UPDATE: June 21, 2016 – Microsoft has released a free repair tool for the Windows 10 START menu. You can read very brief explanation and download it here.
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It was a dark and stormy nighty in April when I installed Windows 10 build 10041 (on the fast ring) and the START button stopped working… ok enough fun. If you have installed a recent Windows 10 build you may find that the START button and all of the modern apps either do nothing or error out with messages about .NET or PARENTAL CONTROLS.
In my case I just installed a free START menu utility (I like START 8 or CLASSIC SHELL) that you might have install on Windows 8, and waited for Microsoft to release the next build of Windows 10 that I hoped would be installed automatically as I am on the FAST RING. It did not because Microsoft changes Windows Update to be a ‘Modern App’ which means it will not run. Soooo, I thought was pretty smart to just download the build 10074 ‘.EBD’ upgrade file from a site and run through the conversion to .ISO and then do an in-place upgrade (which just means run SETUP from the DVD and tell it to upgrade). That did work… for 3 days. This morning my START menu was dead again, AAARRRG!
Microsoft needs to get its Application developer jobs to fix this but until they do, here are solutions that have worked for us:
The I found the fix:
Thank you UHLIK from THIS thread on the Microsoft Forum after reading THIS thread on the forum.
Another fix for the The Start Menu Does Not Work problem is:
UPDATED: August 19, 2015: A third fix I have used successfully is:
A forth fix I found came directly from Microsoft Partner support:
If none of these fix the Start Button, you can try our advanced solution to the Windows 10 Start Button not working, which has solved the issue for me twice already this month and you can read about it here.
If you have had enough, you can just give up and REFRESH you machine.
This will reinstall Windows 10 but it will keep all of your files (Documents, Pictures…) but it will kill all of the programs that have been installed. Everything that is dead will be in C:\WINDOWS.OLD so you can fish out anything that is missing, but you will have to reinstall your programs, like Microsoft Office.
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Worked the fourth solution for me, just runned command prompt as administrator and then typed PowerShell and after pasted the code you provided.Thx
Ok, I went to shut down last night and the Start button is not working again! I posted a comment on the Microsoft site in the forums regarding this issue. While in their forums I did find one person who was using a program called Stardock10 instead. So I checked it out.
Stardock10 is online and offers a 30 day free trial. It is not expensive! I downloaded it this morning and have my start button and programs back! I know it does not fix the Windows problem but to be honest, I have spent more time on that issue than what I want. Think this issue is going to be around for a long time. At least now, my computer life is doable!
My problem was the TileDataLayer database log files that got corrupted (I noticed error messages in the Windows Event Log).
I opened a command prompt with admin priviledges, navigated to the folder mentioned in eventLog and renamed all the log files in the folder (including edb.log). Did a restart, and voila! Problem solved.
i found out that everytime i clean my registry using program auslogic boostspeed, start button and microsoft edge won't work. using option 4 will fix this.
using livespeed in this program also prevent start button to open. maybe windows 10 using a new trick which conflict with registry cleaner???
using registry cleaner in window 7/8/8.1 never got problem
Option 4, Powershell command worked for me. Thanks a lot.
From within PowerShell type:
Start-Process powershell -Verb runas
And it will restart in Admin mode.
Like the others., I have had the same problem with the "Start Menu" since upgrading to Windows 10. I did follow your instructions on how to replace the TileDataLayer and so far that seems to have worked. However, do I have to keep the program files that are in the WINDOWS.OLD since I have re-installed my programs? Just thinking about data space. Thanks for posting the info and for your help.
Hi Janice. This fix has worked for me on two machines for about a week now... lets hope it holds :)
To answer your question, no, you do not need to keep WINDOWS.OLD but it has to be removed using a particular (and easy) process. We explain it with screenshots: http://www.urtech.ca/2015/08/solved-how-to-reclaim-disk-space-by-removing-windows-old-in-windows-10/
Thanks so much for the help!
Mr. Matthews
I have reformatted my hard drive and no longer involved with windows 10. I tried every solution I could find and probably made things more difficult if not impossible. Thanks again for your help
Ron M.
Mr. Matthews
I have tried both of these instructions to no avail. This thing has eaten my computer alive and Microsoft still advertising on TV.
Are there any other options?
Thank you so much for your help.
Hi Ron;
Have you tried the REPLACE THE DATABASE option explained: http://www.urtech.ca/2015/09/solved-fix-windows-10-start-button-does-nothing-in-10-minutes/
These are all of the options I have but I can say that I have solved all (more than a dozen) Windows 10 machines with failing START buttons, using these solutions and I can't imagine there being too many more solutions to come.
Can you tell me how to enter this in command prompt admin? do I enter all this at once?
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net user “TempAdmin1″“password1″ /add
net user “TempAdmin2″“password2″ /add
net localgroup administrators “TempAdmin2″ /add
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Do I enter before signing out?
I have tried this but computer does not add any users.
Hi Ron;
That is a good question and I should have been clearer in my instructions. The answer is type in each line and press ENTER after each one. You can ignore the two lines with . in them; I have those there because of my web publishing tool will format the remaining text badly if I don't. I have adjust the instructions to reflect this. If your accounts are not being created you likely did not select the COMMAND PROMPT (ADMIN); make sure you select the one with (ADMIN). If you still have trouble creating the accounts you could try: right click the START button, select CONTROL PANEL, select USER ACCOUNTS, select MANAGE ANOTHER ACCOUNT, select ADD A NEW USER IN PC SETTINGS (small blue link near the bottom of the window). This may not work if "PC SETTINGS" is bunged up by the same problem that is causing the START button to not work.
I hope this helps. Please keep us informed as to your progress :)