Windows 10: Start menu gone, taskbar irresponsive

Three weeks ago I upgraded from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 10 Pro. Everything went well and I was a happy camper until two days ago. Suddenly the start menu was gone. The icon is still there but when I click on it, it opens the start menu for a split second and then it's gone. The action center wont open either

I have tried...


(1) changing user accounts. But it won't let me because I cannot add another user (nothing happens).
(2) tried the powershell trick, running as admin and pasting in Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
(3) a system restore. There were no restore points unfortunately.
(4) tried safe mode but still no dice.

I don't know if this has been caused by the powershell trick or that it was already there when my start menu dispappeared, but it now seems that my taskbar has become irrepsonsive (right clicking does not do anything, not even a contextual menu and the system tray icons do not respond to clicking).

To make matters worse (and I don't know whether it is related), it seems that my wifi has gone down as well. I cannot connect to the internet anymore. DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET Chrome says. Ipconfig reveals that "media is disconnected". No default gateway is specified (other devices have no problem connecting to my router).

I not looking forward to do a clean install, as this will mean that I have to first install Windows 7 again to get the free upgrade to Windows 10 (or is there another way of installing W10 without the upgrade?)

Your suggestions/help is much appreciated! I will be abroad for the weekend so I might not reply instantly (and I cannot bring my laptop with me to follow up on your suggestions right away; so that you know).

:)

 

Taskbar is missing

Yesterday, I was using the computer and randomly the taskbar and start menu button disappeared on me. The start menu still works but the taskbar and menu button are gone. please help me?

 

Where is start menu properties tab under taskbar and start menu properties?

Where is start menu properties tab under taskbar and start menu properties?

The "start menu" properties tab under "taskbar and start menu properties" is missing.

There is no need to name the "taskbar and start menu properties" if the start menu is gone.

I think this this is a crucial feature for people who have impaired vision or just want to enhance the start menu settings.

Only preset settings for color/size of fonts are available under start settings.

Please bring back the The "start menu" properties tab under "taskbar and start menu properties".

Please don't take way complete optimizations for us Microsoft Windows savvy people.

Thank you.

 

This seems to be a common problem for I am also experiencing the same.

To add, launching certain Windows applications from the taskbar takes forever. Example: right clicking on the start button and choosing File Explorer takes 14+ seconds to launch. However, double clicking a folder on my desktop launches instantly! Task Manager takes 20 seconds to launch!!

You can try this to create a new local user.

Right click on the start button and choose “Computer Management”. Under “Local User and Groups” click the “Users” Icon. Right click in the field to the right and “New User”.

With the new local account I created everything works fine.

I’ve tried every solution described here with no success with the exception of a Refresh for I would rather not have to re install all my programs.
SOLVED: Windows 10 Start Menu and Modern Apps Do Not Function - Up & Running Technologies Calgary

 

I'm struggling with something similar. Start button won't do anything except the right click menu, app store won't open, edge won't open, notifications and action center won't open, Login screen doesn't display at all and I have to blindly type in password after the. hard drive activity dies down, I can't select "open with" in file explorer, enabling bitdefender crashes the system, I think KB3081444 keep re-applying, and under computer management I do not have a "local User and groups". Other than that Chrome works well, all the none Windows programs that I can start from the desktop work fine, internet is solid, Steam works fine, so I'm just plugging along. It was a clean install and it worked great for a few weeks, then this hit. First thing I notices was that I could not get the start menu or into settings.

 

Backed up what I could and reinstalled Win 10 from a USB drive using the Media Creation Tool. This was not a clean install and I opted to keep all files and apps. The process seemed slow, or perhaps I was just impatient and frustrated. But an hour to perform this on my machine (see specs) seems a bit odd. It did not correct the problem. *Mad


So I performed a reset which removed my applications but kept my files. This only took about 15 minutes and it corrected the problem! So back to normal but I now have the long process of installing all my apps again…or at least the ones I want.


Wish I had an easier solution to give those who are experiencing the same problems. Hopefully M$ will come up with a fix that doesn’t involve a reset or migrating over to another local user account.


Good luck!

 

Ended up doing a clean install

 

In my case it's neither a system nor driver issue as only 1 of 2 user profiles is affected. Tried all the recipes mentioned here, so far without success. Probably the easiest solution is to create a new profile.