Windows 10: Start menu and taskbar not working

My system has lately been experiencing issues with the Start menu and taskbar. When I power my device on and click on the Start button, the menu doesn't appear. I can right click on the Start button or press Win + X to get to my properties, but left clicking does nothing. The same is also occurring for the date/time icon and the Notifications/Action Center icon. If I restart, then the Start button works but the other two icons may still be broken. If I shut down and then start the system back up, the issue continues to occur. I've ensured that all Windows updates are installed, all services related to the Start menu and taskbar are up and running, and that my profile is not corrupt. I've tried running numerous tests with Powershell and CMD but to no avail. If I had to guess, the issue began shortly after installing the cumulative update in April KB4549951. After the cumulative update for May was released, I installed it and hoped it would resolve the issue, but it didn't. Other users have started reporting the same issue to me, but no one seems to have reported it online yet. We are using a wide variety of devices including laptops, desktops, and Surfaces. All of our machines run Intel processes and are on Windows 1909 Build 18363.836. One user ran a repair through Windows and it seemed to resolve the problem for them, but I would like to avoid having to reinstall several programs for everyone impacted by this. Any advice would be appreciated.

:)

 

Start menu and taskbar not working.

Hi Deva,

Thank you for updating.

I suggest you to refer the link below and follow the troubleshooting steps suggested.

Troubleshoot problems opening the Start menu or Cortana.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-10/get-help-windows-start-menu

Hope the Start menu works after performing the steps suggested. Thank you.

 

Taskbar - Search Icon does not work, Start Menu missing, Right click does not work, no "Taskbar and Start Menu" in control panel

Hi,

Here are the possible causes why Taskbar and Start menu don't work:

• Corrupted user profile
• Corrupted or missing system files
  

Since running SFC didn't resolve the issue, we suggest creating a new user account
to recreate your Taskbar and Start menu.

We would appreciate an update about how it went.

 

Feature suggestion: Add right-click menu

Suggestion: Please add a Windows 7 Jump-List and/or right-click menu to the GPU-Z icon in the Windows taskbar. Possible menus in it would be "Exit" and "About GPU-Z...".
Maybe also "Switch to tab 1/Switch to tab 2/Switch to videocard 1/Switch to videocard 2" too.
Examples of programs that have such menus are ICQ, Skype, AIM.

NOTE: It seems for a right-click menu, Windows 7 is not needed - it works on WinXP and Vista too.
But even a Windows 7 Jump-list may be good enough.
What do you think?