This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The Windows start button is not working. When I press it nothing happens. SO I cannot shut down the computer in the normal manner or access any programs other than ones with desktop icons.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hi,
I faced a similar issue! The following worked for me
Hope this helps!
Hi nickthomp.
Does start menu open if you press the windows key on the keyboard?.
Can you right click the start menu orb and choose properties, if so
In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, click Use Default Settings, clickOK, and then clickOK again.
Also try.
1 . Press Ctrl + Alt+ delete on the keyboard and click on task manager.
2 . Click on the Process tab and locate explorer.exe in the windows and click on end task.
3 . Click on File and then click on New.
4. Type explorer.exe and press enter.
Hope his helps.
I have found a solution that has worked for me once so I can't say that it is a reliable approach. However it is consistent with a potential cause of the problem.
Many posters have suggested restarting the computer to solve this problem. I haven't waded through the 30 pages of this thread to see if I am duplicating a posted solution but what worked (again, once) for me was to do a TOTAL shutdown. See http://windowsten.info/tutorials/5767-how-to-fully-shut-down-windows-10.
When you close Windows 8, 8.1, or 10 normally you aren't really erasing all session information. Instead, Windows is saving its internal 'state' and when you start the computer again Windows just rereads the saved state from disk and restores it. That means if you have a problem with the Start button the problem is restored along with all of your other settings.
The link above gives the command line step to force Windows to totally shut down and not save its current operating configuration. The next time you start Windows it starts the old fashioned way, by executing a complete start up sequence and not by reading the old session state. Note, this doesn't erase anything you have configured, it just takes a little longer to start the computer since Windows has to execute commands in its startup sequence instead of just reading the internal memory from disk and copying it back to memory.
I suspect that some sequence of events is causing the problem. I can go months with no issues and then experience the problem again. Other posters have reported that the problem goes away when they do a Windows update which is understandable as the update probably does a total restart of Windows. In addition, I regularly use three different accounts on the same computer and in at least one instance had the problem occur for one account but not for another.
I followed the directions in the link to create a desktop shortcut to do a total shutdown. (This is partly because I use SQL Server and this sequence also saves a step with shutting down this program.) If you don't want to create a shortcut you can right-click Start (that seems to work all of the time), select Command Prompt, and type "shutdown /s /t 0" (without quotes).
Good luck to all of us. I'd be interested in knowing if this works for anyone else because I haven't had the problem resurface since trying this once.
Hi,
Welcome to Windows 10 family, if you are facing issue with start menu then try to follow the steps provided below and see if it helps you to fix the issue.
Troubleshoot problems opening the Start menu or Cortana
Do keep us updated.
Regards,
ME TOO. I've tried all suggestions. Then in about a month or so I get a Windows 10 update, and then my start menu works for 3 days then STOPS working !!!!! If Windows 10 is supposed to be better, WHY can't I access something as simple as the start menu. I really hate this problem !!!!!
