Broken Start Menu since October update, any help is appreciated.

Hi guys,

So ever since the (infamous) October update, my start menu has been messed up. I configure my start menu to have no tiles at all, but after turning my computer off, waiting a little while and turning it back on, the start menu *always* resets to default. I've tried a number of fixes that seemed to work, but when I boot up my PC again the next day, all the pinned apps magically reappear (much to my chagrin).


I've tried all of the following powershell commands with no success:

sfc /scannow


Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}


DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth


I really don't want to have to reinstall my OS for such a ridiculous issue, all I want is a blank start menu. If anyone knows how to fix this I would be indebted to you =)

You could try using Classic Shell. Do you have the problem in all accounts or just one account? If the latter then you might have a corrupted profile. Otherwise, consider going back to 1803 if you can until MS sort out all the bugs.

Brink said:

Hello Robert, and welcome to Ten Forums.

If you haven't already, you might see if your Start menu may work properly after manually resetting your Start menu layout back to default.

Reset Start Layout in Windows 10 | Tutorials

Thanks Brink :)

Unfortunately resetting the start menu layout to default had no effect.

camrobert said:

After setting up another account and copying my old profile data over, I can confirm that it indeed still happens - I unpin everything, and after a few restarts/shutdowns the tiles magically reappear...

...Is there any chance this is a bug with the new update that might be fixed in the future? I feel like I've tried everything...

Brink said:

Could be a bug, but I'm not having any issues like that.

No, me neither. I've just tested this on my main machine, 1809 x64 Home, build 17763.134 and in regular use since getting 1809 in early October.

I unpinned all tiles from one of my other existing accounts. After half a dozen Restarts the Start menu was still empty of any tiles.

camrobert said:

...copying my old profile data over...

I'm wondering what you mean by that. What exactly did you copy over? Files? Shortcuts? Something else? Perhaps something you copied over brought the problem with it.

Does it also happen if you create a new account without copying anything over?

Brink said:

you could see if a repair install may sort it...

Good idea.

Bree said:

No, me neither. I've just tested this on my main machine, 1809 x64 Home, build 17763.134 and in regular use since getting 1809 in early October.

I unpinned all tiles from one of my other existing accounts. After half a dozen Restarts the Start menu was still empty of any tiles.



I'm wondering what you mean by that. What exactly did you copy over? Files? Shortcuts? Something else? Perhaps something you copied over brought the problem with it.

Does it also happen if you create a new account without copying anything over?



Good idea.

Hey Bree,
At first I copied over everything from my old profile, and of course the problem still occurred. I then made a new local account without copying anything over at all and after a while the start menu "refreshed" to default again. I am trying the in-place upgrade now so hopefully that will fix it

I had high hopes that the in-place upgrade would work.

Everything seemed fine... restarted a bunch of times, and all looked peachy.

and then...



It's back again, YAY. Unreal... I guess I have no other option other than wiping everything. Sigh. Thank you Windows. ''