Windows icon and windows key

[Florence ONeill]

When I press the windows key or the windows icon in the bottom left hand corner it does nothing. It was working and would take me to a screen of my programs and I could hit the icon to get my game. Now it does nothing. I have no idea if there is another way to get to my game. I am 81 years old and have no idea how to fix this. If anyone can help I would be so grateful.
Thank you.

 

[Trouble]

Hello Florence. It's possible that you have some profile corruption, please try creating a new user as a member of the local administrator's group (not a standard user) and see if logging on as that new user provides any relief to your current problem.
Without the start button nor the windows logo key working this could be slightly more difficult than it should be.
Try right clicking any blank area of the taskbar and choose Task Manager, you may have to click the "More details" link.
At the top of the task manager choose the "File" menu item and select "Run new task"
Type
Control Panel and hit enter or click OK.
Top right, View by: change that to "Small Icons"
Click the User Accounts icon
Click "Manage another user" link
Click the "Add new user in PC settings"
Other users
Add someone else to this PC
Click the "I don't have this person's sign in information"
Click the Add a user without a Microsoft account link
Fill out the information keep it simple and easy to remember
JohnSmith
P@$$w0rd
P@$$w0rd
FancyPassword for a hint

Once that is done click the new user and "Change account type"
Use the drop down and change Standard to Administrator
Click OK

Log off from your account and log in with the new user account and see if the Start Button and Windows Key works as expected.

 

[Florence ONeill]

Hello Florence. It's possible that you have some profile corruption, please try creating a new user as a member of the local administrator's group (not a standard user) and see if logging on as that new user provides any relief to your current problem.
Without the start button nor the windows logo key working this could be slightly more difficult than it should be.
Try right clicking any blank area of the taskbar and choose Task Manager, you may have to click the "More details" link.
At the top of the task manager choose the "File" menu item and select "Run new task"
Type
Control Panel and hit enter or click OK.
Top right, View by: change that to "Small Icons"
Click the User Accounts icon
Click "Manage another user" link
Click the "Add new user in PC settings"
Other users
Add someone else to this PC
Click the "I don't have this person's sign in information"
Click the Add a user without a Microsoft account link
Fill out the information keep it simple and easy to remember
JohnSmith
P@$$w0rd
P@$$w0rd
FancyPassword for a hint

Once that is done click the new user and "Change account type"
Use the drop down and change Standard to Administrator
Click OK

Log off from your account and log in with the new user account and see if the Start Button and Windows Key works as expected.

I tried this but the task manager came up blank with the message 'There are no running apps."
Thanks for your help.

 

[Trouble]

You need to use the menu bar at the top of Task Manager and in order to see the menu bar you may have to click "more details" near the bottom of Task Manager.

 

[Florence ONeill]

This time I got as far as "click on add new user in PC settings, and nothing happened.
I guess it was waiting for me to change something in the block with my details in it. Is that what I am supped to do.?
Sorry to be a pain in the ?????

 

[Trouble]

When you click "Add new user in PC Settings" that should bring up another window.
In that windows you then

Add someone else to this PC
Click the "I don't have this person's sign in information"
Click the Add a user without a Microsoft account link
Fill out the information keep it simple and easy to remember

 

[Florence ONeill]

When you click "Add new user in PC Settings" that should bring up another window.
In that windows you then

Nothing happens when I click on"Add new user in PC settings"

 

[Trouble]

OK try this
Go back to Task Manager -> Run New Task (from the file menu) and type or copy and paste this into the text box and hit enter or click OK.

ms-settings:otherusers

That should produce the window we have in mind.
Be aware that it might open behind another window so check the taskbar and see if it is present or minimize any other open windows.

 

[Florence ONeill]

OK try this
Go back to Task Manager -> Run New Task (from the file menu) and type or copy and paste this into the text box and hit enter or click OK.

ms-settings:otherusers

That should produce the window we have in mind.
Be aware that it might open behind another window so check the taskbar and see if it is present or minimize any other open windows.

This worked and I added another user. Now I can use the windows icon , but it is not bringing up the choices I had with the other user. I play games every day, and my scores etc. are in the original user. Now I can shut down my computer, instead of having to leave it on all the time,
Thank you so much for taking the time to help me, you are so very kind.
Have a wonderful day.

 

[Trouble]

This worked and I added another user. Now I can use the windows icon

OK.... that suggests that your profile that you were using had some corruption.
You can recover files from you corrupt profile into your new one by following the steps provided here. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/fix-corrupted-user-profile#1TC=windows-7
The steps described are for Windows 7 but remain the same for Windows 10.
The caveat being that you will need to create a third account (again as a member of the local administrator's group not a standard user) as you cannot be logged on with either the profile you are copying from or the profile you are copying to.