Why is my start menu not working in the Windows 10 upgrade?

[Windows Central Question]

why is my start menu not working in the windows 10 upgrade

start menu doesn't work in the windows 10 upgrade.

 

[Todd Graham]

Re: why is my start menu not working in the windows 10 upgrade

I am also facing the same problem:
not able to open start menu, store app. The icons in the taskbar such as Notification, volume, wi-fi, clock are also not opening when I click on them.

 

[bradleymcc6]

Re: why is my start menu not working in the windows 10 upgrade

I have got the exact same problem and there's actually a Microsoft employee with remote access to my pc right now. They seem to be stumpted!

 

[Todd Graham]

Re: why is my start menu not working in the windows 10 upgrade

Thanks for the update. Please keep us posted!

 

[stevemik]

Stupid I know but after numerous reboots and frustration here is how I got the start menu to work.
Apparently you need to sign into a Microsoft account to get windows 10 to work. This laptop upgraded from windows 7 so I didn't have a sigh in on this computer. A windows 8 upgrade may not have this problem.

Left click on battery icon in task bar.
select "power and sleep settings" you should get a system window
this is the only way I could get to the Settings window.

click the back arrow top left
click "accounts"
follow prompts to sign into microsoft account or create an account.

Once I signed in to my microsoft account the start button worked.

Silly

 

[Todd Graham]

It's not a sign in problem for me - went from 8 to 10 - I am signed in. Thanks though for the info.

 

[taymur]

i don't know how to add to this thread, but i am amazed that there is 3 trending threads regarding the start menu, yet no one seems to be available to assist.

 

[stemachan1]

Found this elsewhere on the internet and worked for me, I had avast free antivirus on my pc, managed to delete it, rebooted and so far seems to be back to normal, don't know why it worked and probably no good if your not running avast, but might help other people with the same problem, I have restarted a few times to make sure its still ok and I'm now running
free avg antivirus with so far no more issues.

 

[bradleymcc6]

Re: why is my start menu not working in the windows 10 upgrade

The Microsoft employee said it looked like my installation of windows 10 was somehow "incomplete" and that I needed to do a refresh. I did the refresh and it worked! Everything working fine. If you want to do it:

Right click on the desktop to get to settings

Go to the reset your pc section

Click refresh

You can also choose to keep your personal files, but unfortunately you can't keep any 3rd party programs.

 

[Liamhughess]

Re: why is my start menu not working in the windows 10 upgrade

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 have just replied to another thread on this problem and the way I fixed it was to create another account and work in that one and everything is now OK. The start button and the task bar were not working on mine and Avast antivirus is installed as well

 

[Liamhughess]

Re: why is my start menu not working in the windows 10 upgrade

The avast will still work but I think it may be a cause of why the start bar and Cortana crash! You shouldnt need to go through the trouble of making another user account,Microsoft should see this is a massive problem and fix it asap...

 

[brusbrother]

For those experiencing the issues with the Start button, did you disable antivirus software as per MS instructions PRIOR to upgrade?

 

[stemachan1]

Re: why is my start menu not working in the windows 10 upgrade

I followed the instructions and disabled antivirus and firewall, no problems with installation everything was running fine for the next few days until the critical error, then got rid of avast, rebooted, installed avg and so far no more problems

 

[rob1983]

Had this same issue, Had avast installed, uninstalled it same issue. I was signed into my microsft account and when I changed it to local sign in it fixed the issue for me. Seems to be an account issue.

 

[patysue]

My update was done without my anti-virus being disabled and I'm unable to sign-in to my MS account. Message indicating unrecognized. Went to MS live and changed password and still have same problem! MS account works well on my tablet. How do I solve this problem?

 

[William1892]

Found this elsewhere on the internet and worked for me, I had avast free antivirus on my pc, managed to delete it, rebooted and so far seems to be back to normal, don't know why it worked and probably no good if your not running avast, but might help other people with the same problem, I have restarted a few times to make sure its still ok and I'm now running
free avg antivirus with so far no more issues.

I changed to a vast days after updating from AVG and now have the problem, didn't think it would be the cause though, so thanks for posting and hopefully solving my problem!

 

[viper111]

I don't know why my start menu disappeared, but since all that went on my nerves. I installed classic Shell.
No Problem so far!