Windows 10: Where did my start menu go?

Hi guys!

Last night my computer restarted and did some updates, and this morning I no longer have a start menu? I can right click on the task bar to get a context menu, but hitting the windows symbol, or pressing the windows key on my keyboard no longer works!

Task manager and File Explorer also take a lot longer to load then they used to, Task manger about 20 seconds, and File Explorer from 30 to 60 second to open. There is no unsual activity in task mananger, sitting about 1-5% CPU load etc.

I found some suggestion online, but none have worked so far. I have tried:

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

Enter powershell and run sfc /scannow


Neither have worked so far (restarted between both of the above)

:)

 

Where did the start menu go?

Glad that I was able to help,feel free to get assistance regarding any other issue

 

Where did the start menu go?

Thank You so much, and yes your suggestion to reinstall the start menu worked, I will keep this in my folder in case it happens again.

Thank You,

Sherree

 

Hello Riley NZL Welcome to the Ten Forums!

If you initially saw an upgrade type install from a previous version the Start button itself has been known to vanish without warning while clicking in the blank spot may still see the Start menu open right up! In other cases the Start button is right there through everything but all of a sudden you can't open up the AllApps or something else on the Start menu itself. Source? Buggy upgrade install.

The fast and easy solution? can prevent some interesting options. Since this happened right after seeing some updates go on the System Restore point the Windows update tool should have seen to could be used to roll things back a day. An older point is also an option while you then will be seeing the same updates again and may have to hide one or two! That's the Quick and Easy there.

For replacing the Start menu entirely an app called Start10 is available from Stardock while that simply offers a choice for the 7, Modern without tiles, and W10 Start menu with them as addon for a low price. But you still will want the original back in sight again before making that type of decision.

And one twist is seeing the upgrade install replaced entirely with a fresh copy of 10 going on which will clean up a list of potential problems typical of upgrade type installs where things simply don't go on as they should in many cases! You could also see a second upgrade to repair the first but that's not really a good recommendation unless there's a lot invested in keeping the present copy of 10 like softwares you can't simply replace on the spot or see reinstalled fresh again.

These are the options! Typically this was more of a problem with the July 10240 release and upgrades from that while it also depends on how long 10 has been on as well. Yet a clean install could end up being buggy in some cases as well while a bad install of an update can cause problems. The System File Checker and Disk Check tools both can be left out of this one however as those won't be any help with this. On a laptop's upgrade to 10 from 7 the button was missing but saw the Start menu open right up but you couldn't get into the AllApps previously All Programs menu! That initial upgrade was already being dumped by the time it got on anyways for a full fresh clean install which was much needed then!

 

Do a system restore. Pick 2 or 3 days before the "last night" as your restore point.
System Restore Windows 10

This maybe just a temporary fix.
Your "last night" updates will reappear for install.
Hopefully this time they will not cause you the problem you are having now.
Mind you, the updates may not be the culprit after all. Just an coincidence.

 

Riley,
If all else fails, would you consider doing a Clean Install ?
The down side of clean install is you have to reinstall all the 3rd party programs you have.
The upside is you start fresh.

 

Hi guys, I went to try an restore point, after spending 20 minutes figuring out how to get to it without an start menu, I managed to find it

Unfortunately I'm meet with "System protection is turned off", I'm not sure why this would be turned off by default in windows (this was a fresh install) but it looks that option is out. A full factory restore would be my absolute last resort, it would take forever to get all my programs installed, setup and activated again

I do have a full drive image backups of my C: drive using Acronis true image, so I guess that it probably going to be the way to do it.

Still a pain in the a#$% that my Windows installation is bricked due to an bad update from Windows.

 

Also just to specify, the Start menu icon is visible, but clicking on it, or pressing the windows key on my keyboard does nothing.

 

OUCH! for sure! I know it can be a royal pain at times to end up needing to see "everything" put back on fresh again and why surprisingly I found that the 2010 Acronis True Image Home edition still would run normal on 10 while other softwares needed at the 2015 newer/latest version if not a beta like the first upgrade saw the beta form of the av program's 2016 release.

Now if you have 10 media by chance if not the Recovery drive made with an 8gb or larger flash drive you can also see the System Restore feature run while not even in Windows but while in the Startup recovery tools! If you can't bring up the F8 boot options menu where the recovery options are stashed booting live from either the Recovery Drive or 10 media will get you to them! Look over Option One in the guide for this. System Restore Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums[1]=Backup%20Restore

For Option Two you wouldn't need the Start menu but the right click on Start button's right click menu there to scroll down to the actual Control Panel destination for the "While booted in Windows" type of start up for the tool. That's where you have access to the Control Panel, Run command line, Command prompt, Command prompt(admin). etc. when not able to open the Start menu for some reason as well as the option to look over the Installed updates and Updates history to find out which one put you in this mess to begin with and see that removed.

Afterwards following the uninstall you run a new check manually and watch out for the same one and right click when spotted again to choose the Hide update option. That will end up being tucked away in the Hidden updates that won''t be installed when having it set for automatic! The same is used to get rid of the 10 app or any other problematic update that comes along. I would suggest giving that a try using one of these options to avoid the last resort which hopefully will be unnecessary.

You could also try one update at a time to see if you are able to ID that one in particular and see it hidden over rolling everything back. Security updates for the 64bit Windows are something you can generally rule out. The Cumulative update for IE 11 that showed up would be out as well as for the Malicious Software Removal tool which will cut the number right down as well as any for the Net Framework 4.5. You should be able to isolate the problem much faster then risking only seeing it come back not knowing which one to watch out for!

 

Going to try the in-place repair/upgrade with my original install media, will let you know how it goes.

 

That's one way to get thing working again! I did that with the initial 10 upgrade install here back last August during that first week 10 was out. Got things running but 10 wouldn't activate a second time due to the activation servers being bogged down big time and then a week later saw the clean install take care of that mess.

You wouldn't run into any of that now and you might still want to consider revamping the media in case of that being the source if the 10 iso didn't write fully. I've had times here where the media had to redone not for 10 but for past versions when the installation keys didn't come out right. Seeing the 10 media made up fresh again would rule that out as a source of any new problems while I suspect it was during the initial set up something didn't unpack fully as it was supposed to and why a clean install ended up seeing a familiar upgrade typical type of problem. Bad stick or bad write of Windows.iso to stick would tend to see that happen. Seen it happen enough with Linux downloads as well.

 

So I gave it a go today, it was extremely slow, I ended up having to leave when it was about 5% (took about 30 mins to get here). When I came back I was at the log in screen, and after logging in was presented with this:





I'm also very surprised how long it took, I've upgraded and fresh installed Windows 10 on hundred of computers with much lower specs then mine and never seen it take this long.

Any ideas what create the above error, or if there is somewhere I can get more detailed error logs?

 

Did you remember to unplug any other drives, devices before going to boot live to run the 10 installer? That's about the same or similar to one of the initial errors I ran into last summer before finding out that any non OS drives and devices have to be unplugged or disconnected entirely before beginning. Otherwise the temp install folder and boot files, boot loader end up going in 10 different directions!

One storage saw the BT and WS temp folders while the other saw the boot files! That was sometime later when finally having 10 on the first time I was browsing one drive looking to copy files and folders over to the fresh 10 upgrade followed by clean and found out just part of the equation ending up there as far as the temp folders go. With previous versions even 8 Customer Preview I never had the need to unplug the pair of Sata 3 drives while the second Sata II OS drive would have been if first in the bios order as Disk 0 previously having been OSed with an even older version such as an XP/Vista or Vista/7 beta while the 32beta ended up replacing Vista entirely after the second beta build before the RC was out when the 64bit Beta and RC saw Vista on a VM as well as the XP Mode and even a Linux as well as 98SE VM!

All that and only until 10 arrived with an easy to confuse installer it seems that had been an issue to worry about.. And that is the one thing that can stall 10 on the spot! Unfortunately when someone else ran into that exact same error last summer no one ever replied back on that thread to answer what is seen at the MS answers site when this quesiton has been asked likely countless times by this time! Win 10 fails to Install with Error Code 0x80073b92-0x20009 - Microsoft Community

The OP by the way solved his own problem by answering mentioning he had asked around and got nowhere until unplugging all drives external as well as internal leaving only the C drive being the 10 destination drive plugged in and then saw 10 go right on! I thought was an interesting turn of events seen there which does seem to apply to you as well. Check to make sure those extra drives are unplugged!

 

Wow really? I'm going to have to pull my whole rig apart?

 

The data cable on each of the additional internal drives would need to be unplugged being the fast and easy option only seeing the side cover removed. You should still power down first however and simply place the end of cable(s) for each drive resting right on top or as close to the correct drive as possible and not see any end up slipping down where you have to dig for each one. But having even one extra non OS such as you for setting a dual boot with an older version of Windows being plugged is enough to throw the 10 installer into a loop! You will want to look over the notes about this in the Clean Install guide.

You won't want to be bumping other hardwares like video and sound card or a nic card reaching around blindly while inside the case but have ready access to each. Once the 10 install is on and running well you shut down again as a precaution to replug the drives back in and then decide if you like the drive letters which may have seen a change if you had assigned one as J not E for example to follow what the dvd is usually D. Here the two internal storage/backup drives will be S and T while the external drive is J leaving room for both optical drive D and E as well as room for G the 7 drive as well as a pair of flash drives.

One tip as far as flash drives and other external drives go is being able to keep the exact same drive letter on each even when unplugged and replugged in at some point later. One flash drive I was working with was set as the P for Personal drive since it is a 128gb used for transfers between desktop, laptop, or second desktop, or ? whenever! *Smile