Fix Windows 10 start menu not working after update

With the latest Windows 10 the start menu still looks the same but the company has introduced a number of changes to the experience, such as now Start menu has its own process (StartMenuExperienceHost.exe) new simplified default tile layout and more. But still, some bugs causing Windows 10 start menu not working. A few users report after Windows 10 update Start menu not opening Even click several times on it. And for some others start menu tiles get Broken, Start menu not respond for long or freezes. The exact cause of this problem varies on different combinations of PC environments, well here we have different solutions that probably help to fix Windows 10 start menu problem.

Windows 10 start menu not working

Restart your Windows 10 machine this is the first and best Old Working Solution.

Install the latest Windows updates:

Press the keyboard shortcut Windows + I to open the settings app,
Click on Update & security then windows update,
Here hit on check for updates button,
Let windows download and install updates if available there,
Restart windows and check if start menu working properly.

Reregistering Start menu and apps

One of the possible causes of this issue is that registration of Cortana and ShellExperienceHost apps is failing, in which case left clicking the Start Menu or clicking on the Cortana search box may not work,

Press Windows + X on the keyboard, select powersehll (admin)
Or open task manager using the keyboard shortcut ctrl + shift + Esc
Here on Task manager click on file -> Run New Task -> Type PowerShell
Tick mark on Create this task with Administrative privileges -> click OK.
This will open Power Shell with Administrative privilege.

open power shell on taskmanager

Now copy the Bellow command, paste on power shell and hit the enter key to execute the command.

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

Reboot the computer after the command execution completes. And see if the start menu working properly.

Reinstall or re-register default Windows apps in Windows 10

Windows 10 start menu Registry fix

Open the Run dialog box by pressing the Windows key and the R key together.
Type Regedit and hit the Enter key, to open the Windows registry editor
Take a backup of the registry then Navigate to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService
Here on the right-hand pane > Double-click on ‘Start’
Change its value data to 4 and hit ‘OK’.Reboot the computer and check the status.

windows 10 start menu registry fix

Create a new user account

Also, create a new administrator account to ensure that the user profile is not corrupted. Create a user account using the command prompt is simple and easy.

Open command prompt as administrator
Type command net user USERNAME PASSWORD /add and press enter key.

Note: here replace USERNAME with the new user name that you want to create and PASSWORD that you want to create a new password for the newly created user account.

Also, you can use Windows key + I to open settings,
Select Accounts then click on Family & other people
Here Under Other people, click on Add someone else to this PC.
Enter the username and password (optional) and click Next and then Finish.
Now, under the Family & other people, select a newly created account
Open Change account type Select Administrator and confirm with OK.
Now, Log off from the current login and log in again with the newly created user account.
Check if the Start Menu problems should be gone.

Run System file checker Utility

Some Times Corrupted system files cause different problems on your windows computer. Run the system file checker utility that helps restore missing files with the correct one.

Open the command prompt as administrator,
Type the command sfc /scannow and press enter key.
This will detect missing corrupted system files,
if found any corruption sfc utility restores them with the correct one from a compressed folder.
Restart Windows after 100% completing the scanning process,
Now check if the start menu working smoothly.

Run system file checker

Rollback Windows previous version

If the problem started after upgrade windows 10, and the above solutions didn’t fix the problem. Uninstall the current version following the steps below and let the build get stable.