Start Menu in Windows 10 1903 Broken

[SimonWindisch]

Hi there,

 

Is anyone being affected by the Start Menu in Windows 10 1903 for education in a Group Policy Controlled domain being broken?

 

User reports that the Start Menu does not load, either through pressing the Start key, or the Start button on screen.

 

Event Log shows in Applications and Services Logs \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Apps \ Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational an entry that says Activation for Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy!App failed. Error code: This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator.. Activation phase: Deployment

 

It seems that Windows 10 1903 adds a new process StartMenuExperienceHost.exe

 

Our Domain Group policy includes Computer Configuration \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Application Control Policies \ Applocker \ Packaged App Rules that has been setup with "Automatically Generate Rules"

 

But the automatically generated rules don't include a rule for Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy!App

 

I am still investigating. THis was fixed on one computer by doing a Windows Reset through the troubleshooting menu, so it may not be related to Group Policy being out of date, but I wanted to get some ideas while I continue to research.

 

Thanks - Simon

[DJ-1701]

Only 1 in about 50 machines that have done the 1903 upgrade so far. I just reinstalled it as it was happening on every profile.

[TechMonkey]

In our initial testing we found this so have put it on hold till we have more time to properly look. It happened to all users on the two different machines we tried. My first thought was AppLocker or something we have stripped out of the initial build or restricted via GPO.

 

Apart from that I'm no more help I'm afraid.

[mproffitt1983]

We had a similar issue when testing. Updated our Applocker GPO to allow 'Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost' and 'Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost' using RSAT on the Windows 10 1903 build. These were already allowed before but seem to need to be reapplied from the 1903 build.

 

Matt

[SimonWindisch]

You are all amazing, thank you!!!

 

I fixed this by updating the settings via RSAT via a 1903 Windows 10 client, as suggested.

 

I attach before and after exports of the settings, for future reference.

 

Simon

 

Pre 1903 settings oldApps.txt

 

Post 1903 settings 1903Apps.txt

[DJ-1701]

Make that 2 in 50 now... I eventually got told of another one... strange thing is, neither of the computers has Applocker set at all...

[3s-gtech]

What type of profiles are you using?

[DJ-1701]

What type of profiles are you using?

 

Local profiles.

[3s-gtech]

I've found a fault with Windows 10 1903 local profiles, where the Default profile is broken (no Win X, some apps broekn). For us at least, this is what forms the basis for any logged on users as it copies across.

 

To fix it, I found a working Default profile and used Robocopy on startup to copy it from a share into the existing local Default profile folder. With that done, the issues cleared. I never traced what was broken - probably something in the profile .dat or the AppData.

 

Worth a try.

[DJ-1701]

Ah, yeah... problem also is that any other profile on the machine doesn't load the start menu... and Win X is working. Strange things are afoot. Worst case I will just reload it though.

[3s-gtech]

Once the Default profile is fixed, you'd need to clear all of the other profiles off to re-test it as they only copy on first logon.

[DJ-1701]

Didn't have time to look at it in depth yesterday, so was going to borrow it today... guess what... the problem magically disappeared when I pressed the windows key today.

 

I did follow this though on the local machine yesterday though, so might have been the fix...

 

We had a similar issue when testing. Updated our Applocker GPO to allow 'Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost' and 'Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost' using RSAT on the Windows 10 1903 build. These were already allowed before but seem to need to be reapplied from the 1903 build.

 

Matt

Edited June 12, 2019 by DJ-1701

[chrisakak9]

add me to the list of techs with this issue!

[Driftingforlife]

Having the same problem here on a PC and a surface pro, ended up fresh installing 1809.

[kingoranks]

Happening in my test lab(Windows 10 Edu 1903), Same on brand new Dell machine with OEM someone help lol definitely not MS. Microsoft why not make life easy .......

 

If anyone has more update pls share, I had to reset all the Dell machines and remove them from the network.

Edited July 2, 2019 by kingoranks

[chrisakak9]

oddly I've just gone into settings>Cortana and selected a language and the menu seemed to work after but doesn't seem to carry across to other users and needs completing per user

 

scrap that didn't work on another machine.

Edited July 3, 2019 by chrisakak9

[DanTheLacky]

Having the same issues here, no AppLocker enabled.don't know how I didn't see this thread whilst looking for a solution previously.

[DanTheLacky]

Has anyone had these issues with other versions of windows 10? Have tried deploying v1809 and get the same issue, only once the group policies apply though.

[chrisakak9]

not at the moment, I have 1809 and some 1803. its just my 1903 that seem to be affected

[KernelM]

I managed to solve this issue by following the solution found here: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2213938-windows-10-start-menu-process-freezing-after-1903-upgrade

We had this group policy set to "disabled" : "Computer Config \ Policies \ Admin Templates \ System \ Group Policy \ 'Continue experiences on this device'" Setting it to "Not Configured" solved the issue with the start menu for us.