Start Menu And Cortana Inoperative For One User But Not For Others
Oct 17, 2015
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.
A couple of issues with W10 start menu ( - not sure if they're symptoms of the same thing. This is GA x64 W10 with all current updates installed
1) Pin to start menu doesn't pin anything to the start menu. I wanted to pin File History - R click in control panel, select Pin to Start - doesn't pin. Tested on another machine and it works there.
2) R click the Start button for the Power User menu - all I see is Network Connections - same result with Win X. Again, works as expected on another install.
how to save me doing a re-install?
Edit - SFC reports no violations.
Edit - switched to a local account on the machine and PU menu is there and working - so is this a permissions thing? My original account is admin.
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!
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
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.
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.
The user profiles which came across with the upgrade work perfect but when I decided to create another user profile and login, I cannot click on the Start menu button as it does not work!
I have had to use the command prompt logout.
I think when windows is creating a new user profile, it is not creating all the correct files but could be wrong!
I was in my users folders & deleted them (Download, Favorites, Videos etc...)Then, i realized that my start menu which has option to "ON" to make them appear, got issue with link missing.I recreated all the forders by default with windows tools (regedit & i have all references created in reg %USERPROFILE%* & in my user folder)
So... i've tried a last attempt by, creating a new user, & create Start Menu Places & pushing the links etc but even with that, nothing done (looks like it's more for people getting grey menu on/off)HOW to retrieve the missing link from elements in start menu for : - Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos.
All the others links are working : - Homegroup, Network, Personal Folder, File Explorer, Settings, Power, All apps.
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.
Now, for some odd reason, on my computer, the sound, start menu and cortana stopped working and I can't even get past the sign in menu without it telling me to sign out so they can "fix" this problem which I've done 3 times now so I have no clue if I screwed up this computer or what.
It started with the sound first, then the start menu so I decided to restart my computer manually (which was a bad idea, apparently) and I guess Cortana just died on me when I got back on.
Also, my computer is on Windows 10 Pro Preview still.
I upgraded to 10 from 8.1 on Friday and everything worked great. Suddenly, on the following Monday afternoon Windows began to act up. Either at the desktop or while in a game, suddenly the start menu and Cortana will stop responding. Usually shortly thereafter Explorer will stop responding, as well.
If I hover over items on the start bar - buttons, Cortana search, pinned applications, the system tray - the item will highlight like I can interact with it. But when I click, nothing happens. The start menu won't open, Cortana won't open, applications won't start, etc.
This seems to happen between thirty and forty-five minutes after booting up. I checked the event logs for Application, Security and System; there are critical errors but after spending a few hours following up, those don't seem to be related at all. I did not drill down any further than those logs.
I've attempted the solution at the following link, without any success. [URL] / I've also attempted a system restore to the previous day when everything was still working, but again, no luck.
Since I upgraded my computer to Win 10, I'm trying to deal with this problem. When my computer starts it shows the message: "Critical error start menu and Cortana aren't working. We'll try to fix it the next time you sign in".
I found an instruction which said to run the command "chkdsk /f /r".
So, I did it; my computer restarted and it was solved. But, when I turned the machine on in the next day the message was there again! I ran the command another time, the computer rebooted and it was solved. But, every time I turn on my computer the message pops up for me and I have to run the command in cmd to my machine work.
For those experiencing Start menu and search breaking (sometimes even the notifications center). Besides being an update issue, a cortana bug, a copy_profile parameter incompatibility ...etc, if you had " Registry Reviver " software (as a standalone software or as a part of the PCReviver suite) installed, and you've used it (before, while or after syspreping), I can assure you @100% that the software is whether the exclusive source of your problem, or in the best cases, a part of it.
Thoroughly tested on Win 10 x64, pro and enterprise (Did no test on 32 bits, the software itself being 64bits compatible). Performing a registry cleaning may or may not break the components in question (I don't know on what it depends), but the registry defragmenter with absolutely no doubt will.
After defragmenting the registry using the software, two case scenarios happened on my machine :
1- The computer reboots normally, but after login in, the components are broken ( you may or may not, again, rebuild them by the now famous Get-AppXPackage in powershell, but soon after restarting, they are broke again)
2- The computer can't even start, it hangs a brief moment at the windows splash screen, then BSOD : NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM (Ntfs.sys).
I'm unable to access the start menu, cortana, or even my calendar. Can't even do it in safe mode.The thing is though, this is only on my main account (which happens to be a microsoft connected account), I have no issue accessing them with the other two (local) accounts on my computer. I've uninstalled any software or updates that I had installed prior to this issue appearing and ran a virus scan but the problem still persists. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point because this is such a weird issue.
Ok, so I am having a strange problem. In my PC's admin account, when I attempt to switch users by: Start Menu > (click user account) The start menu disappears / rolls back down. I cannot switch users this way, but this only affects my admin account. What can I do to make it work like normal?
I upgraded to Windows 10 on my laptop last night from 8.1 and it had been working fine this morning. However in the afternoon I got a notification that there had been a driver failure and I should restart to repair it. Ever since I have though I've been having difficulties. After I log in I'm stuck on a black screen with only the cursor visible. If you leave it for about 10 minutes eventually the desktop appears, however I'm prompted with the error message in the title and the task bar hasn't loaded. If you try and click on the task bar you eventually get the pop up "Microsoft Windows: the application is not responding" and it gives me the option to end process which does nothing. I'm unable to access control panel, I can use ctrl + alt + delete, however I can't launch task manager.
Booting in safe mode I don't get the critical error, however aside from that the situation is identical. I've tried resetting the PC, performing a system restore to before the update, and start-up repair,all to no avail.
I've upgraded from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 10 Pro. Everything is fine and Windows are working very smooth and nice. But there is one thing that really bothers me: Windows Search (including Cortana) does not find links to programs inside the Start Menu.
Now before you ask, I have re-built the Windows Indexer. Several times. I've also checked to see that .lnk files are being indexed. The Start Menu Folders (inside the c:Program Data and c:users[username]App Data) are both being selected as index locations. Actually, the search is able to find folders inside the Start Menu files, but not the files themselves.
After running Windows 10 for 6 weeks on my Dell Optiplex 790 desktop I got this critical error message. Tried several suggested fixes including unstalling a new application that proved to be imcompatible (Sling). The fix that worked for me was to do a safe boot with networking on, allow the computer to finish "working its magic" and then reboot. Then go back into normal boot mode and start again. This cleared up the problem.
I have recently upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 Build 10074. When I first upgraded the start menu and cortana were working fine until i turned off my pc and turned it back on. I have used the command in power shell but that didn't work.
