Windows 10 - 'Your Start Menu isn't working'

DavidYorkshire 91

We use roaming profiles, and for many years (since at least Windows 7 days) the local copy has occasionally become corrupt or stops syncing properly, and sometimes deleting the local copy of the user profile folder and the associated registry key for the user (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList) works - next time the user logs in, it pulls down the server copy and work again. Been doing this for years with no issues.

Recently on Windows 10 (2004 version), I've encountered a serious problem with this. It has occurred since we upgraded from Office 2013 to 365, but I don't know whether that's related. What happens is that once the profile and registry key have been deleted as described above, the start menu is completely broken next time the user logs in. When they click the start button they get the following message:

Sign out now is the only option.

This happens if they log in again, even after a reboot - basically it means that the user account cannot be used on the affected computer.

It only seems to affect the W10 (2004) machines - the terminal servers (Server 2016 and Office 365) are not affected, and removing the local copy of the profile doesn't cause this issue on them.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks

Samuel Owens 1 Reputation point

2022-10-07T04:00:07.793+00:00

Old-ish post, I know, though I just encountered this issue with latest Windows 10 build, when trying to move a windows profile ( standalone, not domain ) to a secondary drive.
Script didn't seem to work due to changes to PowerShell, though this helped with that little part ( Import-Module: Operation is not supported on this platform. (0x80131539) ): https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/14057

Will update my post when I get a full resolution

14 answers

Johnny Braun 6 Reputation points

2020-10-01T10:23:27.62+00:00
I've absolutely the same problem at our customers. If a AD userprofile (no roaming profile or something else special) was deleted through the "normal" method with deleting the key at ProfileList and the files at c:\users, the startmenu is broken after a new login.

The only thing that helped yet was to start the following command (found it at another post) at the powershell at the users context:

taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe ; taskkill /F /IM SearchApp.exe ; taskkill /F /IM SearchUI.exe; taskkill /F /IM ShellExperienceHost.exe; taskkill /F /IM StartMenuExperiencehost.exe ; Start-Sleep 2 ; cd $Env:localappdata\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy ; Remove-Item -Recurse -Force .\TempState\ ; cd $Env:localappdata\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperiencehost_cw5n1h2txyewy ; Remove-Item -Recurse -Force .\TempState\ ; Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode ; Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode ; Start-Process "explorer.exe"

This is an incredible fu**, because we just deleted about 50 profiles because of an exchange problem where the userprofiles have to be recreated.

Microsoft, give us another solution fast!
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Kapil Arya 8,151 Reputation points MVP

2020-09-02T14:02:59.62+00:00

Hello,

Try to re-register Start Menu:

https://www.kapilarya.com/re-register-start-menu-windows-10

Let us know if this helps!

Note: Included link in this reply refers to blog post by a trusted Microsoft MVP.
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Luke Puplett 1 Reputation point

2020-09-21T16:44:23.337+00:00

Though the above didn't work for me, the following script which appears to reregister all packages (take a few mins), did work.

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

My problem was caused by me. I tried to move the Packages folder to another SSD and replace it with a sym link to free up space, since AppData\Packages eats a lot of disk space.

Luke Puplett 1 Reputation point

2020-09-21T16:45:23.347+00:00

List item
Yikes, there's a slash missing at the end before AppXManifest.xml, needs to be

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

STEPHEN SIMPSON 1 Reputation point

2021-06-09T10:43:07.05+00:00

Hello!
Much to my amazement this actually worked - restored all lost functionality across the taskbar. From the Start menu button to the Notifications, Network etc.
I'm SO very grateful for the post!
Only thing I'd say, though, is BE VERY PATIENT with the restart. It took my computer the best part of an hour to process everything. I had to sit on my hands to stop from unplugging it!

Samuel Owens 1 Reputation point

2022-10-07T04:08:45.537+00:00

Can confirm this successfully recovered my Start Menu and Search functionality, though I had to follow this page first as things seem to have changed in PowerSHell lately https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/14057

Windows build 21H2

1) Import-Module -Name Appx -UseWIndowsPowershell

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

sit back and relax, it takes a while, then reboot, and voila, start & search are working again

Thanks and hope this helps!
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DavidYorkshire 91 Reputation points

2020-09-02T14:14:07.097+00:00

Thanks - just tried that and unfortunately it doesn't work. The user doesn't have local admin rights so it gives an access denied error unless powershll is run with elevation. I've tried that too, and although the command completes it doesn't resolve the issue.
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DavidYorkshire 91 Reputation points

2020-09-02T20:43:13.477+00:00
I've carried out some more investigation, using virtual machines.

I set one up running W10 2004 (no other software installed), domain joined it and tested - and it did exactly as described above, so it's nothing to do with Office 365.

I then set one up running W10 1909, domain joined and tested. This did not display the problem. I then upgraded it to 2004, and tested - and the problem was back. I then tried using a domain account without a roaming profile - i.e. logging in and out, then logging in with an admin account and deleting the profile folder/reg key for the test account, reboot and log in again with the test account - and the problem again appeared, so it's not specific to roaming profiles.

So the problem can be stated as follows:

A machine is running W10 2004 and is joined to a domain

A domain user has previously logged in

The user profile folder and registry key (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList) for the user are deleted (irrespective of whether the user account has a roaming profile)

If the user then attempts to log in again, the start menu is completely broken, and clicking the start button produces the error shown in the screenshot above. I have so far been unable to find any solution to this.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? This is clearly a new problem which has emerged with 2004.

Thanks
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James Bertram 1 Reputation point

2020-09-21T16:06:37.923+00:00

Hey David,
I had the same issue. I had deleted the profile directory and the profilelist entry from the registry which previously allowed for a reset profile.

To fix the broken start menu issue on my end, I deleted the profile from Users and Accounts, and recreated it. It immediately corrected the problem.
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Eleven Yu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 10,756 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2020-09-03T03:00:21.4+00:00

Hi,

If you do not join the domain and create a non-domain user to log in, and delete the user profile folder and registry key for the user.

Will the issue persists after the user log in again?

Thanks,
Eleven
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Windows 10 - 'Your Start Menu isn't working'

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