Windows 10 Start Menu Malingering

My computer is a PC (Lenovo desktop, 3.3 ghz. Intel Core i3-2120 processor, 6 GB RAM) running the recent Windows 10 (Home Premium) upgrade.

I like Windows 10, except for when it installs updates and then shuts my machine down, closing all my browser tabs and documents in the middle of the night. (I had to start keeping track of .pdf page numbers in Notepad so I could find my way back to where I was in books that I was reading.) But that is not what this is about.

I took a nap and when I came back to my computer, I wanted to open an application, so I went to the "start" menu looking for the "all apps" drop down tab and it was gone!?!?

Has anyone else had this problem? I have not restarted the machine, which is probably the first thing people might suggest, but as soon as I post this, I will do a restart. Still, this situation is reminiscent of times past, when all sorts of goofiness would happen on the computer. All input appreciated, as usual.

I restarted and all is as it should be. Sorry for putting the panic on immediately.

a reply to: ipsedixit

I've had the same grief. I have a Lenovo also, different model. Never before have updates closed off everything else and made them unacessible. I don't like it. If I had to -- say, there was a hurricane coming and I had to get info -- I would do a hard shut-down, however I've been told that is adverse for the OS and computer. Don't know. I feel your pain, that's all I can really contribute.

There are some fixes out there but they don't work for everyone.

Many say that they were forced to go back to 7 in fact because of these issues...

Here is the powershell command:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach [Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml"­]

Here is a link to the batch file:

click4this.info...

Here are the pages that helped me get these steps to fix the start button in Windows 10:

Taskbar/Start button not working! - Windows 10 Forums

FIX !!!! Windows 10 taskbar not working

FINALLY SOLVED: Windows 10 Start Button Not Working, Cortana, Edge and Store Not Working

a reply to: Murgatroid

Looks like decent info.

I actually went back to Win7, and then things started to really drag for me, especially when the dreaded updates came it. Sooooo, I went back-back to Win 10.

a reply to: argentus

I really like my Lenovo computer. It is dead quiet. It never makes a peep. There is a puff of fan air when it starts and then silence. I have to put my ear right up to it or look at the light on top to see if it is doing anything.

I like Windows 10. I liked Windows 7. I liked Windows XP. I liked Windows 98. (Love DOS, the access it gave.) I used Windows 95 for a while but that was a problem child, although charming in some ways.

There is always something though. Recently I bought an installation disc for Windows 7 because I wanted to install it "stand alone" on a memory stick. It can't be done in any reasonable way. You need Windows 8 for that. Great. I decided to dual boot my machine. Can't be done. Later OS must go on after earlier OS.

I am going to have to get another hard drive and install 7 on that and run it independently of the Win 10 drive.

Why?

Because EPSON, the scanner company that I will never deal with again, has not upgraded the drivers for my scanner (Perfection V600) so that it will work with Win 10. I currently have to hook it up to my lap top and run it using XP.

To sum up. Phooey!

a reply to: Murgatroid

Thanks for the info. It goes into the reference file.

a reply to: ipsedixit

Use a program like Classic Shell to get back the start menu of Windows 7/8 (or even XP if you like) and make browsing the start menu easier.

There are a number of ways to disable Windows automatic updates. You can also configure automatic update to only restart your PC at your discretion. The following link will show you the different options to configure automatic update:

www.maketecheasier.com...

a reply to: argentus

Yeah, it seems as if you are screwed regardless of which way you go.

My solution is to always have a backup OS to fall back on temporarily when things go south in a hurry.

I do this by trying to always keep a second copy of Windows ready to go in another partition (AKA dual boot).

All I have to do is reboot and select the other copy via the dual boot menu.

Keeping all of the data and user files backed up on a multiple separate hard drives is a necessity as well.

a reply to: ipsedixit

Sounds like the makings of a good conspiracy thread. I would've been happy to stay at Windows XP. Nothing that I can see that has come since then has really benefitted ME in any way. Of course, everything you interface with does so better with that which is the newest, and all that "newness" seems to also include a fair bit of intrusive software.

Pisses me off also. Things can't be simple, because then we wouldn't be proper data collection points. Only place I feel truly safe is ATS.

a reply to: Murgatroid

I wish I had those skills. Last time I was talked through such an action by my cousin over the phone. My computer was down for a week.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Thankyou. I appreciate that. I'll look into this stuff. I already have Adobe cooling their jets before I OK the updates. I prefer to work that way. I think the folks down line at all these companies are in meta space where a working day is turning on your computer and then methodically going through every menu item but in fact actually doing nothing with their machines.

Most people don't give a rat's fanny how the OS looks and need to get stuff done, not horse around at home plate.

a reply to: argentus

A lot of the "newness" is driven by improvements in the media. The history of browsers is the paradigm. I loved a lot of the old browsers but they can't handle the media nowadays. The closer we get to virtual reality on the computers the more powerful the apps and processors will have to be. Copyright issues and Big Brother play a part in it too.

I would have been happy with Windows 98.

a reply to: ipsedixit

There is a 54 page thread over in the Microsoft forums that suggests that this problem still has not yet been resolved...

For those still yet undecided on upgrading to 10, you might want to rethink that idea at least for now.

Start menu not working, icons on tack bar not working. Action center not working. tryed this fix to the T. nothing working at this point. What to DO??????????

FIX !!!! Windows 10 taskbar not working FIX!!!! Build 10074

I'm nearly ready to give up on Windows altogether. On both of my PCs, I have fixed this problem multiple times (it seems to be something slightly different every time). Come on, Microsoft. This is really a major, fundamental issue.

FIX !!!! Windows 10 taskbar not working FIX!!!! Build 10074

I've just gone back to 8.1. Nothing i've tried is a permanent fix. Always seems to revert back afterwards and stops working again.

FIX !!!! Windows 10 taskbar not working FIX!!!! Build 10074

I tried everything that was here: steps 1-5 + the services.msc thing + the unlocker. It worked. That's the problem. I thought it was supposed to say 'no success', but it actually said 'unlock successfully' and I deleted the folder. The problem is that my taskbar is still as messed up as it was in the beginning. I'd like to share you some screenshots, but I don't know the command for that. Anyway, what could I do to get it back to normal? I hope it isn't necessary to reinstall Windows, as I don't want to lose my files.

FIX !!!! Windows 10 taskbar not working FIX!!!! Build 10074

Everything I found on the internet only worked temporarily and in some cases, carrying out SFC / SCANNOW would fail "check cbs.log" blah blah..... where only an AV file would show with a problem.

I found "yet another" temporary fix that I would like to share with you - in some cases the fix WASN'T temporary, but after 4 months, there have been no issues... (touching wood as I type - somehow)

The Fix is based on the Windows 10 computer using additional antivirus software, such as Avast, AVG, McAfee, Sophos (only ones I have tested I'm afraid)

I hope someone can shed some light into this as to why this happens... but....

Uninstall the antivirus product, reboot, then immediately re-install it.

or in several cases I have worked on.

Uninstall the AV.

Reboot

Check WIndows Updates and Install them in your usual way

Reboot

Install AV Product

Update AV Program / Defs

The above worked for me.... in fact, ONLY uninstalling worked.....

Above, I say re-install the AV product, because I don't like people being "unprotected".

Hope this helps for some.
FIX !!!! Windows 10 taskbar not working FIX!!!! Build 10074

a reply to: Murgatroid

I'm not sure if this can be done (as an upgrade) but if I were upgrading, knowing what I know now, I would put Windows 10 on a separate partition and run a dual booting machine, at least until becoming aware of kinks in Win 10 and software incompatibilities (like not being able to run your scanner in Win 10).

There is a discussion here about the video mentioned above with some good ideas from some who have had success with these issues.

I've quoted a few below..

The video they are discussing is this one:

I had two problems in using the video - here is the solution that worked for me:

1. Before running the Powershell and the .bat file go to Control Panel > Security > User Account Settings and move the slider to the lowest position. This will allow access to the files that shall be tweeted in the two processes.
2. When copying the powershell link, a hyphen is added in the end before the closing bracket (by some strange reason). Remove this hyphen to make the powershell link work!When your system works again, remember to reestablish the higher security by reversing point 1 above up to normal level.

FINALLY SOLVED: Windows 10 Start Button

The first two fixes you mention did not work for me. Fortunately, the last fix you suggested worked like a charm! Again, thank you for taking the time out of your day to help us out. It helped me out quite a bit.

FINALLY SOLVED: Windows 10 Start Button

After trying all the suggestions out there (except for resetting my system) changing the tiledatalayer name worked for me.... but ONLY AFTER I rebooted. So thanks very much...I am happy now!.

FINALLY SOLVED: Windows 10 Start Button

Thanks so much for the helpful video. I followed along with the steps exactly as narrated and was able to resolve the Start button issue fairly easily. Some notes for others:

- Make sure that you are logged into an account with administrator privileges. My daily-use account is not an admin (as a security precaution), and the check box for admin privileges didn't show up in the new task window as a result.

- Key combo shortcut for Task Manager = Ctrl+Shift+Esc

- Key combo shortcut for File Explorer = Win+E

- Reboot after each step to see if your issue has been fixed. I did this after running the Powershell command, and again after editing the TileDataLayer folder name for the first user account. Once the first account is working properly and the computer was rebooted, the rest of the user file folders could be changed at the same time before rebooting the final time. I ended up not having to download and run the batch file.

FINALLY SOLVED: Windows 10 Start Button

for those who doesn't have the time to fix it use www.iobit.com... temporarly

FINALLY SOLVED: Windows 10 Start Button

Guys it work for me but you just have to restart your PC after you done all this steps and if it doesn't work after restarting plug out your PC cable from your PC and plug it in!

FINALLY SOLVED: Windows 10 Start Button

originally posted by: _BoneZ_
a reply to: ipsedixit

Use a program like Classic Shell to get back the start menu of Windows 7/8 (or even XP if you like) and make browsing the start menu easier.

There are a number of ways to disable Windows automatic updates. You can also configure automatic update to only restart your PC at your discretion. The following link will show you the different options to configure automatic update:

www.maketecheasier.com...

I haven't played with Classic shell in a while. Have they gotten the little quirks out of it? Seems like they were having some issues with it, but I can't remember what now. I'd like to recommend it to a few people for Win 10 if it's stable now.

More good ideas on this can be found here...

For example:

There are many solutions in this thread that have worked for some; nothing seems to be "the" yet. One system I worked on was fixed with the current updates. Another worked after turning off IE. A third had to take a repair install using an in-place upgrade to get it sorted.

Taskbar/Start button not working!

I have tried every fix under the sun for this problem. Most of which caused more aggravation then the problem. I have now gone 2 days straight with it working again. My fix was to un-install Dropbox. So far, so good. Thanks for the new idea.

Taskbar/Start button not working!

I have experienced this after messing with Windows services and packages via dism. Undoing changes did bring the functionality back.

I have attached a batch file to reset all services (and optionally device drivers) to defaults. Coupled with the solution posted above by flhthemi, should fix most cases.

Second this! Thank you, this worked for me like a charm.

Taskbar/Start button not working!

After 2 full days of trying various things on the internet, this post included, my menu is now back! I can't say exactly what sequence of events fixed it, but here's basically what I think contributed to it.

1. Ran the BAT file (didn't appear to work at the time. (Find it here.)

2. Deleted the C:/Users//AppData/Local/TileDataLayer folder
(didn't appear to work at the time; notice I deleted it BEFORE running the powershell script below)

3. Ran the powershell script (had run it the day before to no avail.) (find it here.)

Now my start menu was working but all my tiles were missing and "All Apps" was missing too! I was afraid I'd really messed things up and started thinking about a restore from an earlier backup.

4. Rebooted.

It's back! My start menu works; my programs are in the "All Apps" section; my tiles are missing but I can set those up again myself.

Taskbar/Start button not working!

a reply to: Klassified

Not sure. I've used it for about a year on every PC that wasn't Windows 7 and haven't had any issues with it. My new laptop is Windows 10 (upgraded to Pro) and use Classic Shell on there without issue as well. They're always updating and improving it.

I don't like to use a non-Windows 7 PC without Classic Shell.

Windows 10 here on a acer laptop with classic shell , apart from Acer being crap at up dating drivers it is not to bad if you play about with it .

bgr.com...