How To Get Your Windows 10 Start Button Back
Is your Windows 10 start button broken? It happens, and fortunately, it’s quite fixable.
It’s not necessarily your fault; the Internet is full of the anguished cries of Windows 10 users who have suddenly found themselves locked out of the start menu (to give it its technical name) and all its apps. And it’s not necessarily a user-inspired error. You can go to bed Sunday night with a working Windows button and wake up Monday morning without one.
How to Tell If Your Windows Start Button Is Broken
As you might expect, it’s not hard to figure out if your Windows Start Menu is broken. Look for these problems:
You may not have all four issues. For example, Windows Search might work, or you might have disabled Cortana. But if you’re clicking an unresponsive Windows start button, it’s a good idea to investigate the source of the problem.
Let’s explore how to solve this problem, starting from the easiest solution to the hardest.
Restart Your Computer
Skill Level: Absolute Beginner
If your computer has been on for an extended time, all sorts of odd things happen. Before you do anything else, try restarting the system. Since you won’t be able to get to the power button from the start button, follow these steps:
If this doesn’t work and you’re not wedded to your personalized desktop, adding a new user account may fix the problem. If you want to keep your account as-is, skip the next step and try Restoring Your Computer.
Add A New User
Skill Level: Intermediate
Adding a new user to your account may resurrect the start button, but only for that account. It’s more involved than simply restarting the computer, but there’s no scary messing-with-the-operating system going on here. A patient beginner with a knack for following directions can do this. Note: You may need an Administrator account to set up a new account on your computer.
If that didn’t do the trick, try the next step.
Restore Your Computer
Skill Level: Intermediate
Restoring your computer is less invasive than doing an all-out system reboot. Using automatic checkpoints, the System Restore program rolls back any changes made within a specific timeframe. For example, if you choose a restore point from a week ago, all changes made in the space of that week will be undone. The exception is your personal files, photos, and the like; these will stay intact.
System Restore feels a bit extreme, but don’t worry. If for some reason the restore fails, your computer will revert back to its previous state. Here’s what to do:
If this doesn’t solve it, you’re going to have to do something dreaded: command-line programming. It’s okay if you want to get a computer-savvy friend to do this final step for you, but if you can summon up the courage to talk to your computer human-to-machine, you can do it.
Add Windows 10 Components
Skill Level: Advanced
This method requires you to use two relatively uncommon interfaces, Windows PowerShell and Command Line.
You may be able to skip the first four steps, which remove information from one of your computer’s directories. If you want to start with the second series of steps, go ahead and do so. You won’t lose anything by trying except a couple of minutes. If the short version doesn’t do the trick, try the whole thing from the beginning.
This step removes data that could cause installation problems later. Close the Command Line interface and continue:
Paste it into the prompt if you need to and press enter. What you’re doing here is reinstalling the Windows 10 App Package. You’ll likely see lots of red-lettered error messages come up in the PowerShell window as the process completes. Ignore them.
When the job is done, close PowerShell and restart your computer using Ctrl+Alt+Del as described above. You may need to restart your computer more than once.
There is no universal fix-it pill for a broken Windows 10 start button. If one of the above solutions doesn’t work, you may need to do a full-on system reboot using the built-in Windows 10 Troubleshooting menu, or call in a pro to fix the problem for you.
It’s not necessarily your fault; the Internet is full of the anguished cries of Windows 10 users who have suddenly found themselves locked out of the start menu (to give it its technical name) and all its apps. And it’s not necessarily a user-inspired error. You can go to bed Sunday night with a working Windows button and wake up Monday morning without one.
How to Tell If Your Windows Start Button Is Broken
As you might expect, it’s not hard to figure out if your Windows Start Menu is broken. Look for these problems:
- Clicking the Windows icon in the lower left corner of your screen does nothing.
- Pushing the Windows button on your keyboard does nothing.
- The Windows Search Box doesn’t work.
- Cortana isn’t functional.
You may not have all four issues. For example, Windows Search might work, or you might have disabled Cortana. But if you’re clicking an unresponsive Windows start button, it’s a good idea to investigate the source of the problem.
Let’s explore how to solve this problem, starting from the easiest solution to the hardest.
Restart Your Computer
Skill Level: Absolute Beginner
If your computer has been on for an extended time, all sorts of odd things happen. Before you do anything else, try restarting the system. Since you won’t be able to get to the power button from the start button, follow these steps:
- Press Ctrl + Alt + Del.
- A screen will come up with a couple of options. You can shut off the computer from here by selecting the Power button ( lower right corner of the screen) and choosing Shut Down.
- If you’re told you can’t shut down because another user is signed in, choose the Sign Out option and shut your computer down from the sign-in screen as described above.
- Wait at least 5 minutes, and then restart your computer.
If this doesn’t work and you’re not wedded to your personalized desktop, adding a new user account may fix the problem. If you want to keep your account as-is, skip the next step and try Restoring Your Computer.
Add A New User
Skill Level: Intermediate
Adding a new user to your account may resurrect the start button, but only for that account. It’s more involved than simply restarting the computer, but there’s no scary messing-with-the-operating system going on here. A patient beginner with a knack for following directions can do this. Note: You may need an Administrator account to set up a new account on your computer.
- Hover your mouse over the defunct Windows Button and right-click. This brings up the Context Menu.
- From the Context Menu, choose the Control Panel. You’ll eventually use PC Settings to make this change, but you can’t get to it from here.
- From the Control Panel, scroll down until you can choose User Accounts.
- In User Accounts, select Manage Another Account. In the window that opens, click Add a new user in PC settings.
- In PC settings, choose Add someone else to this PC. If you have a Microsoft account, you can use that to create a new user as well. Follow the prompts to create a new user. From now on, this will be the account you use on your PC.
If that didn’t do the trick, try the next step.
Restore Your Computer
Skill Level: Intermediate
Restoring your computer is less invasive than doing an all-out system reboot. Using automatic checkpoints, the System Restore program rolls back any changes made within a specific timeframe. For example, if you choose a restore point from a week ago, all changes made in the space of that week will be undone. The exception is your personal files, photos, and the like; these will stay intact.
System Restore feels a bit extreme, but don’t worry. If for some reason the restore fails, your computer will revert back to its previous state. Here’s what to do:
- Close all open programs.
- Right-click on the Windows start button to bring up the Context Menu.
- Click on the Run command.
- Type in rstrui.exe and press enter. This starts the System Restore program.
- Choose a date from the System Restore console that matches a time when your computer ( and the start button) worked.
- Follow the steps as directed. This mostly involves lots of waiting around.
- Your computer will restart. This is part of the process. Once it restarts, check to see if the start button is operational again.
If this doesn’t solve it, you’re going to have to do something dreaded: command-line programming. It’s okay if you want to get a computer-savvy friend to do this final step for you, but if you can summon up the courage to talk to your computer human-to-machine, you can do it.
Add Windows 10 Components
Skill Level: Advanced
This method requires you to use two relatively uncommon interfaces, Windows PowerShell and Command Line.
You may be able to skip the first four steps, which remove information from one of your computer’s directories. If you want to start with the second series of steps, go ahead and do so. You won’t lose anything by trying except a couple of minutes. If the short version doesn’t do the trick, try the whole thing from the beginning.
- Right-click the Windows button to bring up the Context Menu.
- Click Run.
- Type in cmd.exe and press enter to bring up the Command Line.
- Type rd C:\Users\”NAME”\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer and press enter.
This step removes data that could cause installation problems later. Close the Command Line interface and continue:
- Right-click the Windows button to bring up the Context Menu.
- Click Windows PowerShell (Admin). You must choose the Admin version for this; the regular PowerShell will just tell you to use the Admin version to complete the task.
- Enter this text into the PowerShell prompt:
Paste it into the prompt if you need to and press enter. What you’re doing here is reinstalling the Windows 10 App Package. You’ll likely see lots of red-lettered error messages come up in the PowerShell window as the process completes. Ignore them.
When the job is done, close PowerShell and restart your computer using Ctrl+Alt+Del as described above. You may need to restart your computer more than once.
There is no universal fix-it pill for a broken Windows 10 start button. If one of the above solutions doesn’t work, you may need to do a full-on system reboot using the built-in Windows 10 Troubleshooting menu, or call in a pro to fix the problem for you.
