Critical Error - Start menu

[ottiliegirl]

David, I'm not sure I'm savvy enough to try that. I'm 78 years old and some things are better left to the young. But I do want to add something here. I do believe you fixed the part of the problem that we weren't even working on. My original post had to do with the fact that after a Microsoft update, the display on my computer began to disappear after one minute of inactivity even though my settings called for it to never shut down. I was advised to do a system restore which then was the cause of the start button fiasco. So half a loaf is better than none. I'm closer to 100% than I was when we started. So thanks again.

 

[davidhk129]

OK. It's you choice.
My closing comment..................
Don't sell yourself short by being "old". And don't use age as an excuse.
Age does affect the physical aspect of the body, NOT the brain.

You'd surprised how old I am, but I won't tell you.
I did not learn computer until I first bought a Dell laptop running Vista. That's no more than 4 years ago.
And I self-taught myself without taking courses or formal training.

You can do it if you want to do it.

 

[Russ64]

I have treid everything (all the posted ways) to fix this ""Critical Error - Start menu not workingand nothing works. In fact it almost wrecked my computer. (blue screen of death). What is microsoft doing about it. please fix this problen

 

[Russ64]

If my suggestion above does not help, try this....................................

Right click at Start button > select Command Prompt (Admin) > type powershell > press Enter > wait a bit until you see....
PS C:\windows\system32>

At the flashing prompt, copy and paste this.........

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

> press Enter.

Ignore any error in red.

When finished, try Start Menu again.

Thank davidhk129 for you help. Unfortunately it has not worked.
I tried your solution and initially it did work, however I did not have any of the apps (microsoft store, Mail, weather etc). I must mention I am one of 2 users on our computer - Administrator (me and my partner have access and this account is not used) Md account (with this issue) and My Partner.
The other 2 accounts are fine. I logged into the administrator account, updated some information- then logged out completely. On logging in to my account- same issue. Driving me crazy. Please help.

 

[davidhk129]

Thank davidhk129 for you help. Unfortunately it has not worked.
I tried your solution and initially it did work, however I did not have any of the apps (microsoft store, Mail, weather etc). I must mention I am one of 2 users on our computer - Administrator (me and my partner have access and this account is not used) Md account (with this issue) and My Partner.
The other 2 accounts are fine. I logged into the administrator account, updated some information- then logged out completely. On logging in to my account- same issue. Driving me crazy. Please help.

There is the possibility that the account is corrupted.
Use a working admin account ( if you have one ) and create a new user account with the same privileges as the "problem" account > log on to it.
It the new account works without issues, then perhaps it confirms the other one is corrupted.
Don't know if you can still access to the corrupt account. If you can, backup what you want to keep and then delete the account.

 

[Paul1010]

After one of Microsoft's Windows 10 infamous updates on 10/17, I signed in with my pin and received the following error message: Critical Error. Your Start Menu Isn't Working. We'll Try To Fix It The Next Time You Sign In. Sign Out Now.
I've signed out, signed in 3 times, shut down, started up, and received the same error message.
On the task bar I can open email, Word, File Explorer, and Settings. Nothing else works, including Start. There are also Icons missing from the task bar that were there before.
The only way I can get to anything is keeping Internet Explorer up and not shutting down.

Yep! I got the same error inWin10 today after clicking on the Windows icon. After reading all the posts I could find, it looks like Microsoft really does not have a fix. Fortunately for now I use the desktop mode and everything including the Windows icon works as long as I right click on it or use it to resize my windows on the desktop.
Hope Microsoft fixes this soon, as I will not upgrade my other computers to Win10 until it works.

 

[ottiliegirl]

OK. It's you choice.
My closing comment..................
Don't sell yourself short by being "old". And don't use age as an excuse.
Age does affect the physical aspect of the body, NOT the brain.

You'd surprised how old I am, but I won't tell you.
I did not learn computer until I first bought a Dell laptop running Vista. That's no more than 4 years ago.
And I self-taught myself without taking courses or formal training.

You can do it if you want to do it.

Here is the latest on my START MENU issue. I just clicked the start button and several things now appear:
a screen showing settings - power - all apps
If I click on all apps I can access the apps. The screen is not the color it was and the screen is incomplete in that all the task tiles are missing. I am also able to see and use the icons on the taskbar. I can see notifications if there are any. I can access the volume control and turn the volume on or off. The arrow to show hidden icons also works. I just realized I can type in the search box also.

 

[Trouble]

Have you ever had Classic Shell or any of the other Start Menu overlays on the computer you're having this issue with?

 

[ottiliegirl]

I have no knowledge of anything called Classic Shell. I don't know anything about overlays either.

 

[Trouble]

OK.... thanks.
Was just wondering.

 

[davidhk129]

Here is the latest on my START MENU issue. I just clicked the start button and several things now appear:
a screen showing settings - power - all apps
If I click on all apps I can access the apps. The screen is not the color it was and the screen is incomplete in that all the task tiles are missing. I am also able to see and use the icons on the taskbar. I can see notifications if there are any. I can access the volume control and turn the volume on or off. The arrow to show hidden icons also works. I just realized I can type in the search box also.

That's a great start.

RE : color not the same
You can select what you want by left click at Start button > left side Settings > Personalization > left side, click Color > right side, choose your accent color > select a color you want > at the bottom, select the options On of Off.
While you are still in Settings , you can check out the rest of the options.

RE : Tiles missing.
I have the same thing happened on my build 10565 install.
I just went to All apps, selected the ones I wanted and used the Pin to Start option.

I was a bit apprehensive at the time about missing tiles, but I have had no ill effects and I am still using build 10565 without issues.

 

[ottiliegirl]

It's crazy, but every time I come on to the computer something else has come back. Now when I right click on IE on the taskbar my full screen of recent sites has reappeared. that was not happening two hours ago. I'm beyond happy to have that back!!
But over on the start button- what has come back is only a shell of itself. There is absolutely no color either in the background or on the tiles (icons). All apps look like blank file covers. They are not inclusive of the apps that were there originally, in fact, they seem to be the ones that might have been left off that menu. What is this build you are talking about? I have no idea which build I might be using or how to find out. I've had several suggestions of things to do but for the time being I think I'm just going to wait a while longer and see what comes back each time I turn my computer on. Another reason I don't want to make changes is that this computer is networked to my other two computers. I want to keep everything the same on all three. Right now if I go into my pictures on each computer, things are working fine. If I try to access pictures on the other computers over the network from this one I get the same strange messages as on this computer. Thanks for all your help.

 

[ottiliegirl]

I see that there will be a new release in November. Any chance that will correct this START MENU problem? In the meantime I'm almost ready to attempt your last recommendation (which I've already stated I think is beyond my capability) but before I do that I wanted to look back at my last restore date and see what date I used. I believe it was before the Oct. 13 update but I'm not sure. My search bar is not operable. How can I get to system restore?

 

[davidhk129]

This thread has gone too long I don't even know which is my "last recommendation".

My search bar is not operable. How can I get to system restore?

Right click at the Start button > at the popup box. click Control Panel >top right, at View by : click the pointer and select small icons > at the list, click Recovery ( screenshot #1) > click Open System Restore (screenshot #2)> wait for it to load > click Next > at the bottom, check the box Show more restore points (screenshot #3) > select a date BEFORE October 13th > click Next > follow the prompts.

I am sorry, I am losing track and control of this thread. It has become very hard for me to organize the facts in proper sequence.

screenshot #1

screenshot #2

screenshot #3

 

[Mike Kingsbury]

Hi

This is a problem that Microsoft says that they are working on for what that's worth.

I have a friend who had this issue, for him all he had to do was log out and back in each time he booted his computer, when he logged back in everything worked.

We tried the logging in, in Safe Mode but that didn't fix it, he was unlucky enough to have his password expire while he was in safe mode and couldn't log back in..

We restored his disk image made shortly after he upgraded and the problem hasn't come back.
So as suggested a prior restore point may solve it.

You might want to try the logging out thing and see if you can do that until Microsoft get's this fixed.

Mike

 

[ottiliegirl]

This thread has gone too long I don't even know which is my "last recommendation".



Right click at the Start button > at the popup box. click Control Panel >top right, at View by : click the pointer and select small icons > at the list, click Recovery ( screenshot #1) > click Open System Restore (screenshot #2)> wait for it to load > click Next > at the bottom, check the box Show more restore points (screenshot #3) > select a date BEFORE October 13th > click Next > follow the prompts.

I am sorry, I am losing track and control of this thread. It has become very hard for me to organize the facts in proper sequence.

screenshot #1
View attachment 1365

screenshot #2
View attachment 1366

screenshot #3
View attachment 1367

This thread has gone too long I don't even know which is my "last recommendation".



Right click at the Start button > at the popup box. click Control Panel >top right, at View by : click the pointer and select small icons > at the list, click Recovery ( screenshot #1) > click Open System Restore (screenshot #2)> wait for it to load > click Next > at the bottom, check the box Show more restore points (screenshot #3) > select a date BEFORE October 13th > click Next > follow the prompts.

I am sorry, I am losing track and control of this thread. It has become very hard for me to organize the facts in proper sequence.

screenshot #1
View attachment 1365

screenshot #2
View attachment 1366

screenshot #3
View attachment 1367

 

[ottiliegirl]

I just decided to do another restore before moving forward. The system restore took almost three hours and I was getting concerned that something was going wrong and sure enough it was. When it was finished restoring it began to send message "something went wrong - we will restart your computer now". After a couple of tries it said "we can't restart - please press restart, which I did. Still it cannot restart. Now it has me in the option to troubleshoot. My options are reset this PC or Advanced options. I don't know which to chose. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Paul1010]

Yep! I got the same error inWin10 today after clicking on the Windows icon. After reading all the posts I could find, it looks like Microsoft really does not have a fix. Fortunately for now I use the desktop mode and everything including the Windows icon works as long as I right click on it or use it to resize my windows on the desktop.
Hope Microsoft fixes this soon, as I will not upgrade my other computers to Win10 until it works.

Just an update on what I have been experiencing with the "sign-in critical error". Fortunately I am still able to use the desktop and can right click on the Win icon and get to the Windows Powershell admin and click on it. Once there, after reading other websites particularly, http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2895-sfc-command-run-windows-10-a.html#option3 I have been entering sfc /scannow hitting enter and having the program scan the computer. Though I get a message saying everything is OK, i.e. integrity is OK, I restart the computer. I have done this over a dozen times, and am able to use the start menu at times.
Also I am able to use the start menu and access the tiles when I log in as a local administrator. And I get a notification message from Microsoft when I am using my Microsoft account sign-in that I need to sign in with the latest credentials. I clicked on that and it went into a loop, did a sfc /scannow, and the start menu works. So I am wondering if there is a bug in Win 10 that was introduced with the latest updates of the tiles etc. that crashes the program when you use the Microsoft account log in. Hopefully somebody with a lot more techinical knowledge, preferably from Microsoft, will verity this sometime

 

[davidhk129]

My options are reset this PC or Advanced options. I don't know which to chose. Any help would be appreciated.

Choose Reset.

 

[ottiliegirl]

Reset says it lets me chose to keep or remove my files and then reinstalls Windows. I would assume I want to chose "keep my files". Does it then reinstall Windows 10 (hopefully)? What if anything might I lose? Will I have to reinstall all my programs?