If the thought of tinkering with code doesn’t chill you to the bone, then there are a couple of utilities you can use to address the Start Menu problem. Set one of these up and see if that solves the problem.ĭon’t delete your original user account though, as you’ll want that once the bug has been patched. You’ll see a couple of options that that allow you to add users to either your Family or just General use.
Now select User Accounts>Change Account Type>Add New User in PC Settings. To create a new Windows account you’ll need to press Win+R then type in control panel. Note that any customisations you had previously made to the menu will be gone and you'll have to re-do them, but at least now you can. Log off, log back on to the original account that had the damaged start menu, and it should be working now. The reasons you have to create two new accounts to do this are (1) when you first log on to a new account Windows creates a fresh start menu for that account (which hopefully will be working) and (2) when you're logged on to an account all these files are "locked" by Windows (for the logged-on account) and you won't be able to copy them. Select them all and copy them all to : \users\\Local\TileDataLayer\Database folder, replacing all the files that are there. Navigate to your :\users\\Local\TileDataLayer\Database folder You should see about 8 files. Log off this account and then log on to the second new admin account you created, and again set your folder options accordingly so that you can see "everything". Now open File Explorer and make sure your folder options allow you to see system files, hidden files, and file extensions. if you got this far, you will be able to fix the problem. The point is, you have to get a new account working with a functional start menu before the rest of this procedure will help you any, so if you can't get to this point after that, it's time to reinstall Windows. If it doesn't then something else is wrong and you might try this whole thing again after trying the other fixes below. Test to make sure your start menu is working normally. Log off, and log on to one of the new admin accounts you just created. If you don't have admin rights already and/or can't create new accounts, then give up now and reinstall Windows and all your apps.
They must have admin rights because of the tasks you need to perform. Create new user profilesĬreate two new accounts with administrator privileges. It works, so we've included it here first (slightly edited). Many thanks to reader Robert Garrett for sending us the following. If that’s not the case then there are a few other solutions you can try. You’ll probably need to reboot your machine when this is over, but hopefully it will solve your Start menu problem.
Click on this and then install any updates that Windows offers. In the main pane on the right hand side you’ll see an option to Check for updates, or a Download button in later versions as shown below.
Once the Settings application is open you should click on Update & security. In the box that appears type in the following text, including the colon We have also found that if Settings won't open from the main Start menu, you can click in the search box first, then click the cog icon and this can make Settings appear. If for any reason this doesn’t work (and you can't use the Start menu) you can hold the Windows key and pressing R which will launch the Run command. The simplest way to open Settings is to hold down the Windows key on your keyboard (the one to the right of Ctrl) and press i.
Your version of Windows 10 will most likely be set to automatically install newer versions, but if this isn’t case you can easily do the updates manually, even without the Start menu. Microsoft is constantly improving and tweaking its progeny, so keeping your system up to date is a very good idea. It’s often the case that bugs like this are solved when the next Windows update is released. Obviously you don’t want to do this regularly, but if it works, then you’ll be up and running within a few minutes. Try restarting your PC, maybe even a couple of times, and see if that cures the problem. In a large number of cases this is all you need to do in order to fix problems with your laptop or PC. There’s a reason that Roy in The IT Crowd is famous for his ‘have you tried turning it off and on again?’ catchphrase. You should back up any files you can't afford to lose before you try some of the fixes listed below. If your PC or laptop's Start menu is locking up or becoming generally unresponsive, here's how to fix it. The Start menu is your main port of call for navigating Windows 10, so when it plays up it becomes a problem.