Windows 10 - Start Menu and Cortana not working? Fix Here! Hopefully

[Liz Davis]

Worked, Thank You!!!!!!

 

[Tobymac KOL]

Thanks so much. This was a big issue for me and uninstalling Avast worked for me.

 

[Scott609]

Since last Wednesday I have not been able to get most of the new Win 10 features to work. From Start to Cortana to Edge to Email to the Windows Store. They all just flash for a second, then they are gone. Except the Start menu, of course. It only gives me a critical error message and then makes me restart.

I did once, in the middle of the night, get them all to work. I had just gotten a pop up from Windows saying I was low on memory, I clicked on it, the screen went dark, then suddenly my messages from the activity center started showing up. Then I tried all the Win 10 things, and they all worked. Of course I had to reboot, and by then nothing worked.

I did try a system restore. I found a restore point just before the last cumulative updates started. It ran for two hours, seemed to be progressing, then at the end it told me it was not able to restore due to an error (0x800703f1).

I don't have Avast, but I did delete my Norton Security. I had no idea that the new Windows Defender worked so well. After reboot the action center (or whatever it is called) was filled with message from Defender, and mail I had waiting. I could not get anything else to work. After a reboot, that stopped working too.

What exactly would be involved in reinstalling Win 10? It seemed to keep most of the files on my 8.1.1 laptop, but not as many on this PC which was running Win 7. Where do I even find the download again? I guess I thought, all along, that the next Windows update would fixed it. But I have run them all, and nothing seems to be getting better.

Is this just happening on 64-bit computers, because my 32-bit laptop is working just fine?

Thanks for any help you guys can give. I am totally lost and frustrated after a week of a system that only half works.

Scott :unhappy:

 

[Rohit Mohan]

no need to uninstall anything, i also run Avast and all i did was 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.

I have done as u hav said but im still gettin the problem and my laptop is sshowing "CCritical error
start button and cortana aren't working"

 

[Carol Marshall]

Thank you so much this worked for me. I went through first process and then lost my mouse. Luckily I had a plug in spare and with this recovered everything as you described. What an irritating problem this is for users. I have not uninstalled Avast

 

[Carol Marshall]

Yes this worked for me. After the first process I lost my mouse and had to use plug in mouse but then it restored everything as you said. Thank you very much I can recommend this

 

[ZePyroFilms]

I got this error earlier today, but the problem is that my computer and everything on it were working perfectly until this happened. What DID happen, though, is that I tried to download a picture from my gmail from my mom to print off, and then it all crashed, and I got this error. The only antivirus that I have is Malwarebytes, if that even is counted as an antivirus. Any ideas?

 

[Tony Edvardsson]

Found an easier way for me, just restarted the computer and then pressed F4 to get into BIOS and then changed the date to 2 days earlier, works fine for me after that. :wink:

 

[Brian E W]

Win 10. I've wasted more time than you can imagine. First I lost access to loads of stuff in folders. Outlook kept telling me I didn't have permissions. I finally sorted this by resetting permissions. Finally found a link that worked. Now suddenly I have lost the windows (bottom left). Clicking on it should bring up the apps and manager. Quick flash of the rotating blue wait thing then nothing. The edge button brings up a blue screen which does nothing. Using an email link from outlook used to work. Now it brings up the edge screen and tells me I can't go to the link (Typical example the link from the forum). I do not have Avast whatever that is although I have Norton 360 and Malware bytes. I tried the w/admin privileges. above. That got me nowhere.
I am not a computer techie and I feel that all these workarounds that are all over the place will just get me deeper in the mire. Is this a Microsoft problem or is it just me. And I'm not sure what Cortana is but she doesn't appear anywhere on my machine.
I think I might just give up soon as my stress levels are already too high. Is this something that an update will fix and should I sit and wait.??

 

[Narciso Neto]

I don't even have Avast installed. Safe mode didn't fix it and now I have no solution left. :\

Why Microsoft doesn't come up with a fix for this? :angry:

 

[Randy McPherson]

Tried this twice. Did NOT resolve the issue.

 

[Brian E W]

Trouble is, the more I stumble about with the advice given, the worse it gets. Switched over by accident to something that removed all my desktop icons and left me with a dull background. Took me ages to work out I had gone into tablet mode. No indication so how was I supposed to know this. Finally managed to work out a solution to switch off tablet. Microsoft, come on chaps some of us are users not computer buffs.

 

[blaeberrybooks]

this solution worked perfectly for me, many thanks, much appreciated

 

[Dan Wink]

I do not have Avast I use Trend Micro. I tried the fix suggested and nothing worked. Open for more ideas.

 

[Mimi1998]

Well, I tried everything earlier on my DESKTOP to get rid of the Critical Message that Cortana and Start Menu were not working. Most frustratingly, I couldn't perform certain "fixes" because the Critical Message was bang in the centre of the screen and I couldn't type anything into Task Manager, etc.! I also couldn't boot into Safe Mode, so was just about to give up and call in the expert, when I had one final idea which worked. All I did was force shutdown by holding down the "Start" button, then rebooted my router by turning it off and on again at the switch. Voila ... when I turned the p.c. on again, I was back in! I know what to do now if it happens again, which I'm sure it will as this is the second time already. I've spent many hours (like many) trying to put various things right now Windows 10 is installed. I lost all my Windows Live emails, had no sound and a corrupt start menu. Absolute nightmare! ...

 

[Brian E W]

I don't have a critical message, they just don't work. I have a win 10 system with a win 7 screen ability. Although the win 10 stuff is there, none of them work including Edge. Store opens and then closes with just a blue screen with a logo in the centre. As my machine is no worse off than it was with 7 I might just stay with it and stop there.

 

[phelme]

I had the same issue on my SP2 after a recent update, even under Safe Mode nothing worked.

I found this site that lists a number of things to try. From those tips restarting the Application Identity service restored my desktop and the Get-AppXPackage ... PowerShell script restored Start Menu and Action Center.

Good luck. :grin:

 

[Brian E W]

Well, tried fourth fix from Phelme.
Wndows Powershell (Admin)
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
Enter and away it went.
Told me it had not dealt with 39 somethings but as I wasn't really watching not sure what.
When it had finished, closed it down and Voila! it worked.
Everything seems OK so far and the other win 10 task bar icons worked.
I didn't get Cortana but I didn't want her anyway, she's far too young for me and I prefer the older Google for the web.
All I have to do now is find out how to reduce it from full screen but I don't want to risk it tonight. My nerves won't stand it.

 

[Narciso Neto]

I don't have a critical message, they just don't work. I have a win 10 system with a win 7 screen ability. Although the win 10 stuff is there, none of them work including Edge. Store opens and then closes with just a blue screen with a logo in the centre. As my machine is no worse off than it was with 7 I might just stay with it and stop there.

That's my problem. It think it is just corrupted. No idead how to fix it.

 

[Richard Wolf1]

IT WORKED!

Thank you so much.