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I have an HP desktop computer running windows 10 which has stopped showing the start menu after automatic updates were installed.

When clicking on the windows logo, or tapping the windows key on the keyboard nothing happens. The corner menus also don't show when I drag the mouse pointer to the edges of the screen.

I'm using a local user account, this PC has no microsoft accounts.

I have tried a few solutions, with no success:

  • dism (DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth ; DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth) - reports no issues
  • sfc (sfc /scannow) - reports no issues
  • deleted c:\users\<user>\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer and rebooted
  • re-register apps (Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}) - stalls forever. Actually, running just Get-AppXPackage in powershell does nothing, just hangs, ctrl+c can't kill it.
  • create a new local user and login as it. the first login gets stuck forever at "we're preparing the stuff for you".
  • boot in safe mode, login, and restart
  • disabled firewall and antivirus

None of the methods have worked so far. I have also found that launching the settings application via explorer -> computer -> settings will cause explorer to lock up.

I'm really trying to avoid reinstalling windows without at least figuring out what has happened, since this may happen again.

André Fernandes
  • 509

2 Answers2

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Any change after you end Cortana?

Task manager-->Processes-->Backround Processes-->End Cortana.

kenorb
  • 26,615
Kenneth Goodwyn
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To my dismay, after trying all of the solutions posted here and on various forums, the only thing that solved this problem was a full reinstall of windows 10 from Microsoft's installation media.

It seems that something got badly corrupted, it wasn't even possible to do a reset via the recovery console. At some point the PC got into a reboot loop where it failed to boot, then failed to repair itself, then fail to boot, and so on.

André Fernandes
  • 509