Windows 10: Programs Won't Open in Seach/Start Menu

Ran into a small problem after upgrading to the Anniversary Update. The update fixed a lot of my problems after I did a clean install so that was very good. I just have one small issue but after that's fixed I should be perfect.

The only problem I'm having now is when I search for programs like Control Panel, it shows up but when I go and click on it, it won't open. When I hover over it, it turns gray (like it should) but besides that, nothing happens.

Recent items seems to work and so does web portion of it.

What's also weird is some programs like Steam allows you to right click on that and go to a certain game (its like a shortcut). That works but left clicking it doesn't.


The start menu is pretty much the same story. In the list of programs that were installed, I can't open any of them. If I click on Calculator a small thin bar appears below it that's filled partially. Other then that, nothing else happens.

I was looking around the forums and I saw that some people created new user accounts to see if was happening to just one account. I was unable to create an account in control panel (clicking on Add a new user... in CP didn't work) so I opened up Run and ran netplwiz which allowed me to access the account page and add a new user in. I added a new user with Admin privileges.

I switched over to the new account and everything was working there. Searches were working, programs could be selected from the search area and in the start menu list, everything was pretty much perfect. Then when I switched back over to my main account, the same problem is still there. I think it has something to do with the users...

Not sure where to proceed from this. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

:)

 

My desktop icons won't open on my windows 10

I keep on double clicking to open my desktop icons but they just won't open. Even when I go to the start menu and try from there it still won't open any program. The only program it will let me open is Google Chrome. Somebody please help me.

 

start menu, search assistant and notification tray not working

start menu, seach assistant and notification tray do not open on click and rest of microsoft apps like edge and store display error message.( explorer.exe- class not registered).

already ran sfc /scannow from powershell. which didnt work.

 

I've been trying to mess around with it but to no avail...

 

Update:

So in order to get some work done, I switched over to the second account temporarily so that I could use the Search function to access my programs. I was able to start all my programs up right from the start menu and search area.

I was working on Adobe Illustrator for about half and hour and wanted to switch over to Photoshop. However, once again I am unable to run any programs from the start menu and search. To confirm my assumptions, I closed out of Illustrator and tried opening it from the start menu and the search area. It did not open.

So now I am certain that there is something preventing me from opening the files. In the time interval of 30 minutes, it went from working to not working. Perhaps something was downloaded in the background by Windows?

Awfully strange and infuriating.

Can someone offer me some input on this?

 

Update 2:

Restarting my PC got the search and menu to work. Applications could be started without any problems. After about an two hours, it stopped working again.

This time I was able to pinpoint the exact time it stopped working. I was able to open a program from the start menu and about a minute later, I tried to open another program and it didn't work.

Something is definitely messing with the search and start menu.

Really annoying...

 

Update 3:

Not sure why this was moved to this subsection because Windows programs like Control Panel are effected as well.

So I feel like this problem comes and goes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Restarting my PC does seem to fix the problem for a while but it just goes back to not working after a while.

Any help is greatly appreciated! I know I can't be the only one with this problem. I looked on the forums for some similar cases but most of the time the threads are months old.

 

Hi, suggest you try a clean boot to eliminate 3rd party program conflict.

If the same thing still happens, check it doesn't in Safe Mode.

The remaining possibility might then be a scheduled task.

All the above assumes something installed or configured is causing this. Please try the above and report each case.

When the start menu doesn't respond, do shortcuts on your desktop work?

And did this problem start only after updating to the anniversary build?

 

Shortcuts on my desktop works. All the programs works it just won't open in the start menu and the search area.

The Anniversary Update fixed a lot of the problems I had before which was even worse. I can live with this but its just an annoyance.

 

If the same thing still happens, check it doesn't in Safe Mode.

The remaining possibility might then be a scheduled task.
(You said this happens after about 2 hours)