Start Menu Not Opening & Search Problems

Ran into a small problem after upgrading to the Anniversary Update. The update fixed a lot of my problems (listed below) after I did a clean install so that was very good. I just have one small issue but after that's fixed I should be perfect.

The only problem I'm having now is when I search for programs like Control Panel, it shows up but when I go and click on it, it won't open. When I hover over it, it turns gray (like it should) but besides that, nothing happens.

Recent items seems to work and so does web portion of it.

What's also weird is some programs like Steam allows you to right click on that and go to a certain game (its like a shortcut). That works but left clicking it doesn't.


The start menu is pretty much the same story. In the list of programs that were installed, I can't open any of them. If I click on Calculator a small thin bar appears below it that's filled partially. Other then that, nothing else happens.

Any ideas?

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Old problems that I had... It was solved after I did the Anniversary Update.

I just did a clean install of Windows 10 and right at the beginning anything was working fine. After I downloaded some drivers for my video cards and restarted my PC, I found that my start menu was not opening and that I can't search for any desktop applications besides Chrome.

I can search for applications like Control Panel and Run but clicking on them does absolutely nothing.

There also seems to be an invisible icon on the task bar as well. Hovering over it, it says store but there's no icon for it. Right clicking on it doesn't bring anything up so I can't unpin it either. I can just move it around and when I click on it, it brings up the store page a few minutes later (very delayed).

In total I have 3 problems that needs to be addressed. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could offer some insight.

Update: I found another forum post very similar to mine and one of the suggestions on how to get the start menu to work was to rename the TileDataLayer file. This seems to work for me but my start menu is very empty. All it contains is my username, power, and all apps.

On another note, I am currently on Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.104). I will update to Anniversary Update and see if that fixes it.

Hi, in general if your PC is compatible with Win 10, and all is fine, you are advised not to try to update drivers. Windows 10 takes care of major drivers for you.

Could you please also complete your system specs, including whether you're using Home or Pro etc
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums - Windows 10 Forums

Now, the only changes you mention are the video drivers. Can you confirm you have installed nothing else and made no other changes at all, including changes in Settings, for example?

If not, what happens if you roll back those drivers?

Do things look normal in Safe Mode?

If you have very little you have done by way of changes, and can't quickly resolve these problems, the easiest and quickest way forward would be to reinstall. You'll waste far more time trying things and waiting for responses.

As soon as you have a working configuration, use disk imaging to secure it. If things go wrong, you can then quite quickly recover to that state by restoring the image.

Strongly recommended here:
Macrium Reflect (free) + its boot medium + external storage for images.

Note: the anniversary edition is widely reported as causing a variety of problems for a significant number of people - check the web. MS is working on these, only 1 fix to address freezing so far.

Now that's unusual... - people come here reporting problems with the AU.

But a new install (effectively) should indeed resolve such issues.

So you ask a good question which will much relieve your stress levels and so help you live a longer and happier life.. for when things go wrong as you then have a fall-back and a backup.

Download and install Macrium Reflect (free) and create its boot disk/USB drive.
You will need (e.g.) a 2Tb external USB drive - or you can back up to a network location.. remote from your PC ideally (think fire/theft flood..)

Run Macrium, and, having read some of its helpful and extensive documentation and watched some videos, click Backup, Backup Windows, note the set of partitions ticked- the whole set- and proceed, choosing your backup destination.

You can then back up other data disks and partitions.

Subsequent updates (differential) will be faster and smaller. It's unclear how to do one- you need to rt click on an existing schedule and select Differential).

You can set up a backup schedule if you wish.

Useful tip for USB disks: to have them always use the same drive letter when plugged in, use Disk Management to change the letter to, say, R (something that will never be used otherwise).

Note: this is a much more robust and flexible tool than the sometimes problematic (= doesn't work) Windows Backup and Restore).