windows start button lacking functions, system button not responding

Question

windows start button lacking functions, system button not responding

James Chamley 0

On the task bar the windows system button is lacking some functionality. For example the system button will not respond. Word and Excel will open and operate but pinned files are missing. Some icons such as Chrome are blank.

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2 answers

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Answer 1

James Chamley 0

Hi - thank you Kayece. I have tried restarting windows explorer several times and though that works it has not made any difference. The access to the admin setting is difficult as the window button is not working. On start up there is no option to sign in as an administrator (just my normal profile appears and pin number requested. Taskbar settings is also not responding. The search field on the taskbar is also not responding. When I type "sfc /scannow" in the start menu it tells me that I cannot do it as I have to login as an administrator which leads me back again ..

Kayece Jan Mae Amizola 16,115 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-23T08:08:12.8766667+00:00

I see. When the CMD appears in the search results, please right-click it and select Run as administrator.
James Chamley 0 Reputation points

2026-07-24T04:19:14.98+00:00

I'm sorry Kayece - where am I searching for "CMD". on the start button "run" is one of the few buttons that works. "Search" does not work either from the start button or from the taskbar.
James Chamley 0 Reputation points

2026-07-24T07:57:17.4066667+00:00

Hi Kayece - thanks very much for your help. I worked out how to run the sfc /scannow command without the aid of the settings function. After running that as an administrator and doing a restart things are looking a lot better - interestingly just a couple of missing icons but I can reload those programs separately. Much appreciate your time
Kayece Jan Mae Amizola 16,115 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-24T09:12:44.0533333+00:00
I see. Thank you for your response. Please run CMD again in Admin, then run the following command.

Type the following in the Command Prompt (Make sure you are on Administrator):

ie4uinit -show

taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F

DEL /A /Q "%localappdata%\IconCache.db"

DEL /A /F /Q "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*"

DEL /F /S /Q "%localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy\localstate\AppIconCache\*.*"

shutdown /r /f /t 00

*The last command will instantly restart the computer

My apologies for the late reply, and thank you in advance for your understanding if future responses are delayed

Answer 2

Kayece Jan Mae Amizola 16,115 Independent Advisor

Hi,

It seems that your system tray icons aren’t appearing correctly. Here are some troubleshooting steps you can follow:

Restart your Windows Explorer by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, locating Windows Explorer in the list of processes, right-clicking it, and selecting Restart. This refreshes your taskbar and often restores missing icons.
Run an SFC scan.
- Open the Start menu, type cmd, right‑click Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator.
- In the Command Prompt window, enter sfc /scannow and press Enter.
- The scan will check for and repair corrupted system files.
- Wait until it completes, then restart your computer to see if the issue is resolved.
Verify system tray settings.
- Right‑click the taskbar > Select Taskbar settings > Navigate to the system tray section.
- Ensure that essential icons such as Volume, Network, and others are enabled.

Please let me know how it goes. I will wait for your response.

Stay Safe!

James Chamley 0 Reputation points

2026-07-23T08:07:22.12+00:00

Hi - thank you Kayece. I have tried restarting windows explorer several times and though that works it has not made any difference. The access to the admin setting is difficult as the window button is not working. On start up there is no option to sign in as an administrator (just my normal profile appears and pin number requested. Taskbar settings is also not responding. The search field on the taskbar is also not responding. When I type "sfc /scannow" in the start menu it tells me that I cannot do it as I have to login as an administrator which leads me back again .