Start Menu Woes!

[ohio_grad_06]

I keep getting Windows 10 machines with the error shown here.

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN299201

I know the recommended fix is to create a new account. However, this is at my 9-5, so most of these are joined to the domain, which complicates things because you can't just create a new user account, or even if you do the old windows 7 registry hack to fix corrupt profiles, it wants to create a new folder with a tag on the end of it, so their data is in one user folder and the account is in the other if that makes sense.

In the past I've been able to get around this by doing system restore, which helps. If there aren't any restore points available, the easiest fix seems to be a pizza tech method of backing up the data and reformatting. But sometimes the same people come back with the same trouble. We do use dropbox for some of our users.

I've tried the methods listed here, but not much luck.

http://www.urtech.ca/2015/09/solved-fix-windows-10-start-button-does-nothing-in-10-minutes/

I also found a Microsoft Start Menu troubleshooting tool that on the machine I'm working on for example, took away the critical error, but just made the start menu do nothing when you click the button.

Note, this is only affecting 1 account. The other domain accounts on the system work fine. We use this laptop for example as a general use system, so we'll use it, put it in a cabinet for a month, then when a meeting or whatever comes up that we need to set up for, we'll pull it out, just many times don't have time for the issues with the start menu when that is a very basic part of the OS that should just work.

It seems like there should be a simple fix. Anyone have any tried and true methods?

Edit-Wonder if the tweaking.com tool may work.

 

[SelbyComputerRepair]

I had one of these a few weeks back and tried everything I could find, including tweaking.com AIO but to no avail.

I ended up letting Win 10 refresh itself which I only use as a last resort, but it did the trick.

 

[nlinecomputers]

After you fix this you need to roll out a GPO to turn system restore back on.

 

[mraikes]

....snipped....

It seems like there should be a simple fix. ...snipped...

I haven't seen that error myself, but I had to laugh at the above. Sounds like nearly every customer that has ever called me! Of course there doesn't have to be a simple fix. Or any actual fix at all.

I apologize in advance if this is too obvious, but if the solution to the problem is a new profile, why not Fab's backup the user data, delete the user profile completely (as a different user) and then login as the problem user to create a new profile and restore data from the Fab's backup? I do that somewhat routinely at my FTJ to solve profile related problems on our domain.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I can honestly say fabs is one program I've not tried. May have to look into that.

When I get these, I've had about 4-5 people with them. Many times system restore is on, so I can roll back. It just seems common here at least. Maybe dropbox is to blame? I will say, some of them seem to come in on wednesdays, after updates have been run. It's one of those things where it feels to me like there should be a microsoft fixit tool or a registry edit one could do to fix it. I guess for me, it seems something as basic as the start menu should not stop working because you use the computer, or because you use dropbox(if that's to blame).

We did try one drive a year or so back and had issues with hitting the 20,000 file limit. Have they improved at all?

 

[mraikes]

...snipped.... I guess for me, it seems something as basic as the start menu should not stop working because you use the computer, or because you use dropbox(if that's to blame)....snipped...

I haven't been an MS fanboy lately, but in their defense it's not possible to take a program as complicated as Windows and foresee every possible way it might break. Much less the bazillion additional ways some third party might break it for you. Even the start menu isn't "basic." It's a very complicated component of the whole. A component that virtually every installed program/app interacts with and that has only gotten more complicated with the introduction of live tiles.

I used to tell people they shouldn't be surprised when something goes wrong with their computer. They should be surprised when everything works correctly. Users shouldn't be mislead that, just because you plug them in and turn them on, they are at all similar to any other appliance in their lives. They are amazingly complicated machines that are closer to living, breathing entities than their distant cousins, the microwave, TV or toaster (no matter how connected to the IOT).

No computer is the same today as it was yesterday. User files change, programs are installed and uninstalled (with traces left behind), Windows updates are installed (and uninstalled), other software updates, hardware drivers get updated, it's constantly communicating with all other devices on the network, virus scanning, defragging, etc, etc, it doesn't rest.

It's a minor miracle that the computer I'm typing on right now doesn't just lock up or shut down before I finish this post.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Lol. Well what is sad is when it has happened multiple times on the Surface Pro 3 and 4. Those are some of the ones I've seen anyway. More often than others actually. Suffice to say, after all of the headaches, there was a major update for the laptop that fixed the start menu on that, so it's now happy. For how long, who knows......

 

[MichaelBits]

Every time I have seen that error it is related to a program starting with windows.

Disabling all start items to see if it resolves it. If so, I re-enable items one at a time until it happens again.

I think I have only had one machine that didn't work for.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Just did this one yesterday and I must say, it was a challenge. Not even sure what exactly was the cause or the fix, but Windows version 1511 upgrade was being frustrated by a number of things, including the A-V. I uninstalled the A-V (AVAST I.S.) and installed about 10 pending Windows updates before finally getting the 1511 update. Many restarts involved. I increased the power option to High Performance and also re-installed the Intel RST drivers because I was getting the impression this thing was running like a slug (for such a spiffy machine) and never seemed to finish anything before falling asleep. The IRST Control GUI in Systray said the service wasn't running, but it was. I never got that GUI back after uninstalling it and re-installing the drivers so I'm not sure what's up with that. PC was running like a charm by the time I finished. So it seems a number of things can get in the way of installing 1511.