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DavidYorkshire-8836 avatar image
1 Vote"
DavidYorkshire-8836 asked STEPHENSIMPSON-5972 commented

Windows 10 - 'Your Start Menu isn't working'

We use roaming profiles, and for many years (since at least Windows 7 days) the local copy has occasionally become corrupt or stops syncing properly, and sometimes deleting the local copy of the user profile folder and the associated registry key for the user (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList) works - next time the user logs in, it pulls down the server copy and work again. Been doing this for years with no issues.

Recently on Windows 10 (2004 version), I've encountered a serious problem with this. It has occurred since we upgraded from Office 2013 to 365, but I don't know whether that's related. What happens is that once the profile and registry key have been deleted as described above, the start menu is completely broken next time the user logs in. When they click the start button they get the following message:

22140-start-menu-error.jpg

Sign out now is the only option.

This happens if they log in again, even after a reboot - basically it means that the user account cannot be used on the affected computer.

It only seems to affect the W10 (2004) machines - the terminal servers (Server 2016 and Office 365) are not affected, and removing the local copy of the profile doesn't cause this issue on them.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks


windows-10-general
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KapilArya avatar image
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KapilArya answered STEPHENSIMPSON-5972 commented

Hello,

Try to re-register Start Menu:

https://www.kapilarya.com/re-register-start-menu-windows-10

Let us know if this helps!

Note: Included link in this reply refers to blog post by a trusted Microsoft MVP.

· 3
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Though the above didn't work for me, the following script which appears to reregister all packages (take a few mins), did work.

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

My problem was caused by me. I tried to move the Packages folder to another SSD and replace it with a sym link to free up space, since AppData\Packages eats a lot of disk space.

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    Yikes, there's a slash missing at the end before AppXManifest.xml, needs to be

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

0 Votes 0 ·

Hello!
Much to my amazement this actually worked - restored all lost functionality across the taskbar. From the Start menu button to the Notifications, Network etc.
I'm SO very grateful for the post!
Only thing I'd say, though, is BE VERY PATIENT with the restart. It took my computer the best part of an hour to process everything. I had to sit on my hands to stop from unplugging it!

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DavidYorkshire-8836 avatar image
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DavidYorkshire-8836 answered

Thanks - just tried that and unfortunately it doesn't work. The user doesn't have local admin rights so it gives an access denied error unless powershll is run with elevation. I've tried that too, and although the command completes it doesn't resolve the issue.

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DavidYorkshire-8836 avatar image
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DavidYorkshire-8836 answered JamesBertram-9713 commented

I've carried out some more investigation, using virtual machines.

I set one up running W10 2004 (no other software installed), domain joined it and tested - and it did exactly as described above, so it's nothing to do with Office 365.

I then set one up running W10 1909, domain joined and tested. This did not display the problem. I then upgraded it to 2004, and tested - and the problem was back. I then tried using a domain account without a roaming profile - i.e. logging in and out, then logging in with an admin account and deleting the profile folder/reg key for the test account, reboot and log in again with the test account - and the problem again appeared, so it's not specific to roaming profiles.

So the problem can be stated as follows:

  • A machine is running W10 2004 and is joined to a domain

  • A domain user has previously logged in

  • The user profile folder and registry key (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList) for the user are deleted (irrespective of whether the user account has a roaming profile)

  • If the user then attempts to log in again, the start menu is completely broken, and clicking the start button produces the error shown in the screenshot above. I have so far been unable to find any solution to this.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? This is clearly a new problem which has emerged with 2004.

Thanks





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Hey David,
I had the same issue. I had deleted the profile directory and the profilelist entry from the registry which previously allowed for a reset profile.

To fix the broken start menu issue on my end, I deleted the profile from Users and Accounts, and recreated it. It immediately corrected the problem.

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ElevenYu-MSFT avatar image
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ElevenYu-MSFT answered

Hi,

If you do not join the domain and create a non-domain user to log in, and delete the user profile folder and registry key for the user.

Will the issue persists after the user log in again?

Thanks,
Eleven

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DavidYorkshire-8836 avatar image
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DavidYorkshire-8836 answered

I've not tested with a non-domain VM - will do so later today and report back.

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DavidYorkshire-8836 avatar image
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DavidYorkshire-8836 answered

OK, tested with some new non-domain VMs - I set up one running Pro and one Home, and the outcome was identical for both.

  • Set up with local admin account

  • Add a second local account (non-admin)

  • Log into the second account then out again

  • Log back into admin account and delete the profile folder and reg key for the second account

  • Reboot then log into the second account

  • It went through the usual setting up stage, then instead of the desktop just gave a blank screen (this is the only difference from the domain-joined machines). Eventually had to power the VMs off and on.

  • After powering back on, logged into the second account again. It went to the desktop this time, but the start menu doesn't work - exactly the same issue as with the domain-joined machines.

So basically, it doesn't make any difference whether or not the machine is domain joined - it happens on standalone machines too.



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ElevenYu-MSFT avatar image
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ElevenYu-MSFT answered

Hi,

Based on your description, it seems this is an issue related to Windows update 2004.

We have posted it to product team. Also, you can post it via Feedback Hub by yourself.

22615-image.png
22594-image.png

Thanks,
Eleven



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DavidYorkshire-8836 avatar image
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DavidYorkshire-8836 answered DavidYorkshire-8836 commented

Thanks, but posting it to the feeback hub isn't a lot of use - I'm looking for a solution, and providing feedback which may or may not get acted on at some point doesn't really help.

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Hi,

If so, you could first not upgrade the windows and wait for more fix release of windows 10 2004.

Appreciate your understanding.

Thanks,
Eleven

0 Votes 0 ·

I've already upgraded them because - unsurprisingly - this didn't come up in the testing. It's not exactly something which would normally need to be tested.

Really, it shows extremely poor quality control from Microsoft. This isn't the only 2004 issue I am aware of, but it's the most serious.

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JamesBertram-9713 avatar image
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JamesBertram-9713 answered

That is a horrible response. So you are saying to either have lower security thresholds in the organization or be forced to rebuild PCs causing numerous hours to days of work.

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JohnnyBraun-1343 avatar image
1 Vote"
JohnnyBraun-1343 answered

I've absolutely the same problem at our customers. If a AD userprofile (no roaming profile or something else special) was deleted through the "normal" method with deleting the key at ProfileList and the files at c:\users, the startmenu is broken after a new login.

The only thing that helped yet was to start the following command (found it at another post) at the powershell at the users context:

 taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe ; taskkill /F /IM SearchApp.exe ; taskkill /F /IM SearchUI.exe; taskkill /F /IM ShellExperienceHost.exe; taskkill /F /IM StartMenuExperiencehost.exe ; Start-Sleep 2 ; cd $Env:localappdata\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy ; Remove-Item -Recurse -Force .\TempState\ ; cd $Env:localappdata\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperiencehost_cw5n1h2txyewy ; Remove-Item -Recurse -Force .\TempState\ ; Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode ; Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode ; Start-Process "explorer.exe"

This is an incredible fu**, because we just deleted about 50 profiles because of an exchange problem where the userprofiles have to be recreated.

Microsoft, give us another solution fast!

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