Start Menu Not Opening - Windows 11 Dev

Brass Contributor

My start menu isn't working. I've tried restarting the computer, restarting windows explorer and checking my disk for errors but nothing seems to work. 

 

When hover over it, a tooltip pops up that says 'start'. When I push the windows key on the keyboard, sometimes it will act like it is opening (I see a screen pop up that is the same color as my toolbar) but it immediately goes away and seems to crash windows explorer as my icons disappear for a minute or so. 

 

It seems that everything else works so far, any idea what it could be or how to fix?

Specs below:

 

Edition Windows 11 Pro
Update 21H2
Installed on ‎7/‎1/‎2021
OS build 22000.65

75 Replies
i cant open windows quick setting menu, when i press windows + A shortchut, can anybody help me

@-tronix- just did a fresh install of Win 11 and I have the same issue. I don't have KB5004300 and it's actually not installable anymore.

I'm on 22471.10..and mine is still not working
Does this mean that I'm doomed?🥲

I'm using 22000.194 for two days before and my start menu is not working, today is working fine. I tried starting windows in safe mode and the start menu is working... so there is something running that broke the start menu..

I uninstall steam and restart, but no fix

I used asus OLED laptop and disable some OLED feature from asus software and restart, still no fix

then i tried reinstall my graphic card adapter driver and shutdown my laptop (forgot to test the start menu)

and this morning the start menu showed up and working fine...

From the windows update, I don't see any new update today

 

So maybe what fixed my start menu is reinstalling my graphic card driver

Uninstalling and installing again the display adapter works @vasopressin 

@-tronix- Edition Windows 11 Home Single LanguageVersion 21H2Installed on ‎09-‎10-‎2021OS build 22000.194Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22000.194.0, start menu problem is still not fixed....Microsoft are you listening?? 

Haha yes. This forum is a scam to make people think Microsoft cares... All people with recent Dell laptops are affected. And indeed reinstalling the graphic card driver solves it but it's not really a solution...

@-tronix-  I had the same problem after installing the latest build 22471. I had accepted to live with it because at least the search function still worked. All of a sudden it started working without any new update. So as long as you can use the search function (which should allow you to find virtually any program) then just wait it out. It's not worth trying too many things.

My search function doesn't work but my Cortana does.

@MappaM Hey could you pls provide instructions on how to do that? I would like to try updating my drivers to see if it will fix my issues (Start menu not open, cannot use Search in Windows Explorer) 

@RLRCHN sure thing!

I installed the graphic driver for my Dell 7320, found on dell website, in my case it's an iGPU (Intel UHD Graphics). This did not solve anything in itself, I had to remove whatever was pre-installed first.

Open the device manager (if the search works, you can type it, or open windows explorer and right click on "This PC"), find the GPU (in my case Intel Iris Xe), right click, uninstall. Be sure to select "attempt to uninstall the driver". This looks unsafe but there is some kind of default driver that works with low resolution so you should not loose your screen :)

Then I launched the Dell driver installation again, which asked me to remove the driver as it was already installed, which I did.

Then I installed the driver again, and it was solved :)

 

Creating a new user account did not solve anything, btw.

I un-installed the Display Adaptor from the Device Manager and then I scanned for Hardware changes. Once the adaptor was reinstalled the START button was working... @RLRCHN 

@-tronix- 

 

After trying more than 20 methods to fix the start Menu, i finally uninstalled my Graphics Card in Device Manager (have Intel Iris Xe) then scanned for hardware changes.

At first attempt nothing happened and START Button didn't respond *SEE ATTACHED SCREEN SHOT*.

second try:  after Uninstalling the resolution dropped and icons became barely visible // now START button worked and i could explore the start menu ( it looked bigger than the Search Bar), then i hit SEARCH FOR HARDWARE CHANGES in DM, Graphic card installed again and the Start Menu works just fine.

P.S. : i already added a Registry called : EnableXamlStartMenu  and set it to value (0) in here   : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

then did a restart before working on the Graphics Driver. ( Check Method #11 in this link :

https://nerdschalk.com/how-to-fix-windows-11-start-menu-not-working-issue-17-ways/ 

 

P.S. : i have -Windows 11 Beta channel, Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22000.194.0 (10.10.2021)

- Power shell 7.1.4 ( from Microsoft store)

- Power shell review 7.2 ( from github : https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/tag/v7.2.0-preview.10 ) 

 

hope these tricks might help you too if not just pin your apps to task bar and use search to access others :lol:

Cheers

Kelly

 

Screenshot 2021-10-11 211529.png

in the Attachment you can see the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe task ist running and suspended, and Start button not responding of course

@jima87203 

 

Please think about your fix. How can we "click" start menu when start won't work?

can u please solve this problem @Kapil Arya 

I could fix that problem!

 

In regedit, access the following key:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\

 

Then delete the key

$de${00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}$$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties

 

restart the explorer process, by killing it or by closing the session.

 

I don't know the reasons why that happens. Do someone here knows what the content of that key in the registry mean?