Windows 10: Critical Error, "Start Menu not working", several methods tried

Good morning.

For the last 3 hours, I have tried several solutions to resolve this issue:





My taskbar is accessible, my right-click functionality works.

The Just Plain Ol' Restart Method

I tried two restarts and even a shutdown-and-restart, but received the same message.

First Method
1. Opened a command prompt and tried sfc / scannow and then chkdsk c: /f
2. Nothing wrong was found.
3. A restart after that yielded the same result.

Second Method
Some Youtube hunting brought me a dism method. Again from the command prompt:

1. dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
2. dism /online /cleanup-image / restorehealth
3. sfc / scannow

Each task completed without error, yet a restart brought me the same resulting error.

Third Method
It was at this point I thought I was overcomplicating the issue, and attempted a system restore. I restored to yesterday's backup (apparently there was an update to Windows 10 overnight), and continue to receive the same error message.

I have another computer to use (from which I'm currently writing this), but the primary computer is the one without the Start menu functionality. It is vexing that aside from a lack of Start Menu everything seems fine. There's no detected viruses or malware.

If the issue is incompatible drivers (yesterday morning I updated my keyboard and mouse driver without incident), I think that will be my next method, perhaps uninstalling them may help.

Any advice you may provide is greatly appreciated. I am willing to do a full system overhaul, so long as someone can walk me through how to do it.

My thanks for your time.

:)

 

windows 10 start button not working is their a real fix please direct , sept27 2015

I tried method 3 to fix "Critical error your start menu is not working" and it is still not working. Any other suggestions?

 

MatthewHill050256

Cannot access windows 10. Start up error message " Critical Error Start menu and Cortina aren't working. We'll try to fix this problem next time you sign in." Box then instructs me to sign out. Error persists despite several attempts to sign in.

 

Perhaps I have placed this post in the wrong place. My apologies to the administrators if that is the case.

 

This worked for me ... From Tech Whizz.
1. Press: cntrl alt del
2. Goto: task manager
3. Click: File; then; run new task
4. Type: msconfig; click: ok
5. Goto: boot tab; check: safeboot;
click: ok
6. Click: restart; ok (will reboot in safe mode)
7. From start menu, type: msconfig; click: msconfig run command (may appear as 'system configuration' ... Click it.)
8. Goto: boot tab; uncheck 'safeboot' and click: ok
All done!!

 

I tried the following on Powershell as admin:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

The frozen taskbar and edge work, but the sfc /scannow and the DISM always give me error. Not sure if this issue is permanently solved or not.

 

I got this error today. What finally worked was a system restore from the previous day luckily. I had not had an issue with Windows 10 until this.

 

Try creating a new account and see if the error happens there.

If corruption is in %appdata% then sfc/dism/going back to restore points will not help as it is a sub-directory of the users.

 

I wonder does everyone with the problem have Dropbox installed. I experienced this problem but I always fixed it with a in-place install and I am using dropbox.

 

I had Dropbox & this problem as well. Uninstalled Dropbox & no more critical error. I'm hoping that this is the solution!

 

Hopefully it is but what I don't get is in my experiences which I had always fixed with a in-place upgrade install, it always happens a few days less than one month from the install, if dropbox was the issue, it would happen way sooner unless dropbox does something once a month, wonder if dropbox is aware of the issue.