CRITICAL ERROR Start Menu isn't working

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When I click the start icon in lower left corner, the critical error message appears. "Your Start Menu isn't working. We'll try to fix it the next time you sign in." Signing out and then in again does not solve the problem. Same message appears. Any suggestions?
 

Trouble

Noob Whisperer
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We've seen a fair amount of this over the past several weeks.
Try rebooting the machine into Safe Mode.
Don't login, just use the power button on the sign in screen to restart your computer while holding down on the shift key.
Navigate the screens as shown here
https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/safe-mode.3/
Choose option #4 when you get to the appropriate screen.
See what happens with respect to your error while in safe mode, but.... don't do anything except let it set for 5 or 10 minutes.
Then just reboot the system and when it comes back up in normal mode, see if the problem is still present.
This is not a permanent fix, but has worked for some people in the past, so just give it a try and see what happens.
 
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When I click the start icon in lower left corner, the critical error message appears. "Your Start Menu isn't working. We'll try to fix it the next time you sign in." Signing out and then in again does not solve the problem. Same message appears. Any suggestions?

I had the same Problem. Tried the safe mode Option etc, did not solve the Problem. I then de-installed "Dropbox", and this worked for me.
 
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I have a Surface Pro 3 and also had the same problem, safe mode option did not work neither did all the other suggestions..
I un-installed Dropbox and that worked for me, only thing I had to do was re-pin Internet Explorer icons to the desktop and task-bar. Now we need Microsoft/ Dropbox to fix the issue so that we can get on with work.
 
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Besides the dreaded"critical error your start menu isn't working" I also get a "No such interface spported" on any file (even .exe files in Windows/System32. I have attempted to perform SFC and DISM operations, access PowerShell to do the "get-appxpackage ..." command. I can't uninstall Dropbox, as it and all apps are "unavailable" when I get to settings. I can't do a reset. As I installed Windows 10 six months ago through the "Get Windows 10 free" promotion online, I can't go back to Vista or do a Windows 10 "in-place" restore as I have no media. At this point I am about to reinstall Vista!
 

Trouble

Noob Whisperer
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If you have access to a second working computer (friend, relative, neighbor, etc.) the installation media is available
The installation media can be obtained through either of these two resources.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench
OR
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Once you have the ISO, you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD or Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive, either of which you can use to boot your computer.

When you've managed to boot from the installation media you need to click the Repair Your PC link on the second page after the Choose a Language and Keyboard layout page.
That should get you to the Advanced Troubleshooting options.

Have you tried enabling the hidden administrator account to see if that will allow you to run some of the files you are having trouble with.
Since apparently you can not even run cmd.exe in the current environment you may need to use the boot media to enable it.
http://pureinfotech.com/2015/11/20/how-reset-windows-10-forgotten-password-regain-access-computer/
 
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Uninstalling Dropbox worked for me as well.
How do you do that? Sorry to be so stupid. I have searched for the Dropbox file and cannot find it. I am having the same issues and cannot open any of my apps. Yesterday the prompt worked for me for about 10 minutes and disappeared again! I cannot get the apps to come up and cannot even figure out how to get Outlook to come up or any other app unless I have something saved as a picture or document to access Excel or Word. Thank you. Oh, and Cortana totally disappeared.
 

Trouble

Noob Whisperer
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Add a new user
Go to
C:\Windows\System32
Find
Cmd.exe
Right click it and choose run as administrator
At the admin command prompt type
net user JohnSmith /add
hit enter
then type
net localgroup administrators JohnSmith /add
hit enter
type
exit
hit enter
Restart and log in as JohnSmith

Obviously you don't have to use JohnSmith.
Just a means to determine if it's a global Operating System wide problem or just a problem with your profile.
 

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