Windows 10: On restart, developed problems with search, start menu, and taskbar.

Alright, so, a few days ago I restarted my laptop, a couple weeks after upgrading to W10, and over the next hour i noticed three seemingly unrelated problems that all started at the same time.

I first noticed that two of my pinned taskbar icons are "blank". They show no icon in the box. It still highlights when i scroll over it, and i can still click them, but they won't actually open. One of them is microsoft edge and the other I can't recall what it is, but when i try to open either I get "This app won't open". I tried to remove them and just put back new icons, and I discovered i can't right click on them. Nothing comes up when I do. My other programs are fine on the taskbar, it's just two out of 10.

The second thing I noticed is that when I search via cortana, or navigate via the start menu, i cannot open programs. I can open programs via clicking a file that defaults to them, or by opening the program via desktop shortcut or the .exe, but i can't open from the start menu.

Finally, when I open internet explorer, it also has a blank icon, though it does work normally otherwise.

I don't know if there's some reason any or all of these would be related but the timing was all within an hour after a restart. I have restarted several times since and had no new programs installed or anything like that shortly before the problem occured.

:)

 

Taskbar, start menu and search and other icons on taskbar not working right

Hello David,

Thank you for updating us with the status of the issue and I appreciate your efforts in resolving this issue by yourself. This might help other community members.

For further assistance related to Windows feel free to post your queries in Microsoft forums. We will be glad to assist you.

Thank You.

 

Annoying problems with the start menu and taskbar.

Hi Yuri,

Thank you for getting in touch with Microsoft Community.

Before we start troubleshooting the issue, we require more information to assist you better.

• 
  What exactly is the issue you are facing?
  
• 
  What exactly you mean by “Content menu”? Are you referring to Start Menu?
  
• 
  Since when are you facing this issue?
  

If you are referring to Start Menu then I suggest you to try the instructions provided below and check if it helps.

• Right click on Taskbar.
• Select Task Manager.
• In Task Manager Window, click on
  File and select Run New Task.

• Make sure you have a check mark beside “Create this task with administrative privileges”
  
• Type Powershell
• Type the following 2 commands in the Powershell prompt:

• $manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest
  and press Enter.
• Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} and press Enter.

• Close the Powershell window.
• Reboot.

Hope this information is helpful. Please write back to us if you need any further assistance, we'll be glad to assist you.

 

If icons disappear, you might have to clear your icon cache. Try this.

 

That did seem to fix the problem with IE, but not the missing taskbar icons and I still have the other problems.

 

Anyone have any ideas about the main problems?

 

I can't find any advice with a google search, I'm not sure what to try.