If, after upgrading to Windows 10 or installing Windows Updates, you find that your Start Menu does not open or Start Button is not working, then this post will help you. If your Start Menu isn’t working, here are a few troubleshooting steps you may want to try out.

Start Menu does not open or Start Button not working

Before you proceed, you may want to restart the Start Menu process or restart the explorer.exe process and see if that helps. If it doesn’t, create a system restore point first, so that you can revert back, if you find that the results are not what you expected. Having done that, follow these suggestions:

Run Windows 10 Start Menu Troubleshooter

Run System File Checker

Repair Windows System Image

Create a new User and see

Uninstall the problematic Update and then hide it

Other suggestions.

1] Download and run the Windows 10 Start Menu Troubleshooter from Microsoft.

2] Run the following command in an elevated command prompt, to run the System File Checker.

sfc /scannow

Restart after the scan is over and see if it helped.

3] Repair Windows Image. Open an elevated CMD copy-paste the following and hit Enter

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Restart after the scan is over and see if it helped.

4] Make Start full screen and back. Enable Tablet Mode and Start Screen and then go back. See if this toggling has helped.

5] Open an elevated PowerShell window.

Type the following and press Enter:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

To open an elevated PowerShell prompt, type PowerShell in taskbar Search, and in the result ‘Windows Powershell’ which appears, right-click and select Run as administrator.

You may do this, to open a Command Prompt or Powershell window. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager. Click on File menu > Run new task. To open a command prompt window, type cmd. To open a PowerShell prompt, type powershell. Remember to check the Create this task with administrative privileges check-box. Then hit Enter.

6] Create a new user and see if it helps. To do this, open an elevated command prompt window, type the following and hit Enter:

net user username /add

Here username is your new user name. You will see The command completed successfully message. Log into your new account and see if it has resolved your issue.

7] This post will help you if Windows 10 Start Menu Tile Database is corrupt.

If Cortana or Taskbar search is not working, open Task Manager > File menu > Run new task. Type powershell and select the Create this task with administrative privileges checkbox and click OK. See this post if your Taskbar is not working in Windows 10.

Let us know if anything worked for you or if you have any suggestions to make for the benefit of others.

TIP: This post will help you if your WinX Menu is not working in Windows 10.