Problem with windows 10 startmenu

Question

Hi all,

we are experiencing strange behavior on our domain network regarding the windows 10 startmenu. All computers are domain joined and we do not have any policies set regarding startmenu (no redirection or restrictions).

Users complained about missing a lot of apps in the startmenu. It are mainly the windows apps like the store, calculator etc. But we found out that also the HP tools (the pre installed ones) were missing for example.

When a user logs in they are missing. When we logged in as admin they were also missing. We did all the check with DISM and sfc /scannow and all came up as a healthy install. The issues are on multiple machines.

As an admin we ran:

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

After that the start menu looks good! All apps show up with a 'new' notification.

Then we logged in as our test users but the startmenu was still 'empty'. Running the command as the user requires elevation and does not fix it for that user. Also when we provide admin credentials it does not fix it. We added the script to the startup scripts and logon scripts as well.

We recreated the user profile for the test user but still no luck.

Any ideas on how to fix this for our users?

Answer 1

Hi,

1. For the missing app issue, could you please help to confirm if the missing app only disappear from applist or tiles in start menu or even disappear under following path: C:/Program Files/WindowsApps
   https://www.samlogic.net/articles/windows-8-windowsapps-folder.htm

2.As you mentioned this is new environment with workstations and servers, have you got a chance to check the image you've setup? If there is any issues related to the image preinstalled.

3.Could you please test in one PC by removing from Domain and log in with newly created local admin account or standard account?

4.From what I have found when running the mentioned command with elevated powershell(run as administrator), it supposed to Re-Register All Windows Apps for All Accounts
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3175-reinstall-re-register-apps-windows-10-a.html

Please note: Information posted in the given link is hosted by a third party. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy and effectiveness of information.

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Hope this helps and please help to accept as Answer if the response is useful.

Thanks,
Jenny

Answer 2

Hi Eddy,

1.Is there any changes made before users got this problem? Are they brand new computers or problems occurred after installing some patches.

2.In order to verify if any GPO has been setting for start menu, it is suggested to run command of gpresult and check again.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/cc733160(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

3.Running the command as the user requires elevation and does not fix it for that user.
Is there any error messages when running command for normal user account?
Kindly run "Get-AppxLastError" to get the the last error reported in the app package installation logs.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/appx/get-appxlasterror?view=win10-ps

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Hope this helps and please help to accept as Answer if the response is useful.

Thanks,
Jenny

Answer 3

Hi Jenny,

Thanks for your reply.

• The environment is new, the workstations and servers are new as well as the entire AD environment.
• I checked the GP results and there is nothing startmenu related in there.
• Get-AppxLastError does not display any errors. The apps are all installed 'correctly' only not shown in the startmenu

I ran my powershell command as a regular user -> error is access denied
I ran an elevated powershell windows with admin credential (logged in as regular user) -> the command runs but nothing changes. It probably runs in the admin profile environment.
I made my regular user a local admin and ran the command -> access denied
I started an elevated powershell with the regular user as local admin -> command completes and startmenu is ok

So to repair the startmenu I would need to run an elevated powershell window under a non admin user account. It looks like that will be tricky to accomplish.

Answer 4

Hi Jenny,

I can see all the missing apps under C:/Program Files/WindowsApps. Those are exactly all the apps that are not showing up in the startmenu.

We used the out of the box image. But we recently received 3 new machines that had a different image but with the same issues.

We added a new local user and it sees all the apps in the startmenu. Strange...

Also tried running the powershell command again but for my regular domain user it is not showing up.