Windows 10: CRITICAL ERROR - Start Menu and CORTANA aren't working. W'll try to fi

Just made an account to say that uninstalling Dropbox Desktop worked for me!

Thank you so much posters above. Hopefully Dropbox sort their s*** out. I noticed that it was giving me an error saying 'Re-install Dropbox to synchronise thumbnails' or somesuch, and that the software was clearly failing to gather some info from the cloud. Maybe it was interfering with something.

I recommend people try uninstalling any cloud-linked software they may have if they experience this issue.

I'm going to install Dropbox again and hope for the best (use it way too much not to). Hopefully they patched it/it's fixed by reinstall.

 

Based on your tip I was able to upgrade Avast (try right-clicking on it and opening it from the Desktop). I rebooted and the error is gone, at least for now. Thanks!

 

I thought the error had gone and it has, insofar as I can open the Start menu without a Critical Error. However, the Start menu is incomplete as I said before and I now find that many of the program tiles do not actually work, i.e. they do not open the app or program.

 

It was dropbox the WHOLE time

 

No, it helped but did not solve the problem fully

 

Been an IT tech for 34 years. Eset nod32 antivirus is tops and yes avoid the security suite and get just they anti-virus.
This along with Malwarebytes for the occasional scan of adware, malware and you do not need anything else.

 

Thanks! I didn't know it was Avast, I just went into Command Prompt and had to do "/sfc scannow"
Now I have to find another good anti-virus program too! I am gonna miss Avast though *Sad

 

I have now tried replacing the faulty start menu in one account with a working start menu from another account. This worked to some extent, the start menu in the faulty account now has all the tiles present, but many of them do not function. Very frustrating. I have also tried copying all of the files and user profile info to a new account, but this does not work very well either; the files are not where they should be and my bookmarks in Chrome have not copied over, etc, etc.

 

It fixed my PC but I just had another PC in our company critical error, uninstalled dropbox and within 1 minute started critical erroring again. This is absolutely insane.

 

Check this : One of the start menu and cortana breaking causes : Registry Reviver - Windows 10 Forums
You might be concerned by the matter.

 

Same here. Your post and this site helped me solve a huge headache bothering me for quite some time, so I want to give back!

Yes, uninstalling dropbox worked immediately for me, nothing else worked...Thanks gophigure and tenforums!

 

Thank you - this worked for me .......... *Smile

 

Whew, Uninstalling Dropbox worked for me too *Smile. Now will try reinstalling, fingers crossed..

 

1. Power the PC up and log in
2. when you get the message pull the power out of the back with out shutting down
3. wait 5 sec.
4. plug power back in
5. reboot

This took care of this message for me on 3 different computers.
*Smile

 

Here is a solution for me, i found it on an earlier post by big 10. Follow these simple steps.

1. At the same time press the Alt/CTR/Delete button (this will bring up a red screen with the task bar)
2. Move your curser to the bottom right corner on the power symbol, left click it and select restart.
3. Log in as normal.

This is such an easy fix I wish i could bump this to the top. Hope this works for you!