WIndows 10 fix Start button not working

[MichaelBits]

The OP fix may not be good to use any more after a recent patch. It's possible it may break things.

The last time I had this issue, the only fix was creating a new profile and copy the database folder from C:\Users\User name\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer to the broken profile.

 

[tf76]

Just had this issue as well.
Wanted to try this new attempt but can't create a new user? Just out of interest did you rename the old TileDataLayer folder before creating the new one?

Stupid Win 10

 

[ChrisTech]

Just had this issue as well.
Wanted to try this new attempt but can't create a new user? Just out of interest did you rename the old TileDataLayer folder before creating the new one?

Stupid Win 10

I had one of these this week and no matter what, the Settings app wouldn't let a new user be created even in an Administrator account. The only way I could create a new user was netplwiz

After that it was a straight data transfer to the new account. Just have to wait and see how long that will last, by the sounds of it.......

 

[tf76]

Update: Didn't work. Stupid Win 10. Transferring data now to new user account. Oh for .....................
Transferred some data over, logged into account and it's back to the same problem sort of? Cortana is working. Nothing happens when I click the start button with left mouse button. Right click works ok?

Doing refresh now

 

[Ashley Hathaway]

I have had this a couple of times, students have brought there machine in with this issue. I managed to resolve the issue by running a chkdsk and sfc scan. The second machine was fixed by repairing the OS by using the installation media.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Yeah, unfortunately on this system, a lot of dropbox files, and they haven't all synced I don't believe, plus a bit of a time crunch. So I guess I'm going to have to back up the dropbox files(60gb or so), then maybe do a refresh, then reload office etc. May look into doing an image before this system acts up again. On a strange note, it always seems to happen on wednesdays right after updates would have run.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

AANNDD another call from someone else with Windows 10. Another start menu bites teh dust.

 

[MichaelBits]

Perhaps I should have included more details...

You must create 2 new users. Do this from the command line. Make sure they are admin accounts in the admin group.
Log into the first to allow the profile to be set.
Then log into the 2nd and copy the first one to the broken user profile (database folder from C:\Users\User name\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer). You can just rename original database folder first if you like.

You can do the copy from within the profile created (2nd one), just remember you have to bypass the prompt to give permission to modify the other user folders.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Already had 2 accounts beside the other, it is a domain connected machine so trying this now. If it does not work, I figure if that does not work, I'll put a .old tag onto the end of the existing account, and make it recreate the account and move the data over, if that does not work, worst case I'll just do a refresh.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

No joy, thanks for the info though.

I did find that if I do these steps it allows me to basically sign in as the same person but a different user folder appears. However this is getting personal. I found if under the ProfileImagePath key if I point it back to the old folder, it will let me log in, but still start menu messed up. So far not able to rename the appdata folder for example, so working that out now.

"Note: Before you start, please back up all you data and create a system restore point first.

1. Press Windows Key + R combination and then type netplwiz in the Run dialog box. Click OK. If prompted for UAC, click Yes.
2. Now in the User Accounts window, check Users must enter a user name and password to enter this computer, if it is unchecked.
3. In the User Name section, select the user name to which you want to change the name and click Properties.
4. In the Properties window, in the User name field, provide the desired user name. Then click Apply followed by OK.
5. Reboot to see the change.

Change User Folder name: Even after you change the username using this method, your personal folder will continue to display the old username. To rename the user folder, do the following.

1. Create a system restore point first. Then open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList



2. You will find several folders here like S-1-5-. Search through them till you find a ProfileImagePath pointing to your old username. Double-click on it and replace your old username with your new username.

3. Restart your computer to see the change."

 

[ohio_grad_06]

So long and the short of it, I did a hybrid. I did the steps above to junk the old profile, then renamed the user folder with a .old tag on the end. I then logged in again as the same user, let it set up the account, and am transferring the files to the folder with the now same name as the old account had. Have to customize the start menu etc again. Must be something to do with the registry though. When I got into everything, I'd even renamed the AppData folder to attempt to force it to reset things that way, and still no joy there. I'd just like to know exactly what's happening and how to fix it.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

To finish off, after I used the methods above to back into a working account with the same name and same folder name even, I found I was having weirdness with default apps from Windows 10. I was able to use this method to correct it.

https://thomas.vanhoutte.be/miniblog/reinstall-default-build-in-windows-10-apps/

In the end I might have been better off to reinstall, but at least I learned some things. The big thing that made this situation convoluted is that it's a domain connected machine, also, she has a 60gb or so repository of dropbox files, many of them had not synced yet either. So between those things and a time crunch, that was the deal. At least it's all happy now.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Perhaps I should have included more details...

You must create 2 new users. Do this from the command line. Make sure they are admin accounts in the admin group.
Log into the first to allow the profile to be set.
Then log into the 2nd and copy the first one to the broken user profile (database folder from C:\Users\User name\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer). You can just rename original database folder first if you like.

You can do the copy from within the profile created (2nd one), just remember you have to bypass the prompt to give permission to modify the other user folders.

GGRR. So after all the fighting I did previously and working with things, I got the machine I was working on sorted. I had another come in with similar issues. Looked back at this and decided to simply try renaming the TileDataLayer folder so it now looks like for example C:\Users\User name\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer.old. I did that from another account, reboot, voila! 5 minutes. Don't know if this fix will work for everyone, but worked here. Also, another note, this seems to happen when windows updates occur. Yet another system I'd worked on had system restore points available, so I was able to roll back about a week and it fixed it.

EDIT *Spoke to soon, the machine I'm working on, renaming the folder to .old did allow the start menu to pop back up, but can't seem to pin anything to it. Looking for a fix for that. Looks as though it has some updates, will maybe allow it to run those, if that does not help, perhaps re registering the default apps will help.

EDIT 2*Something funny on this machine. Created a new account to attempt to move the TileDataLayer folder from, start menu is broken on a brand new account from the get go. Haven't seen that before.

 

[kwest]

I had one that the fix was the craziest thing ever. Same issue but you also couldn't open any program.

Windows was upgraded with 175% zoom and Windows 10 doesn't like that. If you lower it to 150% zoom everything works.

If you try to put it back to 175 it will warn you that some programs won't work.

 

[trentypc]

I've run across this issue a few times. For some people, running the PowerShell script solved the problem. For others, it did not. Had the same issue creating a new user account -- it worked for a while, but the problem came up again. The best answer that remains, for me, is to use a third-party menu like Classic Start.