Start menu sometimes won't open along with other frustrating issues.

Ghost Prodigy · 19 Mar 2016

Hello, so for a few weeks now I've been experiencing issues with the start menu, notification button and being able to right click on programs in the taskbar. The issue randomly occurs and it prevents me from literally being able to open/use any of these. I've tried many solutions online such as putting commands in the powershell but none of those unfortunately worked. The only solution that slightly helped was creating a new profile, which for some reason had everything properly functioning on it. Regardless, I am still plagued with these issues and any help would be great!

Edit: Forgot to mention that all the windows preinstalled apps were non existent until I made a new profile. The photo app also doesn't work stating that the remote procedure failed when I try to look at a picture.

Start menu sometimes won't open along with other frustrating issues.-after-running-powershell-command.png

Start menu sometimes won't open along with other frustrating issues.-photos-dont-work.png

Start menu sometimes won't open along with other frustrating issues.-broken-start-menu.png

dalchina · 20 Mar 2016

Hello, it's a common problem. Similar questions have been asked many times on this forum, which you're free to search should you wish to seek a different approach. It's not one I've had, fortunately. I'll copy a standard answer - see if anything helps.

If your start menu fails to appear, try this:

http://www.urtech.ca/2015/05/solved-...-not-function/

But beware of option 4 - powershell command- as this has been broken and will break apps since last November' build (although there are now hints it may be ok again- I've not tried it).

Finally you have the option to do an In-place upgrade install repair.

For this you need an installation medium with the same build as you have installed.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums
This will refresh Windows, after the manner of a Windows installation.
- all/most associations will be unchanged
- all your programs will be left installed
- you will lose any custom fonts
- you will lose any customised system icons
- you may need to re-establish your Wi-Fi connection
- you will need to redo Windows updates subsequent to the build you have used for the repair install
- system restore will be turned off- you should turn it on again and I recommend you manually schedule a daily restore point.

This is one of the better features of Win10: as each major build comes out, that's your updated reference build, and as updates are mostly cumulative, there will be few to do.

Recommendation:
Before you perform this major repair procedure, do create a disk image.

Please consider using disk imaging regularly. It's a brilliant way to
- preserve your system (and your sanity)
- back up your data
- restore your system to a previously working state in a relatively short time

Recommended: Macrium Reflect or Aomei Backupper (free) + their boot disk/device + large enough external storage medium.

Ghost Prodigy · 31 Mar 2016

This solution worked for me (SOLVED: Fix Windows 10 Start Button Does Nothing in 10 Minutes - Up & Running Technologies Calgary) , the only issue now is that some of the programs essentially don't work as if they are corrupted.

dalchina · 01 Apr 2016

Hi, the powershell commands used last year until build 10586 commonly break apps (the @ signs are absolutely typical of that). Note, I did warn you of that.
Sad, but often experienced. Maybe MS will fix it one day.

The way to deal with all that is an in-place upgrade repair install as previously recommended.