Windows Start button not working

Anonymous
2010-11-11T12:49:00+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2015-02-14T05:42:28+00:00

Hi,

I faced a similar issue! The following worked for me

  1. Right click on the Start Button and select "Run"
  2. Type "regedit"
  3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Explorer>Advance
  4. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value, call it "EnableXamlStartMenu"
  5. Restart Explorer​ from task manager.

Hope this helps!

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Anonymous
2010-11-11T15:34:40+00:00

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.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-20T18:26:19+00:00

    Tried the above solutions.  Not only does the start button not work on the laptop, but the start icon on the screen does not respond when clicked.  When I right clicked on the start icon "properties" was not one of the options.  When I opened the task manager and tried to locate explorer.exe it was no where to be seen.  Do you have any other things to try?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-17T11:36:00+00:00

    Works in Windows 10 too

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-16T03:05:46+00:00

    Hello,

    Thank you for responding.

    You may right click "Advance", highlight "New" and click "DWORD (32-bit)". Further, you may name it as

    "EnableXamlStartMenu".

    Note: Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-up-registry#1TC=windows-7

    Thank you

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