Windows 10 Start Menu Icons/Tiles Missing After Gaming

I can understand that sentiment given how frequently you have the issue occurring. For some unexplained reason I only had the issue again one more time after I posted the thread and haven't had it since. The only additional step I took to what I originally posted was I did a restore health even though sfc/scannow showed no errors. I have no clue why it stopped but wouldn't be surprised if it happened again. I did play BF Hardline for a good hour and expected it to happen again but it didn't.

Are you using DDU to uninstall drivers? If not I would at least give that a try. I have nothing against AMD and had 5870's in Crossfire in the past without issues, but are you able to "borrow" an AMD card from someone and fire it up with AMD's drivers to see for sure if the problem goes away?

I don't see the issue getting enough traction on the Nvidia forums for them to set it as a priority. Likely, as you mentioned, the best hope is the next Microsoft significant update, but seems from what you previously said, they haven't even identified the problem yet.

I have one strange thing that changed until now and that is that it now happens every 2nd restart.
When the problems occurs, i re-install the drivers and keep working in the morning. Then i go to work and in the evening when i restart everything stays good.
But the next morning on the second restart, every time the problem is back.

I did use DDU to uninstall drivers but didn't change anything.

Sadly i have no AMD card that i can borrow to see if the problem would go away.

I have tried everything that i can think about. Somewhere there is a problem between the technology that Windows has put into the display of their start menu and settings pages and the nvidia card/drivers.
My only hope is that it gets fixed with a Microsoft or Nvidia update or to try another graphics card.
Or go back to Windows 7 and forget about Windows 10. I have an image of my hard drive with Windows 7 on another SSD so that option is always available.

Well at least the issue is getting enough traction on the Nvidia Geforce driver forums now. Hopefully it will get resolved soon.


https://forums.geforce.com/default/t...ver-358-59/10/

Thanks for the update, i added some comments to keep the fire going on the subject

This dreaded issue of missing start menu icons/tiles after gaming is back with build 10586.71. Played an hour of Witcher 3 to return to blank tiles on the start menu. Two things have changed on my system, one or both bringing this issue back. Windows 10 version 10586.71 "update" and NVidia "WHQL" certified driver 361.75. I'm leaning to the issue being Windows 10 build 10586.71. Last time, even with multiple Nvidia driver changes what actually fixed the issue for me was the Windows 10 November update, the one that allowed more start screen tiles.

Blank Windows 10 start screen tiles. "IT"S BACK".

specialkone said:

This dreaded issue of missing start menu icons/tiles after gaming is back with build 10586.71. Played an hour of Witcher 3 to return to blank tiles on the start menu. Two things have changed on my system, one or both bringing this issue back. Windows 10 version 10586.71 "update" and NVidia "WHQL" certified driver 361.75. I'm leaning to the issue being Windows 10 build 10586.71. Last time, even with multiple Nvidia driver changes what actually fixed the issue for me was the Windows 10 November update, the one that allowed more start screen tiles.

Blank Windows 10 start screen tiles. "IT"S BACK".

It's happened to me on every Windows build since RTM, including the newest ones. It's almost certainly a Windows (+Nvidia?) issue.

blackroseMD1 said:

It's happened to me on every Windows build since RTM, including the newest ones. It's almost certainly a Windows (+Nvidia?) issue.

Well I wasn't having any trouble from the November build until 10586.71 but indeed could be the build PLUS the Nvidia drivers. I posted this on the Geforce 361.75 driver thread as well. Didn't get a response from Manual G but I see a lot of angry people on the 361.75 driver thread with multiple issues. Maybe my post is lost in all that. With "updates" often being regressions, patience seems to be wearing thin. Seems that Tomb Raider is getting about 20FPS with Kepler SLI, something like Black Ops 3. Won't be buying that game either.

I got Witcher 3 when it was on sale. Not much of an RPG guy, but the game looks great with surprisingly good performance with my Kepler cards. I'm use to first person (shooters). Being in third person I seem to be walking around bumping into multiple characters who don't have much to say other than to tell me to watch it after I bump into them. It is a good game with a lot of content. I guess I just have to get use to it.

I've solved this issue for myself by opening the NVidia Control Panel and going in to 'Manage 3D Settings'. Then 'Program Settings' tab. Click 'Add' and 'Browse' to your 'C:\Windows' folder (or, wherever your Windows folder happens to be). Find 'explorer.exe' and click 'Open'. When back at the 'Program Settings' tab, find the 'SLI rendering mode' and set it to 'Single-GPU'.

This then fixed all the Start menu issues AND the problems I was having with the context menus when right-clicking icons I'd pinned to the taskbar.

Hope this helps some of you out.

(Just to be clear, this sets Windows Explorer to use a single GPU, but leaves your default settings for your games intact - just in case anyone's starting panicking )

Well that's interesting. Thanks for that. Blackrose and I are SLI but don't think Patrick is. The problem for me is so intermittent. The missing tiles again haven't happened since the last time I reported it a week ago.

I'm no expert but I don't think Windows 10 memory management (which seems to keep changing from release build to build) gets along well with SLI. The advertising was that DX12 would stack the memory in each card which is important for a guy like me with two 2 gig cards. Of course we are yet to see a DX12 game, almost 7 months after Windows 10 release. I'll wait to see how DX12 games perform with my SLI setup. If there are issues, my next video card purchase will be a single card so that will get rid of any possible SLI issues once and for all.

specialkone said:

Well that's interesting. Thanks for that. Blackrose and I are SLI but don't think Patrick is. The problem for me is so intermittent. The missing tiles again haven't happened since the last time I reported it a week ago.

I'm no expert but I don't think Windows 10 memory management (which seems to keep changing from release build to build) gets along well with SLI. The advertising was that DX12 would stack the memory in each card which is important for a guy like me with two 2 gig cards. Of course we are yet to see a DX12 game, almost 7 months after Windows 10 release. I'll wait to see how DX12 games perform with my SLI setup. If there are issues, my next video card purchase will be a single card so that will get rid of any possible SLI issues once and for all.

I've gone from SLI 970s to a single 980 Ti and haven't had the issue since. I think SLI is at least somewhat responsible for the missing tiles issue.