Windows 10 start button not working

Hi Rom,

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Communities.

I will be glad to help you with the issue you have with the computer. I understand the frustration when things don't work the way it should.

Please follow the below methods to troubleshoot on the issue:

Method 1: Perform a sfc scan on the computer to check if there are any corruptions on the computer. Please follow the below link to perform a sfc scan on the computer.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833

Method 2: Try to perform a DISM commands on the computer. Please follow the below link to know how to perform DISM in Windows.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/947821

This issue can be fixed by Windows Updates. Please refer to the suggestions by Sharath Srinivasa replied on January 23, 2015 in the link given below.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_search/start-menu-doesnt-appear/a7c56613-277c-4993-bb74-08650dce7b21

Hope this information is helpful. Feel free to get back to us for any further assistance.

A treatment for the symptom would be to restart Windows Explorer every time this happens. This may allow you to use the Windows button until the next time that it freezes up. 

-open task manager (alt-ctrl-del or right click on taskbar and choose it)

-find and select "Windows Explorer"

-click Restart button on bottom right

It means log out and log back in...will restart Windows services.

I honestly don't know how this is still a problem that Microsoft hasn't fixed in Falls Creator edition. Seems like a flaw in pretty basic functionality. 

I'm shocked... a YouTube comment fixed this problem with me. I narrowed it down to some conflict between (I believe) Dropbox and the Windows 10 Task Host Manager.

Followed this Dropbox thread here: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Installation-and-desktop-app/Stuck-on-quot-starting-quot/td-p/88494/page/5

To this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILni3TO6ITc

And the first comment says this:

After hours of searching and trying, Finally I GOT IT I found a solution that fixed the issue for me and I think it should work for you and all who suffer from the problem. It is very easy. Just by these steps : 1- Right click on start menu and click on Run. "For those who the start menu does not respond with right click, right click on taskbar - click on Task Manager - from File menu on the left upper corner select Run new task". 2-White the command regedit and click Enter. 3- Go to path [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService]. 4-Double click on Start from the right side. 5-Change the value data to 4 then OK. 6-Reboot. That's it. Or just download the attached registry file and run it. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AZJPia-kpxz_t2DrBKYY6xwMs5D-f9Ft

All credit to Ayman Askar

Someone else responded in the comments below and said this:

onegp I just talked to Microsoft. The 0 is "default" for the Windows Push Notification service (wpnservice) to push notifications from some corresponding WNS server. I guess that depends on your location. Changing it to 1 makes Windows get it's notification from iCloud servers, 2, 3, 4,...x, I don't know and neither did the tech I talked to. For that you get to have access to registry service codes. So either this guy works for Microsoft or just guessed the code because Microsoft had no answer as to why entering 4 worked. If you type in the registry key directly into the search engine bar, you will get results for that service but not the codes and how they repetitively affect the system. I hope this helps.

No idea why this widely reported issue isn't fixed yet with a proper Windows Update. Seems pretty easy to recreate.

Hope this helps!

Ok I found another way to fix Windows 10 Start Menu / Search problems

although this process fixes the issue of some results not showing up when searching, it might help with other issues as well.

So If restarting computer and Cortana (By right clicking Cortana process in task manager and ending task) don't fix the problem.

Run CMD (Command Prompt) AS an Administrator and paste the following lines,

CD /d "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy"
Taskkill /F /IM SearchUI.exe
RD /S /Q Settings

Doing so will force Cortana to rebuild the settings and get rid of its unexpected behavior..

What does the OS anew mean?

Os is operating system, windows 10. OS anew means that you have to start your windows anew so that the problem could be corrected.