Windows 10 start menu still freezes

I re-upgraded from 7 to 10 yesterday to give this OS another try. Most all of it has gone smoothly except for the start menu won't come up half the time. I ran sfc /scannow, no integrity violations. I changed the log in creds and put in a password. The reason being, the only way I could get the start menu to come back was to sign out and re-sign in. Not something I care to do all the time.
Part 2 to this adventure is when I shut down I am getting a prompt on the screen that says, Task Host/ Microsoft/Windows/Plug and Play/Device install/reboot required. Unless I click on restart anyway, it just sits there waiting for me to do something . I sure hope there is a simple explanation for these hiccups. My OS is win 10 HP/ acer laptop/8943g/ 8gb RAM

I ran the powershell and it succeeded but unfortunately I still get a frozen start menu until I sign out and sign back in. Why did the upgrade to this have to be so difficult?? I still get the task host shutdown prompt every now and then too. It's like I'm missing a driver or settings. I sure hope there's somewhere to go from here. Thanks My friend...

Reinstalled Cortana using the following procedure:

1. Open an elevated PowerShell window, press Win + X keys to open PowerShell.

2. Execute following commands one at time.

Code:

Get-Process searchui | Stop-Process  –Force

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

3. Restart your computer.

Use my batch script to automatically close opened programs at shutdown of your computer.

Ran everything as ordered and same results. Didn't get the Task Host prompt at restart or shutdown but the start menu still freezes. Like I said before, all I have to do is sign out and restart it and the start menu opens right after log-in. I went to the User accounts, and it says Local Account on top withAdministrator at the bottom. I password protected it so I thought that was enough. Is it because I'm not using a Microsoft account to sync everything? I'm just reaching because I don't know where else to go.

Start Menu problem nothing to do with your account is Local or Microsoft account.

Boot your computer into Safe Mode and tell us problem persist within Safe Mode.

Got it to boot into safe mode. And the start menu open easily. I take it that has to do with my apps?

Run a disk cleanup elevated as admin. You may have patches pending.

exactly how to do that??