How to fix
Broken Start Menu
on Windows

On October 18, I upgraded to Windows V1709 and now Start Menu is totally broken. Despite the fact that many tiles and universal apps are gone, Start Menu and Cortana often fail to respond at all. Press Windows key won’t respond, so to open an app I have to search for it using search (Windows + S). However, each time I have to restart Windows to make Start and Cortana to work again. Is there anything I could do to fix that?

Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 Fall Creators Update on October 17. As it was expected, the forth major update triggered many discussions among Windows Community members. Sadly, most of the currently submitted comments and reports are not for the benefit of Microsoft.[ref en-1] 

Many people were not allowed to download the Fall Creators Update (V1709) due to compatibility[ref en-2] problems. The others cannot install the update as it freezes at some point or returns errors (0x800F0922, 0x80245006, 0x80190001, etc.).

However, these problems are not that irritating if comparing to unresponsive or broken Start Menu.
We have already created an article on missing apps and tiles on Start Menu, but completely broken Start, which does not respond, hasn’t been addressed yet.

According to people’s reports, right after installing the update, many Store apps were unpinned from Start Menu and can’t be launched. However, they appear on Programs & Features list. This irritating malfunction often ends up with complete Start Menu unresponsiveness and crash.

In terms of missing apps on Start Menu, click on the link provided above. If you encounter an issue when Start Menu does not respond at all and the only way to open some apps, panels, and features is to search for them by clicking Windows key[ref en-3] + S hotkey, you may try the following Start Menu fixes.

How to Fix Broken Start Menu Since Fall Creators Update

It’s important to stress the fact that Microsoft releases only two feature updates per year. These updates contain an enormous amount of changes, improvements, and fixes, so it’s practically impossible to adapt the update perfectly to millions of diverse devices. However, we are pretty sure that all major bugs will be fixed in the near future.

Fix 1. Reinstall Display Driver

• If your Start Menu currently opens, right-click on Windows key and select Device Manager.
• Expand Display Adapters section and uninstall your video display drivers (Intel and Nvidia).
• Then navigate to the manufacturers website and download the latest versions of the drivers.
• Alternatively you can click on Actions tab on Device Manager and select Scan for Hardware Changes.

• Once the drivers are re-installed, reboot the system.

Fix 2. Run Windows PowerShell

• Launch it either by right-clicking on the Start button (right-click function should still function) and type powershell. In case Start Menu does not open, press Windows key + S, type PowerShell.
• Right-click on PowerShell option and select Run as Administrator.
• When the program loads, type in Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\\AppXManifest.xml"} and click Enter.

• Wait until the process is completed and reboot the computer.

Fix 3. Run Windows Registry Editor

• Press Windows key + R and type regedit, and press Enter.
• Find the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advance key.
  Note. You may use Find Next function by choosing Edit section to find the location faster. 
• Enter HKEY in the dialogue box and you will be redirected to the folder.
• When you reach the final point of the indicated key, find EnableXAMLStartMenu entry.

• Right-click on it and select New –> DWORD value.
• Change the default value to 0. If it is already set to this number, do not apply any changes. If you modified it, click OK.
• Finally, close Windows Registry Editor and restart your PC.

Fix 4. Roll back the update

If none of the methods provided above helped and you cannot stand Start Menu issues on Fall Creators Update, you can roll back the update until Microsoft releases a patch.

• Press Windows key + I and open Update & Security section.
• Click on Recovery button.
• Click Get started button under Go back to an earlier build.
• Choose an option whether you want to Keep my files or Remove everything.