Windows 10 - Start Menu does not work.

[Gbrown1997]

Morning all,

 

Just thought i'd pick your brains about an issue I am having on Windows 10.

 

I have been trialling Windows 10 since its technical release and I have always run into this specific issue.

 

randomly the start menu will just stop working - along with other things like cortana, notifications and clock.

 

i just cant left click them at all (right click works) is it something in group policy?

 

Thanks

[Squelch]

We had this issue too, it seems to be linked to MS built in apps and roaming profiles. Microsoft spent a few days logged in to a laptop with this issue and declared that it was due to a Windows bug and that it would be fixed in the creators update.

[Warwick_Tech]

We had this issue too, it seems to be linked to MS built in apps and roaming profiles. Microsoft spent a few days logged in to a laptop with this issue and declared that it was due to a Windows bug and that it would be fixed in the creators update.

 

Ironically the creators update has caused this issue on our machines, as well as a myriad of other problems, cosmetic mostly but still frustrating.

 

I believe it is linked to the on-board apps, but how/why I'm unsure. I tried force deleting profiles to generate new one's each login to ensure no corruption, but it's still hit and miss.

[mullet_man]

I've experienced this but only limited to my student devices, the only fix I found was to reimage the device. Not the best solution.

 

After a lots of googling and hair pulling I came across at Group Policy setting that seems to have sorted this issue.

 

Critically I think the setting needs to be in place before the modern apps break and won't fix broken ones.

 

The GP is here

 

Computer Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Components --> App Package Deployment --> Allow deployment operations in special profiles: Enabled

 

We don't have roaming profiles but I've only seen the odd start menu not work since applying this rather than 25 out of 30 in a classroom.

[RTi78]

If you update manually to 1703 this should resolve the issue.

[mullet_man]

If you update manually to 1703 this should resolve the issue.

 

So 1703 fixes the broken modern apps? That's interesting, will they stay working that's the big question? Or will they break like previously.

[Squelch]

I've just manually updated a 1607 install that had a broken start menu to 1703 and the start menu is no longer broken..

[mullet_man]

I've just manually updated a 1607 install that had a broken start menu to 1703 and the start menu is no longer broken..

 

Interesting.

 

Am not sure what my approach is going to be for student devices, re-image or use SCCM to upgrade them.

[Maus]

Came here looking for solutions to the same / rant about how useless the start menu is.

 

We have a small trial deployment to laptops we loan out to trainee teachers. Systems are AD domained to a 2012R2 domain, all users are on roaming profiles.

 

A couple of months ago we started noticing that the Start Menus were becoming unresponsive, spreading throughout all of the machines. Once the start menu broke down, it was broken for all users of the computer. The were running Win10 Education at the time and I discovered that Edge was now missing (nothing I'd done) which I've observed will cause all of the apps to break usually. Get-appxpackage did still show other apps. My test VM with the same deployment was unaffected.

 

We built a new image on LTSB 2016 and it seemed to be good, but now they're all slowly losing their start menu too.. once again my test VM is fine but maybe 5/15 devices to date have lost function of the start menu and I can't recover it. Again, once it happens it's for all users and only a reimage will fix it.

 

Strangely this time Get-AppxPackage returns NOTHING- no output at all. Are all of the apps gone now?

 

Since Business lines don't get major updates until 4 months later, the 1703 update for LTSB is still a couple of months off and won't sideload, as far as I can see.

 

I am beyond frustrated with this, we're supposed to be moving students to Windows 10 this year, but with something as important as the start-menu not working I'm hesitant. I'm seriously tempted to just move to Classic Shell, but I truly believe MS will do something to prevent it/break it in the near future. I'd stick on 7 longer, but even beside the changes to update availability to new chipsets later this year, we're already finding machines that will ONLY run Windows 10 (eg Linx 1020).

 

Any help would be most appreciated!

[Squelch]

Microsoft support were logged in to one of our laptops (Windows 10, 1607, roaming profile with a broken start menu) for 2 days. At the end of their investigation they said that the problem was caused by a bug in Windows and that it would be fixed in the next version (1703).

I have around 90 laptops with 1703 and so far no broken start menus have been reported, if any are going to break then it will be soon as patch Tuesday has just hit and in the past the start menus always broke when new updates were around.

[RTi78]

Have you tried manually updating? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

[Maus]

Would be good, but as noted Enterprise LTSB doesn't upgrade to 1703 yet... the upgrade helper just says it's up to date.

 

 

My fault for installing the 'extra stable version for mission critical applications' /s

[Squelch]

And when you do finally get it all sorted out the next thing to annoy you might be W10 refusing to install cumulative updates from your completely up to date WSUS server and insisting on downloading them from Microsoft instead thus swamping your connection and prompting your Teachers to wail and moan about how their internet isn't working..

[Gbrown1997]

Another strange thing, When i go to install the new update. it Stays at 0% and does not move.

 

I am getting standard WUpdates.

[Arthur]

Since Business lines don't get major updates until 4 months later, the 1703 update for LTSB is still a couple of months off!

You're going to be waiting a lot longer than a couple of months...

 

http://www.zdnet.com/article/more-changes-coming-to-microsofts-windows-as-a-service-strategy/