Windows 10: Start menu items do not work when accessed through search

Hi all.

I'm new here and this is my first post. I hope someone's able to help.

If I use the windows key to bring up the start menu and type the name of a program, e.g. calc, the program shortcut is returned; however, clicking on the shortcut or selecting it and pressing the enter key doesn't do anything. In contrast, if I locate the shortcut by navigating the start menu, it works as expected.

The OS is 64-bit Windows 10 LTSB with all updates to 05/20.

I used O&O ShutUp10 to configure settings and also applied quite a lot of privacy and security tweaks from this site. I tried to undo everything I applied, but it didn't help.

I guess something I applied is responsible. To test this, I created a new user account and that worked fine.

I've been trying to resolve this for six weeks now. I've unsuccessfully scoured the web looking for a solution and am hoping someone here might be able to help. I even exported HKCU for the account with the problem and compared it to the HKCU of the new account, but I wasn't able to identify the problem.

In case my description of the problem is unclear, I've attached a couple of images.

The image on the left shows the shortcut that does not work. The one on the right does work.

Many thanks to all in advance.

TP

:)

 

Where do you find the list of items pinned to the start menu?

A reasonable 'guess' following a couple of simple experiments suggests the registry:



- note the name there.

- unless the data is held where access is restricted e.g. the WindowsApps folder.

 

Start menu search items not clickable

This has been mentioned a lot and even though I'm constantly forced to update with a count down or scheduling reminder (I've seen posts of supposedly how to disable automatic updates however never had the time to investigate doing it myself but not happy
about how difficult the process is to disable it in W10P) I still don't see this problem getting addressed.

Problem: Search in start menu for random items result in un-clickable items. For example, type "remove" and the "Add or remove Programs" and "Uninstall a Program" options are listed at the top as one would expect but clicking on them does nothing.





Solution: Type "control" and the "Control Panel" option is listed and IS clickable. Then go to the sub option within the explorer control panel window.

Question: Why list items in the search result if they are not accessible? Is this intuitive? No.

Machine specific? Before suggesting this is a broken install it might help to know I can reproduce this on every W10 machine I've ever worked on of which exist in totally different environments, some were W8 upgrades...some were clean installs.

 

Start menu is not working on Windows 10

Hi,

Iunderstand the frustration if things are not working fine as expected.

Please help us with below details,

• • • • • 
          When you say "If I sign in under my user name I am in some earlier version", which version you are referring to?
          
        • 
          Did you made any recent changes to your computer prior to the issue?
          
        • 
          When you say “I cannot access the start menu and am limited to IP as a browser” Is it refers to Microsoft Edge?
          

As an initial steps, I suggest you to check for the Windows version. To do so, follow the below steps:

1) Login to your computer through user name on which it show earlier version of Windows.

2) Press Windows key + r.

3) Type winver, hit enter.

For the issue related to start menu, I suggest you to refer to the below Microsoft help article and check,

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...ubleshoot-problems-opening-start-menu-cortana

Reply with results and necessary information to help you further.

Thank you.