Start Menu Won't Open

[Dipsy]

This is not good . Had an unused SSD laying on my desk so decided to put Windows 10 on my primary computer. Had a few problems getting it installed from my Build 10041 iso but finally got it updated to build 10061. Was having problems booting up and kept getting an initialization failed error. On a whim tried a restore point and low and behold it booted into Windows 10. Problem now is I can't open the start menu. Clicking on the taskbar icon does nothing and the ctrl/esc keyboard combo doesn't work either. It will be a bit of a pita but if all else fails I can plug my Windows 8 drive back in and format the Windows 10 drive for a reinstall. Wish Microsoft would hurry and post up a build 10061 iso download.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I had that issue as well. It's nice to hear, I wasn't the only one to get this glitch. I'm also betting you don't have the Start Menu in Safe Mode either. Without knowing how to fix the problem, I was forced to use Classic Shell. Ohh and Classic Shell doesn't work in Safe Mode either (at least not for me). So when booting into Safe Mode, I did not have a menu to use at all.

As it stands now I no longer have the install and awaiting the next ISO release before trying Windows 10 again.

 

[Dipsy]

Kind of strange. I have the taskbar set to auto hide and everything works normally until the moment I click on the start menu icon. The taskbar will begin to hide and then suddenly pops up and locks in the visible position. I can open other programs such as Firefox, Windows Live Mail, etc. that I have pinned to the taskbar, and I can right click the start icon to open a menu and use the shut down/restart options. I ran sfc scannow and it found some corrupted files but was unable to fix them. The dism command won't run. I haven't been able to make an iso/esd disc so I guess it's format and reinstall time.

 

[sscruise]

This is not good . Had an unused SSD laying on my desk so decided to put Windows 10 on my primary computer. Had a few problems getting it installed from my Build 10041 iso but finally got it updated to build 10061. Was having problems booting up and kept getting an initialization failed error. On a whim tried a restore point and low and behold it booted into Windows 10. Problem now is I can't open the start menu. Clicking on the taskbar icon does nothing and the ctrl/esc keyboard combo doesn't work either. It will be a bit of a pita but if all else fails I can plug my Windows 8 drive back in and format the Windows 10 drive for a reinstall. Wish Microsoft would hurry and post up a build 10061 iso download.

I have the same problem, but my Stare Menu/Task Bar will open only for a few seconds and then close. Tried reinstalling Build 10061 from ISO, but still no joy.

 

[Marius Cronje]

I have the same problem, but my Stare Menu/Task Bar will open only for a few seconds and then close. Tried reinstalling Build 10061 from ISO, but still no joy.

I had the same problem after restoring to a previous restore point. Could not resolve. Did a clean install on a new SSD.

 

[Raven]

same issue here

one site said to do this

Start Menu issue with Windows PowerShell, do the following:

1. Go to Search and type powershell
2. Right click on the PowerShell icon and select Run as Administrator
3. In PowerShell enter the following key and press Enter:
   • Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
4. Wait for PowerShell to execute the command (a few errors might show up, ignore them)
5. When everything is finished try to open Start Menu again
   
   but i got this
   
   
   
   
   
   this is verry agrivating

 

[clifford_cooley]

For what it is worth this is an outdated thread even though the topic is still the same. You should probably make your own thread, now that Windows 10 has officially released.

 

[Gabrielle Maillet]

same issue here

one site said to do this

Start Menu issue with Windows PowerShell, do the following:

1. Go to Search and type powershell
2. Right click on the PowerShell icon and select Run as Administrator
3. In PowerShell enter the following key and press Enter:
   • Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
4. Wait for PowerShell to execute the command (a few errors might show up, ignore them)
5. When everything is finished try to open Start Menu again
   
   but i got this
   
   
   
   
   
   this is verry agrivating

Hi!

I'd love to try this, as I too, have found the solution on several other websites. Unfortunately, I cannot right click on the PowerShell Icon (found in the tasckbar) to ask to run as administrator

Can you tell me how?

 

[shakeyplace]

Hi!

I'd love to try this, as I too, have found the solution on several other websites. Unfortunately, I cannot right click on the PowerShell Icon (found in the tasckbar) to ask to run as administrator

Can you tell me how?

If you right-click on taskbar do you get the task Manager option?
If so, open task manager, click on file -> run new task.
enter cmd and check admin privileges

 

[Gabrielle Maillet]

If you right-click on taskbar do you get the task Manager option?
If so, open task manager, click on file -> run new task.
enter cmd and check admin privileges

Great! That's done.... Still cannot right-click on PowerShell to run as admin

I'll try same method you suggested but by running PowerShell instead of CMD

 

[Gabrielle Maillet]

Great! That's done.... Still cannot right-click on PowerShell to run as admin

I'll try same method you suggested but by running PowerShell instead of CMD

YES !!! It's running. I'll wait and see if it restores my apps and get the Start Menu working.

A thousand thanks ;-)

 

[datadink]

I tried every one of these fixes and everything else I could find on the web to no avail.
I just wanted to access the Settings app to roll back but that only can be accessed from the Start Menu, which was gone.
So, if anyone out there is just looking to roll back to Win 8.1 but can't access the Start Menu, I found a simple trick.

1.) Right click anywhere on the task bar and open Task Manager.
2.) Click, file, then click Run new task.
3.) Type ms-settings:settings and also check Create this task with administrative privileges.

The Settings app in Windows 10 will open and allow you to complete a restore to previous versions of your OS.
I was prompted that the restore would return my laptop to factory default install, but that wasn't the case. It returned the OS back to right where it was before I did the free upgrade to Win 10.
However, anything you may have added in personal docs or any new apps you installed would be gone.
Backups are always a good thing so I had little to restore, which was mostly docs and pics.

I agreed to the free update to 10 on two different laptops. I won't be performing the update on the other.

Microsoft needs to stop putting a poor OS out for people to do their beta testing if they know there are troubles that are this inconvenient.

Good luck.

 

[JayA]

This is not good . Had an unused SSD laying on my desk so decided to put Windows 10 on my primary computer. Had a few problems getting it installed from my Build 10041 iso but finally got it updated to build 10061. Was having problems booting up and kept getting an initialization failed error. On a whim tried a restore point and low and behold it booted into Windows 10. Problem now is I can't open the start menu. Clicking on the taskbar icon does nothing and the ctrl/esc keyboard combo doesn't work either. It will be a bit of a pita but if all else fails I can plug my Windows 8 drive back in and format the Windows 10 drive for a reinstall. Wish Microsoft would hurry and post up a build 10061 iso download.

I ran into the same problem. I noticed it happened right after one of Microsoft's hijacking of my computer to install an update. It is obvious the update is what did it. I worked for several hours with Dell tech support (Mir is the greatest) to add a new userid and move all my stuff from the old id to the new. The new id now has Start and Cortana both working fine. MS should release another update that fixes the bug their previous update installed.