have installed,this solved the problem for me and my friends.I think antivirus software was causing issue.

 

[aliasger mhowwala]

Uninstall avast or any other anti-virus you have installed,this solved the problem for me and my friends.I think antivirus software was causing issue.

 

[Jeff Thomas9]

Tried it. When the system logged back it it said couldn't complete the changes. My login screen to enter my password came up. put my password in and was told that the password was incorrect. No I can't log in

 

[Salman Ali Khan]

Uninstall Avast Antivirus and it's done.
fb.com/godesignsindia

 

[Fred Havn]

I am sitting here in Vancouver Island and had the same problem. Followed your instruction and got rid of Avast, and now I'm back up and running. Thank You So Much. Thank you from an Norwegian.:wink:

 

[Fred Havn]

AVAST is the DEVIL and must not be installed.

 

[Tim Leon]

Here's a fix: Reboot in "Safe Mode," then log into windows, then restart
How to do this when Start menu and Cortana aren't working:
1. Right-Click on the Widows icon in the lower left of the desktop screen.
2. Hover over Shut down or sign out,
3. Move your mouse to the right and hover over (but do not click) Restart.
4. Press and hold the Shift button on the keyboard,
5. While holding it down, Left-Click on Restart (you can now release the shift button)
6. In the screen that eventually appears, choose Troubleshoot.
7. In the next screen that appears, choose Advanced Settings,
8. In the next screen that appears, choose Startup Settings,
9. In the next screen that appears, left-click on Restart.
10. The Startup Settings screen appears.
11. Choose 5) Start in Safe Mode with Networking by pressing 5 or the F5 key.
12. When your computer restarts, enter your password (your PIN will not work here).
13. After a few seconds, a window will briefly flash open and then close.
14. Start menu and Cortana have now been reset.
15. Restart your computer as you normally would.
16. When it restarts, everything should be normal - log in with your password (or PIN if you have one).
If you found this helpful, do something good for someone else. (If you need a suggestion, you could donate time or money to a charitable organization - even one dollar helps.)

 

[ChezAmigo]

It's almost a month later -- did the problem stay gone after uninstalling Avast? I am interested in knowing if this is a permanent fix. Thanks!

 

[Salman Ali Khan]

Don't know if this issue is with Avast or Windows 10. I hope this would be with windows because I'm a fan of avast and using it for more than 5 years and don't want to say bye to avast forever.

 

[YogitaKhandelwal]

Which file I should open to create new task. I don't know which one to open to fix Critical error showing Start menu and Cortana aren't working. Well try to fix it the next time you sign in.

 

[YogitaKhandelwal]

After run new task which file I had to open to fix the problem. I am not getting it.

 

[ChezAmigo]

But we do need antivirus software, so reloading it didn't bring the problem back?