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Windows 10 start menu not working
message 51:
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Pete
(new)
Nov 08, 2015 12:17PM
The answer is 46. Don't send to SOFT ED. I print my own certificates, thanks very much.
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Patti (baconater) wrote: "Dunno about anyone else, but Pete's post got way too close to being a math problem for my liking.Shall I delete it or send to OFSTED?"
glad it wasn't just me
There's no such thing as a stupid question, Jim.Unintelligible questions are frequent occurrences.
Unintelligible answers are more common than they used to be as well :-(
Jim wrote: "Unintelligible answers are more common than they used to be as well :-("Burble
Flurth aigdalm wtchi?
Hey, I was once introduced as 'The chap who can change the steam pipes on an Amstrad PCW'I used to be cutting edge!
Pete wrote: "When you say you need 2 licenses, you mean you have to reinstall the apps in each partition?"Yes, unfortunately. However, with Microsoft Office products you can install it on more than one "machine" so long as you do not use them in more than one place at the same time.
Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "Pete wrote: "When you say you need 2 licenses, you mean you have to reinstall the apps in each partition?"Yes, unfortunately. However, with Microsoft Office products you can install it on more th..."
Photoshop and AfterEffects are single user licenses - I couldn't even install them on my laptop as backup, except in trial mode.
Think I'll just stick with Win7 and my current pc until something nasty happens... (I have made all the necessary boot discs, backups, drive image etc - just hope I'll never need them!)
Thanks for the advice though.
David wrote: "I have Windows 10 on this laptop, for boring work-related reasons.But as I always use Classic Shell as my Start Menu doodah, as yet, at least, I haven't had this problem.
Anyway, for Win 8 onwar..."
I had it on my 8.1 machine but when I upgraded to Windows 10, it automatically removed it, saying it wasn't compatible. But sounds as if you've been able to use it with 10?
There's a separate ClassicShell for Windows 10 now.
Will wrote: "There's an awkward problem emerging with Windows 10. It is affecting large numbers of people but as yet there is no known cure.More about it here, but be warned - there are 93 pages (so far) on t..."
Apologies for the length of this post, but thought others might benefit from my experience.
This problem spontaneously occurred on my machine last week, a few weeks after upgrading. Windows Live Mail kept saying that something had occurred and it had to close, then I discovered that the Start menu and search wouldn't open. I rebooted and found I was in even more trouble because every taskbar icon (except Start menu and search) had disappeared, including the ones for ejecting removable drives, showing your power and wireless etc. Luckily desktop shortcuts were working and I could use a browser.
To cut a long story short, I found an article which advised checking Windows Features, something I had never been into before. I had to get into Control Panel which I didn't have a shortcut for, but luckily, right clicking on the taskbar brought up a menu with an option to run Task Manager, and I was able to run CP as a task. A link in the left hand bar led to Windows Features, where the article suggested checking if the option for Internet Explorer 11 was ticked. It was, despite its being discontinued under Win 10 and replaced with the Edge browser. I unticked it and pressed OK and the machine proceeded to do a Windows Update, rebooted, carried on with it and when I was finally able to log back in, the taskbar icons had reappeared and the Start menu was working again, plus mail wasn't crashing any more. So that was a rather anxious hour or so.
Just thought I would flag that one up if anyone has the same issue. There are articles online telling you to run a command in Powershell to reinstall the Windows Apps, but that doesn't work because Microsoft apparently disabled that 'fix' in a later Windows Update.
Michael Cargill wrote: "There's a separate ClassicShell for Windows 10 now."OK, thanks Michael.
Pam wrote: "Michael Cargill wrote: "There's a separate ClassicShell for Windows 10 now."OK, thanks Michael."
Yes. I had to install the new version on both machines we have running Win 10, not had any problems with either one.
Think I am going to do the same after the nasty surprise it gave me.
Ever since I installed 10, I haven't been able to use the Start menu without getting the critical error message. Infuriating. Only way I could shut the machine down was to right click the start menu and shut it down from there.I just saw this post and installed the Classic Shell menu... ahhh bliss. It works!
I love you all!
Pam, I don't think IE11 has been discontinued on Windows 10, they are running IE11 and Edge together for some reason. IE11 is still supported (I doubt it will be for long), IE10 and below are no longer supported though.Not that it really matters but that'll be why IE11 was still selected.
Just wondering, as I'm yet undecided : Has anyone seriously regretted installing Windows 10, or do the pros outweigh the cons?
Don't regret it. Like all new operating systems it has its teething troubles, but nothing serious. But I'm a bit meh about operating systems in general. All I want is to be able to get into the software that I use - Word, Excel, Chrome, Onenote, itunes etc. I don't really care all that much how I get into the software.
Right now, I can't use the start button and Cortana is still sulking with me. But I've got all the programs I need on the taskbar so I don't really care.
Frankly, the bits that don't work are the frills that I never wanted in the first place.
Jud (Disney Diva) wrote: "Pam, I don't think IE11 has been discontinued on Windows 10, they are running IE11 and Edge together for some reason. IE11 is still supported (I doubt it will be for long), IE10 and below are no lo..."OK Jud, but it's weird that unticking it fixed all the quite major problems that had suddenly appeared on the PC. It had been OK up to then, only had a minor problem with setting up the printer again after the upgrade. Then suddenly I was landed with a practically non working machine!
Jim wrote: "strikes me as pretty abysmal design."So is that a yes or no? ;-)
Don't ask me, I'm notoriously slow to upgrade IT
Jim wrote: "Don't ask me, I'm notoriously slow to upgrade IT"I pride myself on being even slower than you. Things always go wrong,
That is really weird Pam, I don't understand the tech stuff so no idea why that would work but I'm filing that away as a suggestion if the start menu issue crops up for us.We have upgraded over 100 staff devices in our department now and there have been no major issues with the enterprise version which is different to the home version, I think? We haven't been able to work out a viable way to upgrade the classroom PCs though, win10 just doesn't work in the classroom environment (not an issue unless you plan on having multiple profiles on your computer). Personally I really like Win10 but it hasn't cause me any problems at all, we have a few people whose desktop picture goes a bit crazy but I think that is an issue with Win10 and HD screens or something?! Doesn't affect functionality
Speaking of being slow to upgrade IT, is it bad my personal laptop is still on XP?
My chronology: MSDOS. Win3, 5, ME, XP (still the most reliable) & 7.I have had Win7 for around 6 years now, the age of my computer, and have only had one major crash. (No, Jim - it didn't take 5yrs 11 months to fix!) Everywhere you turn people are moaning about Win10 problems.
Methinks I'll wait a bit longer.
Jud (Disney Diva) wrote: "That is really weird Pam, I don't understand the tech stuff so no idea why that would work but I'm filing that away as a suggestion if the start menu issue crops up for us.We have upgraded over 1..."
I would've given you the link I used Jud, but I've tried googling with the same terms as I did when this happened, and that article doesn't come up any more, just a lot with the reinstall apps powershell command, the one that doesn't work which another article (also can't find) said had been blocked by MSoft. Weird.
The main problem with waiting to upgrade is that judging by what happened with the changeover from Win98 to XP, anti virus companies and the like will also stop supporting Win 7/8. That's what forced me to upgrade to XP in the old days, not just MSoft stopping patches for Win 98.
Jud (Disney Diva) wrote: "Speaking of being slow to upgrade IT, is it bad my personal laptop is still on XP?"The desktop that is our only computer is still on XP
It probably wouldn't run Windows 10
Check us out, we're like kindred spirits technologically speaking, Jim!
Yep, I can still remember how to fit the steam pipes on the old Amstrad PCW :-)
Well, that was a waste of 3 hours when I was trying to do productive work! My PC decided to do the same trick - at first, having installed the Classic menu, I could still get that up although email was crashing and I couldn't right click anything on the taskbar. A reboot made it worse because most of the taskbar icons disappeared like last time, and the others wouldn't work. Even the classic menu wouldn't open till I figured the Windows button might work.Spent hours trawling the internet, trying various fixes which either didn't work or couldn't be tried due to other errors coming up. The Windows settings pages were inaccessible so I couldn't find out if Windows update was broken. (Tried typing ms-settings: and also that with the name of specific pages, but they all come up with errors about there being no application specified or whatever) Tried creating a new user as opinion is user profile corruption might be to blame, but it gives an error that something isn't registered but of course doesn't tell you what. Logged in as the backup user I created for emergencies - took about 30 mins to get in, then that was almost as bad - still no access to settings etc though the start menu was working again. Was going to deinstall AV as MSoft suggested but it said someone else was logged in though of course the 'switch user' just brought me back to the same one, because they weren't! Finally rebooted again and went back in as main user - and now it seems to be working again and I managed to get into the settings application.
What the ***** is the matter with Windows 10????
Did you upgrade to Win 10 or clean install, Pam?Microsoft products are notorious for failing when updating from an earlier OS. Nearly always the solution is to clean install, either straight on or 7.0/8.0/8.1 to 10, where the original OS is a clean install.
The problem is that the Windows OS is now so complex that you have huge teams developing it, but as is typical of Microsoft, there is minimal communication between the teams.
At a corporate level Microsoft was a single user operating system and its mind set has remained the same ever since. Hence poor communication.
Upgrade from 8.1 Geoff. It seemed to go OK apart from a slight printer glitch which I resolved, and worked fine for a few weeks until the first time it started this disappearing taskbar/startmenu nonsense with attendant email crashes and all sorts of admin functions not working. And it now seems that the fix that worked last time is probably arbitrary/just coincidental; it would've sorted itself out given sufficient reboots. Anyway, I've done another system restore point today and will see whether that helps if it decides to do it again.I've also read that Msoft have made it a compulsory upgrade for Win 7/8. It certainly kept coming up ticked in my Windows Upgrade which I was keeping a close eye on before I upgraded, and I kept having to untick it in there.
I had the same problem with my Win7 and Win 8 machines. I hacked the registry and now I don't get any more nags. It was getting irksome to say the least.Perhaps this might help:
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/compu...
Thanks Geoff. It has happened three times now. I've discovered a pattern; Windows Live Mail gives an error and the next time the machine restarts, the Start menu isn't accessible and the taskbar is almost empty, the program icons etc having disappeared. However, another reboot usually sorts it out. I did notice on the third occasion that Classic Shell, which I installed after the first occasion, had been deactivated in Task Manager Startup tab, though I don't know if it was like that before the first reboot. So I enabled it again before the final reboot - will have to check next time if that happens when the initial error appears.Seems to be a definite bug anyway. And on this third event, the Windows key wouldn't bring up the Start menu, though it did when it happened the second time.
Are there any updates on how Windows 10 is working? I haven't installed it yet as I'm hoping all the bugs will be sorted out soon.
Working fine for me.I'd recommend doing the upgrade, even if you end up rolling back to W7/W8 afterwards - the free offer runs out soonish.
Serious question. Talking to people it appears Windows 10, even when launched from scratch, not as an upgrade, does a lot of upgrading and downloading new software.Friends went on holiday, came back a fortnight later and Windows 10 spent some hours downloading upgrades.
Now they've got high speed fiber broadband. I did a quick calculation and the same upgrades might have taken me some days to download. Can windows 10 cope with poor broadband (less than 1.5meg)
It will, but that initial download will just take a while.If you have trouble getting it to work using the icon in the system tray, use the W10 media creation tool - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/softw...
I have a problem with my ADSL line that tends to drop now and again, especially at busy times. How long does it take to download on 2mb? I have a dongle I use when I get really frustrated with the dropped line, but it could prove expensive.
Michael Cargill wrote: "It will, but that initial download will just take a while.If you have trouble getting it to work using the icon in the system tray, use the W10 media creation tool - https://www.microsoft.com/en-..."
Thanks for that. My cunning plan is I probably ought to get a new machine, so I'll get it with W10 already installed but I was a bit worried about the upgrades
Still occasionally having the problem with the start menu and taskbar icons not working, then the taskbar icons physically disappearing if you reboot. I suspect it is because the process that loads the taskbar including start menu doesn't load properly sometimes. Usually a second reboot sorts it out. At one point, this was happening at least once a week, but it has been OK for a while (famous last words).Windows Live Mail also occasionally says it has encountered a problem and has to close, but if you don't OK the message, you can carry on using it. I didn't have this problem under Win 8.1, and it has occurred on a second machine I upgraded to Win 10.
The latest windows update seems to have fixed my PC. Now the start button and Cortana are working again. Fingers crossed, but for the time being all seems to be doing what it should. That adds a third magic solution to our list of "things to do when the computer doesn't work":
1. Turn it off and turn it back on again.
2. Google the problem and see if anyone else has worked out how to solve it.
3. Wait.
You forgot the last one Will4. Hit repeatedly with a 9lb mash hammer and throw the bits out of the window.
Hmm, good point. I had forgotten about that one. Maybe we should extend the list to:1. Switch on and switch off.
2. Google the problem
3. Wait
4. Ask a 10 year old
5. Swear
6. Plead
7. Hit repeatedly with a 4.08 kg lump hammer and throw the bits out of the window.
This is great, just read through the thread. I realise the first post was a while back but I freaked and have now pinned my favourites to the taskbar. I am on Windows 10 as my new laptop came with it installed. I'll be watching out for that dodgy start button.
I'm not very techie so will keep a look out for more tips. thanks
Will wrote: "Hmm, good point. I had forgotten about that one. Maybe we should extend the list to:1. Switch on and switch off.
2. Google the problem
3. Wait
4. Ask a 10 year old
5. Swear
6. Plead
7. Hit repeat..."
The metrification is a nice touch :)
