What causes malfunctioning Start Menu Button in Windows?

This has been an ongoing problem in nearly every fresh install of Windows 10 and nearly every major update of the OS.

The Start Menu Button will do nothing when clicked (both right-click and left-click). It fails to display the Start Menu.

What causes this error?

I'm aware most answers will be along the lines of "Microsoft's patches are in an imperfect state when released and don't always demonstrate compatibility with the wide variety of configurations and third-party programs found on many of their implementations".

Could anyone provide a more in-depth answer as to the suspected causes of this error?

This would go a long way to assisting me in gaining an insight into what is causing this error. Most search-engine research just yields 'fixes' that don't always work and don't necessarily explain much as to what they're doing.

I assume the mouse works fine everywhere other than the Start button. Does the Windows key on your keyboard open the start menu properly?

Who is the manufacturer of your mouse? Does it have special Windows drivers?

What fixes have worked for you?

More information would help us get to the root cause.

As far as I can work out it's a known problem that won't be fixed until march 2018.

Read the thread here and try the fix. (on page 5)

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