Windows 10: URGENT: Start menu and Settings NOT opening

I am running Windows 11 Pro Insider Canary Channel Preview Build 27695.rs_prerelease.240823-1224 on my Dell Latitude 3500.I have a USB drive which had become infected due to some college computer systems. I had once inserted it in my laptop and run the Defender for the drive and found that indeed it had Trojan. I tried formatting it but then at that time didn’t know of "full" formatting, just did "quick" format which apparently did not de-infect the drive. Defeated, I removed it and did a full scan of my system to ensure infection had not passed on. It came clean with no threats. 2 days back

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Start menu and settings both wont open.

Hello Robert,

As per the description of the issue, you are unable to open both Windows Settings and Start menu. For us to resolve this issue, we suggest that you perform troubleshooting. Here's an

article that you can go to. In here, you'll see solutions to resolve Start menu issues.

To resolve Windows Settings issue, kindly follow the steps listed below:

• Boot into Safe Mode.
• Open a command prompt windows.
• Type sfc/scannow, and then hit Enter.
• Once it's finished, restart the computer to check if the issue still persists.

If the issue still persists after doing the steps above, kindly refer to this
link for further troubleshooting.

Let us know if the resolution provided works.

 

Start Menu List - Settings

You need to go one step further...

Settings >Personalization > Start, then click as shown by the RED square...

 

Windows 10 Start Menu won't open.

Hi Dougie,

Corrupted system files could be one of the reason why Start Menu is not opening.

As an initial troubleshooting, we suggest following the steps listed in this article:
Troubleshoot problems with the Start menu or Cortana
see if it helps resolve the issue.

Update us with the outcome so we can provide further assistance.