Apps :: Cortana Start Menu Shortcut Opens Store Updates
Sep 15, 2015
1. Win S launches Cortana.
2. A desktop shortcut to Cortana works.
3. The start menu Cortana shortcut launches Store (it was working at some point..)
Win 10 is now running... well, actually quite smoothly- as far as I know, this is the only oddity (until I turn over another stone..)
I normally use Classic shell, and don't use Cortana. However, having found changing settings has disrupted Cortana, I sometimes check- I feel I've seen a comment about this somewhere.
I've searched everywhere, and even uninstalled Cortana from Windows Features.. It's no longer running.. but i can't figure out how to unpin it from the Start Menu.
FYI: Removing hidden Windows Features:
- you'll need win6x_registry_tweak from MSFN or here's a mirror. - you can remove Windows Defender, Adobe Flash, Search, Indexer, HyperV, etc.. completely
Available commands:
Code: install_wim_tweak.exe /o /l - list all packages
I originally wanted to completely disable the UAC as the admin permission messages that popped for almost any/everything i wanted to do were very annoying. I dont remember exactly what i did, but it was something in gpedit or something similar to it. After i did that my windows store app stopped working, and appeared as a blank space in my task bar as it was still pinned there. As the store wasnt working, apps related to it like the calculator disappeared from my pc. They dont appear when i search for them, and links to DL ones from the store dont work either.
I tried the guide here Apps - Reinstall and Re-register in Windows 8 and 10 - Windows 10 Forums and did step 2, but that managed to break powershell and make it disappear as well as disabling my task bar and start menu. I cant right click anything in my task bar, and can only use the start menu's right click menu.
I have apps installed from the Microsoft store on my laptop but they don't show up on the start menu to be able to pin to the start menu. They also don't show up under the "All Apps" area. Is there a way to force apps to show up so that I can pin them to the start menu?
Twice now I've had pinned apps disappear from my start menu - for example, I pinned a game & the notepad to the start menu. Then when going back to the start menu later, they're gone. I have repinned them in a different spot on the start menu & they seem to be staying now - is this normal?
I still have the icon for MS Store in my taskbar, but it no longer works. Clicking on it does nothing. When I click the START button, the MS Store App is grayed out.
when I try to open a specific app (Plex), it opens that one plus another one (iTunes). I've tried reorganizing the tiles, removing them then pinning them back again but it still happens. I made sure I have the latest updates installed.
Sometime over the last month or so, every time fire-up my laptop, the start menu is open. I can click anywhere outside it and it will close, and does behave normally. It's more annoying than trouble. I don't consider myself a noob, but this is perplexing as I cannot find a setting to start up the OS without the start menu being open. Maybe a reg hack?
My assumption is MS did this in some recent update trying to introduce me to their new way of thinking. I only think this as after I upgraded to 10, I deleted all the tiles in the start menu that I didn't want. One day about a month ago, more came back. I figured it was MS trying to sell me on tiles, yet again.
In Apps downloaded from the Windows Store (such as Words With Friends or a million other apps - not regular 'Windows Applications' such as Photoshop or something), they run in a special 'shell' that is obviously controlled by the OS. There are now 4 buttons in the top right (Close | Max/Restore | Minimize | Full Screen - from right to left). All the normal windows shortcuts work for all the known buttons but none of the possible/expected key combinations work for the 'Full Screen' button (such as ALT+ENTER or WINDOWS+UP several times). The button looks like two arrows pointing outward at a 45 degree angle. If you ARE in full screen, they look the same but the arrows point inward.
I tried finding a list of all the shortcut commands from the Start Menu, but I do not see one anywhere.
For example, I already know by typing "winver", I go directly to the version information screen. When I type "reli", I head straight to the reliability monitor.
With a left pinky Windows key action, these commands can be extremely powerful, yet I suspect they are underutilized by the vast majority of Windows users. Only a few superusers are adept at using them.
At the far bottom left corner of the desktop resides the Windows 10 logo. It is suppose to open to a menu of 3rd party apps and Windows functions.
When I click the icon with a mouse, the menu screen opens for a split second and the immediately closes. This does not allow me enough time to open any 3rd party program on the menu or to employ any of the listed Windows 10 apps.
This also means that I do not have time to click on restart or power down and must do a hard shut down pressing the power button on the computer case.
I use Adobe After Effects, which I often need to run multiple copies of using the -m switch. Windows 7 let me modify the shortcut in the start menu so it'd start with this switch, which if AE is already running means it'll launch a new instance of it, rather than switching to the instance I've already got open. However, in Win10 I can't find any way to do this - it has the same behaviour that launching AE from the task bar in Win7 did, ie it just switches to the already open instance. Is there a way to add the switch I need?
Just dragged it onto the desktop as a shortcut, and interestingly there's no option to add the switch there either (in Properties)..
EDIT: I can create a shortcut with the switch in Program Files (or presumably elsewhere on the C drive), but right-clicking and choosing "Pin to Start" seems to remove that switch. It opens a second copy when I launch the shortcut from Program Files, but not from Start.
I have seen several threads where people want to remove this feature but in my case it is actually easier to use than scrolling down through 10 to 20 pages of programs listed by letter to get to "X" for "Xcopy+" for example. Is there a way to make a desktop shortcut one-click to access the All-Apps alphabetic 'list-by-letter' menu? If I could, i would make that my default Display option when clicking All Apps in the Start Menu.
When clicking on the start menu or using the windows key on my keyboard nothing happens as well as trying to type in the search bar. I have tried running commands in power shell and booting my pc in safe mode using msconfig, but both of these had no effect. I also tried create a new user account but when i click on "create new user" nothing happens no loading or sign of any process taking place nothing happens. And i cant reinstall windows because windows is forcing me to delete about 630 gb worth of files and games which i dont want to re download since it will take a month, and an even longer time to reconfigure them and add all the mods i had within the game files
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!
How do auto updates work in the store? I noticed when I went into it there were some updates showing for things like calculator and one note. The progress bar indicated they were fully downloaded but they didn't seem to be disappearing from the list or installing themselves. Is this normal behaviour? It's not an issue as I clicked the download arrow and this seemed to manually prompt their installation immediately. They all worked fine.
i guess what I am asking is would they of installed eventually on their own? I only had the computer on for about twenty minutes or so. It didn't have loads of time to do its thing perhaps. Maybe they download and install themselves after a certain period of idle time? Or on shutdown? How often does the store to app update checks - are they pushed or is there something like once in every 24 hours in place? do recall spotting this once before with some of the MS core apps.
Following search results, I have tried the "scannow" and 'reinstall all Windows apps' suggestions. Scannow found no errors, and reinstalling Windows apps did nothing to work. When I click on the Start button (that usually brings up the Programs Menu, I get the little twirling blue icon for about 5 or 6 seconds, then... nothing. Cortana is dead, or away on vacation.
BTW, all my Taskbar program icons work, all the system tray icons (except 'Notifications') work, and a right click on the Start button brings up the usual context menu. Also, I tried installing Start10, but that didn't work either.
I upgraded to Win 10 a week ago and after a long updating session was well pleased with the OS - everything seemed to work normally and much faster than before.
However, a day after the last updates were installed (KB3081449 and KB3081448) my normal screen appeared with a boxed message ; 'Cortana and Start Menu aren't working. We'll try to fix it the next time you sign in. Sign out now'.
Signing back in does not fix the problem. I cannot access the Start Menu or Search box. I still have my normal (Win 7 style) screen that luckily still has my shortcuts and I still have WiFi access. I have to shut down using the power button.
I don't know how to access the installed updates (There appears to be no access via Control Panel) and restore options only allow a 'revert to Win 7' - is there a Restore option available that takes you back a few days?
This issue just popped up after restarting my computer today. Earlier, all the task bar icons were showing and I could see the time/date, but clicking on them would do nothing. Also whenever I tried to open pictures with "Photos" I would get an error message about something timing out and I would have to use windows explorer.
So I restarted, and when I booted my computer up again, the task bar icons never showed up and the time and date is gone. I can't click on cortana and clicking the windows icon will bring up nothing. I've restarted twice since then but nothing has worked so far.
CRITICAL ERROR - Start Menu and CORTANA aren't working. W'll try to fix it the next time you sign in. SIGN OUT NOW.
I upgraded from WIN 7 SP1 to build 10240 on FAST Track. I did a RECOVERY DRIVE, and after trying to restore from it, I am getting this message - in a loop, can not exit from it. I also find my backup and system image do not work.
My son's user account displays the Windows 10 Start Menu and Cortana functions as it should. He doesn't have to log in to use his account. MY user account, which I log into with my Microsoft creds, has the "Start Menu and Cortana won't work" problem. I must right-click the icon to get the list menu view.
I thought that the whole computer was the subject of the "Start Menu won't work" problem and resigned myself to the idea that it was a hardware problem. Learning otherwise tells me that it's some kind of configuration. I have administrator rights and did the setup. Oddly, the Start Menu and Cortana functioned on my login initially, but buzzed out shortly after installation (which was immediate upon the upgrade release).
I've already done multiple iterations of sfc /scannow. The report is that there's nothing wrong.
I'm in the habit of launching most applications by hitting the Windows key, typing a few letters of the app name, and then hitting Enter.
Unfortunately, the Cortana search box is no longer able to find any applications. It shows me a list of local documents, and offers to search "My Stuff" or the web.
When I choose to search "My Stuff," I can filter by Documents, Folders, Apps, Settings, Photos, Videos and Music. Selecting "Apps" invariably returns no results. I am left to manually navigate through the Start menu which, while not terribly difficult, is more of a hassle than I'm used to.
I've only noticed it on the RTM build (10240), while the previous build (10166) worked fine for me.
I started my PC and I don't had access to the Start menu, so I restarted explorer.exe is task manager. So it restarted but it doesn't worked. I signed out and signed in and I got that error message. I restarted my PC and the error was gone and now works, but I have a question. What was that?
Start Menu, Cortana and Taskbar is not working in Windows 10, I don't want to format or reset my Microsoft Windows 10 32bit Pro.I tried google my problem and open this page: [URL] I didn't attempt the last step Refresh your PC i.e (Reset). Start Menu is not opening when clicking on Start Button and Cortana not opening and not giving any response.
After going throw the activation process with Cortana, I found it impossible to open the start menu or use Cortana's search function.
Ironically, I was hear earlier about to submit this thread when it all decided to work... I closed the web browser and it worked for around 10s... then it decided to break again. My thread was lost ...
So, I have tried everything to get this to work. I've tried various pieces of code in Powershell, I've tried restarting Explorer.exe, I've tried finding the SearchUI service but I can't find it. It seems to have been merged, or it instantly closes itself on-click or on boot.
I also recieved a message telling me that to save any data lost, I need to sign out. It told me something along these lines "The Start Menu and Cortanas infastructure have ran into a problem. You must restart now to ensure you don't lose any data." It then showed the "Sign out" button, which I clicked, logged in and everything seems fine now, apart from this consistent problem.
