Windows 10: Taskbar/Start button not working!

I have Window 10, just upgraded it was working great I turned my computer off and went to bed last night. Today I turn it on and now when I click the start button or windows key. The mouse just looks like it is loading, the taskbar flashes, and nothing comes up. I'm not able to use the Search Bar, however I can click my apps that are pinned to the Taskbar to open them. I can't right click on them tho to do anything with. I have tried to restart Explorer. It did nothing Also something else I think might be worth adding. I had Microsoft Edge pinned to taskbar when I turned my computer on and tried to open it is when all of this started. The Icon of Edge went black and then just removed it self from my Taskbar. Now nothing works. Can anyone help me!

:)

 

Start menu button (taskbar) is not working helppppp!!

Run the Start menu troubleshooter:

http://aka.ms/diag_StartMenu

If that does not work:

Press Windows key + X

Click Task Manager1709

Select the Processes tab

Scroll down to Windows Explorer then select it

Click Restart

If that does not work:

uninstall your display driver:

Press Windows key + X

Click Device Manager

Expand Display adapters

Right click the current display adapter

Click Uninstall

Exit Device Manager

Restart

 

Start menu button (taskbar) is not working helppppp!!

my start menu won't work (taskbar) and every time i go to my setting my laptop freezes

 

Open command prompt

To do this try doing the followimg:

Press windows key and S and type cmd
In command prompt type SFC /scannow

Press enter and let it scan for missing or corrupt files and reboot when it finishes

You could also try last known good configuration at boot up

 

I did the Command Prompt thing and it said "Corrupted files found but couldn't be fixed"

 

Same here... I first noticed it a couple days ago also. My upgrade also worked fine for a few days, then I had the same issues. Clicking Volume/Search/Start icons seem like they are going to work (flashing hourglass), but now do nothing. I have run many anti-malware cleanups (including SFC mentioned below) and rebootings, but no change. Since you can RClick Volume/Start and leave Search Box on, it's not a showstopper, but a major pain. Do you use ASC? At one point, I allowed ASC to change the StartMenu to install StartMenu8 (to imitate Win7 Start Menu), but then uninstalled it. I am wondering if that might be a factor.

 

I HAD IT ALL WORKING! Then cumulative update was done now the taskbar problem is back, I have NO restore points the update took them out.

Nothing gets found with the sfc/ scannow
No way to fix except a reset and reinstall all my software and drivers!

Is there a way to deactivate my license, I'm done with this POS! MS should have fixed this issue BEFORE release. To me this is a BIG problem and they knew about it from pre-release versions as it has been reported all over their forums!

 

Found this and it worked for me:

Open powershell with admin privileges
Copy and paste this line at the PS prompt:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

You might have to wait a second for it to appear, when it does hit enter and wait until the prompt returns from PS

Don't know how long it will last but it's working now.....

 

I have experienced this after messing with Windows services and packages via dism.
Undoing changes did bring the functionality back.

I have attached a batch file to reset all services (and optionally device drivers) to defaults.
Coupled with the solution posted above by flhthemi, should fix most cases.

 

Thank you SO much for that file fix! I "accidentally" upgraded to 10 (I had it downloading in the background while I was working, and I must have pressed the space bar when the confirmation window popped up on my screen to start the upgrade) and this bug was really frustrating me, as the problem was preventing me from running powershell in admin mode. I did have to reinstall my wireless adapter driver, but apart from that everything worked perfectly after applying the fix.

 

I might be wrong so feel free to say so...but if you want to run powershell with admin privileges if you right click on the start button and open command with admin can't powershell then be called from the DOS command line and it would be in admin mode? I'm not on my Win 10 drive right now (Win 7) so I can't confirm this works...

EDIT: It will work but it doesnt look the same. You wont even realize you're in powershell until you type. So I suppose you could enter a powershell command right there. I just entered EXIT and mashed return and got out to DOS before I might have made a huge mistake.

What I did was right click on the task bar, then properties. In the window that opens there is a tab labeled Navigation. This will allow you to change the option to powershell instead of a command prompt. Now you can right click the Start button and on the menu list select the admin powershell option! Once you're done you can change it all back to the default!

 

I've been trying to do some of the suggested solutions on this page, but I have some additional problems which prevent me from doing so. E.g. I cannot start Powershell as an admin, not even with the solution suggested in the reply before me, because when I replaced CMD with Powershell in the right-click start "menu", it simply won't start and neither can I right click on anything in a folder or the taskbar itself with the exception of right-clicking on the start icon or right-clicking tray-icons like Dropbox. Also the start menu won't appear, neither does the search option, even Edge won't start (I'm using Chrome anyways). Some times the task bar freezes, but tray-icons like Dropbox will still show that it's updating something when it is updating something and remain normal when it's doing nothing. I can right-click the background, but neither the screen settings and the costumization will open. I can however still use Winkey+R and open stuff from there. But the main problem is, I cannot open anything as an admin, because right-clicking does not work. *Sad

 

A bit tricky without a Start Button?

My workaround was to copy the shortcut to PS on another PC and drop it onto the Desktop of the stricken PC. The original PS shortcut lives in C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows PowerShell\

I also couldn't run Edge to get the command from the post by flhthemi, so I made a text document from the other PC containing:

Code: Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}[/quote] I ran the PowerShell shortcut as Administrator and pasted the above. Having rebooted, I can confirm that it also worked for me.

I've attached the files, not sure if it will work.

 

Todays 8/27/2015 Windows Update, = Access is denied, disables the posted powershell patch work around:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

8/27 updates are:
KB3081449
KB3081448
KB3081452 - Will not let you Uninstall
With no Menu, you will find this at Control Panel>Programs>Programs and Features>Installed Updates.
Search the list by the date you installed.

Uninstalling KB3081449 re-enables the patch to fix the Start Menu.
Guessed it without, touching KB308148
After Uninstall, Patch, checking for updates does not ask for 1449, says Your device is up to date.
You will also notice either 1448 or 1452 change the chime audio sound.

HP has not released Windows 10 Drivers. 8.1 & 8, will not install.
Calls to HP, are useless.
Without Windows 10 Drivers, plan on continued performance weakness, and coming here often to this Forum.
Here is a complete list of Tutorials:
Windows 10 Tutorial Index

 

Thank you. Worked perfectly. Saving it so when others call me, thier unofficial IT dept.