How To Fix Windows 10 Start Menu Not Working
The Start menu in Windows 10, although works great most of the time, at times, it doesn’t open at all when you press the Windows logo key or click the Start button on the taskbar.
The Start menu’s Cortana search feature doesn’t work at times and live tiles on the Start menu show blank tiles many times.
While Microsoft has fixed many of the common issues, many users still encounter issues with the Start menu.
First think you should do is to restart your computer to see issue resolves.
Microsoft Start Menu Troubleshooter Tool for Windows 10
Microsoft has released a free repair tool to fix many of the common Start menu issues in Windows 10.
If the Start menu troubleshooter detects an issue, it tries to fix it automatically.
Click this link to download the Start menu troubleshooter or repair tool on to your PC.
If there are no issues, you will see “Troubleshooting couldn’t identify the problem” message.
You can click View detailed information link to see potential issues that were checked and their results.
Run the System File Checker
Check whether corrupted system files are the culprit by running the System File Checker utility.
The batch script attached to this tutorial can be use to repair corrupted system files.
Please download the Sfc.zip archive file and right-click it, select Extract from the context menu.
Double-click the extracted Sfc.bat batch script file to run it.
Reinstall Windows 10 Default Apps
Reinstalling default apps might resolve the Start Menu issue.
Here's How:
1. Presss Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to open Task Manager.
2. At the Task Manger, click File from the menu bar.
3. Click Run new task to open "Create new task" dialog box.
5. Type Powershell and place a check mark for Create this task with administrative privileges.
6. Click OK button to launch Powershell console.
7. At the Powershell console type following command and press Enter key.
This command tells Windows to install those default apps again. Give it some time and allow it to finish, even if nothing appears to happen at first. Even if you see an error message, restart and examine your Start Menu.
Disable or uninstall anti-virus programs
Some users have also reported that disabling or uninstalling the anti-virus program and the firewall has fixed the Windows 10 Start menu issues for them. Make sure you restart your device after uninstalling an anti-virus program.
Create a new User Account
Sometimes, the problems affecting your Start Menu might be confined to a single user account. It’s a good idea to switch to another user account to see if the problem persists.
How to Create and Manage User Accounts in Windows 10
If the Start Menu issue resolves within new user account then your user account is corrupted. You can transfer corrupt user account to new user account.
Here's How:
If the issue resolves in new user account then you can copy the files from the existing corrupted user profile. You must have at least three administrator user accounts on the computer to complete these steps, including the new account you just created.
Log on as a user other than the new user you just created or the user that you want to copy files from.
1. Press Windows + R keys to open Run box and type following command and press Enter key to open the File Explorer Options.
2. Click the View tab, and then click Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
3. Clear the Hide protected operating system files check box, click Yes to confirm, and then click OK button.
4. Locate the C:\Users\Old_Username folder, where C: is the drive letter of the the partition where Windows 10 is installed on, and Old_Username is the name of the user account profile you want to copy files from.
5. Select all of the files and folders in this folder, except the following files:
6. Right-click the selected files and folders and click Copy from the context menu.
7. Locate and right-click C:\Users\New_Username folder, where C: is the drive letter of the the partition where Windows 10 is installed on, and New_Username is the name of the new user account profile you created.
8. Click Paste from the context menu.
9. Log off, and then log back on as the new user.
10. You can now delete corrupted user account.
Repair install Windows 10
You can repair install (In-place Upgrade) Windows 10 without losing anything.
How to Perform a Repair Upgrade of Windows 10
If you still have Start Menu problems, then you can also reset Windows 10 while keeping your personal files, if this does not work then your last option is to reinstall Windows 10. It's called a clean install.
The Start menu’s Cortana search feature doesn’t work at times and live tiles on the Start menu show blank tiles many times.
While Microsoft has fixed many of the common issues, many users still encounter issues with the Start menu.
First think you should do is to restart your computer to see issue resolves.
Microsoft Start Menu Troubleshooter Tool for Windows 10
Microsoft has released a free repair tool to fix many of the common Start menu issues in Windows 10.
If the Start menu troubleshooter detects an issue, it tries to fix it automatically.
Click this link to download the Start menu troubleshooter or repair tool on to your PC.
If there are no issues, you will see “Troubleshooting couldn’t identify the problem” message.
You can click View detailed information link to see potential issues that were checked and their results.
Run the System File Checker
Check whether corrupted system files are the culprit by running the System File Checker utility.
The batch script attached to this tutorial can be use to repair corrupted system files.
Please download the Sfc.zip archive file and right-click it, select Extract from the context menu.
Double-click the extracted Sfc.bat batch script file to run it.
Reinstall Windows 10 Default Apps
Reinstalling default apps might resolve the Start Menu issue.
Here's How:
1. Presss Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to open Task Manager.
2. At the Task Manger, click File from the menu bar.
3. Click Run new task to open "Create new task" dialog box.
5. Type Powershell and place a check mark for Create this task with administrative privileges.
6. Click OK button to launch Powershell console.
7. At the Powershell console type following command and press Enter key.
Code:
Get-AppxPackage –AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}This command tells Windows to install those default apps again. Give it some time and allow it to finish, even if nothing appears to happen at first. Even if you see an error message, restart and examine your Start Menu.
Disable or uninstall anti-virus programs
Some users have also reported that disabling or uninstalling the anti-virus program and the firewall has fixed the Windows 10 Start menu issues for them. Make sure you restart your device after uninstalling an anti-virus program.
Create a new User Account
Sometimes, the problems affecting your Start Menu might be confined to a single user account. It’s a good idea to switch to another user account to see if the problem persists.
How to Create and Manage User Accounts in Windows 10
If the Start Menu issue resolves within new user account then your user account is corrupted. You can transfer corrupt user account to new user account.
Here's How:
If the issue resolves in new user account then you can copy the files from the existing corrupted user profile. You must have at least three administrator user accounts on the computer to complete these steps, including the new account you just created.
Log on as a user other than the new user you just created or the user that you want to copy files from.
1. Press Windows + R keys to open Run box and type following command and press Enter key to open the File Explorer Options.
Code:
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 02. Click the View tab, and then click Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
3. Clear the Hide protected operating system files check box, click Yes to confirm, and then click OK button.
4. Locate the C:\Users\Old_Username folder, where C: is the drive letter of the the partition where Windows 10 is installed on, and Old_Username is the name of the user account profile you want to copy files from.
5. Select all of the files and folders in this folder, except the following files:
- Ntuser.dat
- Ntuser.dat.log
- Ntuser.ini
6. Right-click the selected files and folders and click Copy from the context menu.
7. Locate and right-click C:\Users\New_Username folder, where C: is the drive letter of the the partition where Windows 10 is installed on, and New_Username is the name of the new user account profile you created.
8. Click Paste from the context menu.
9. Log off, and then log back on as the new user.
10. You can now delete corrupted user account.
Repair install Windows 10
You can repair install (In-place Upgrade) Windows 10 without losing anything.
How to Perform a Repair Upgrade of Windows 10
If you still have Start Menu problems, then you can also reset Windows 10 while keeping your personal files, if this does not work then your last option is to reinstall Windows 10. It's called a clean install.