UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

77 views
Agony Aunt > Windows 10 start menu not working

Comments Showing 1-50 of 109 (109 new)    post a comment »
« previous 1 3

message 1: by Will (new)

Will Once (willonce) | 3772 comments 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 this link. Some of the later ones are getting a little fractious!

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...

The problem is that the start menu decides to go on strike and a few other systems walk out in sympathy including Cortana and the action centre.

Your computer is still usable, but you can't access stuff via the start menu. You can get to programs where you have screen shortcut icons or you have pinned a program to the taskbar. I was also able to get to powerpoint (which wasn't on my taskbar) by using the file manager to find a powerpoint file and then double clicking on the file to force powerpoint to load.

It seems that there are lots of angry people out there and no easy cure in sight. Microsoft are saying that they don't know what has caused this.

It could happen to you. To prepare for it, I would advise pinning any program that you use to the taskbar or as a desktop shortcut. You might find that you wake up one morning and the start menu isn't working.

Computers will be great when they're finished.


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments You've done your good deed for the day posting this Will.

Have a cookie.


message 3: by Jud (new)

Jud (judibud) | 16799 comments Aw man!!

I'm working on the Windows 10 project where our aim is to make every University computer windows 10


message 4: by Kath (new)

Kath Middleton | 23860 comments I think my husband is still on XP!


message 5: by Jud (new)

Jud (judibud) | 16799 comments My personal laptop is still XP


message 6: by Kath (new)

Kath Middleton | 23860 comments It ain't broke...


message 7: by Jim (new)

Jim | 21809 comments I'm still on XP but obviously poor machine's about worn out so I had thought of Windows 10, and perhaps Office 2016 (or whatever they call it)
But that means poor machine has to hang on in there for another year or so


message 8: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments I'm on Windows 7 until Microsoft send through an IED on one of their updates. (I wouldn't put it past them!) My forecast : Windows 10 will be subscription based within 3 years, and all the 'must have the latest' crew will be well and truly up the creek.


message 9: by Will (new)

Will Once (willonce) | 3772 comments Pete - true, but they will eventually stop support windows 7 just as they have stopped supporting XP. Then your choice is either to keep on using 7 and cross your fingers that you don't get a crash or a virus, or bite the bullet and get into windows 10.

They have us by the short and curlies however we play this game.


message 10: by David (new)

David Hadley 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 onward Classic Shell is a nice thing to have.

http://www.classicshell.net/


Rosemary (grooving with the Picts) (nosemanny) | 8590 comments Linux. Nuff said.


message 12: by Michael (new)

Michael Cargill (michaelcargill) | 2992 comments I use AmigaOS.


message 13: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments Rosemary (The Nosemanny) wrote: "Linux. Nuff said."

Yup, won't be long...


message 14: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments Will wrote: "Pete - true, but they will eventually stop support windows 7 just as they have stopped supporting XP. Then your choice is either to keep on using 7 and cross your fingers that you don't get a crash..."

If Microsoft try and pull a fast one, alternative OS's will see a surge in popularity. Trouble is at present that they don't seem very good at supporting all the software that's out there. Or have I just not studied them well enough?


message 15: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments 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 hadn't heard of Classic Shell until you mentioned it, but I have tried others in the past, the only result being the pretty interface and a couple of extra tweaks was paid for in loss of useable memory.

Now, what I would really like is an active desktop built in html fashion where I can order my apps in closed filing drawers which slide open when I hover over them... If anyone has heard of anything like this I'm all ears. I hardly ever use the start button - my desktop is cluttered with shortcuts: https://www.dropbox.com/s/00kf9bq8iqk...

..and it's untidy and difficult to find stuff.


message 16: by David (new)

David Hadley Michael Cargill wrote: "I use AmigaOS."

Still the best.


message 17: by David (new)

David Hadley Pete wrote: "I hardly ever use the start button - my desktop is cluttered with shortcuts:"

I'm the opposite. There have been times when I've hardly had any icons on the desktop at all.

There are other start menu things - including paid ones - can't remember what any of them are called though.


message 18: by Jud (new)

Jud (judibud) | 16799 comments I've had my start button for over a week now, I'm using Windows (Star Ship) Enterprise. I hope it stays


message 19: by Will (new)

Will Once (willonce) | 3772 comments Breaking news - my start button has started (!!) working again. Cortana is still sulking, but that's not a big problem. I didn't do anything to fix it. One day it was not available, the next it was fine.

It all seems a bit random.


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments Calls for a bottle of wine with dinner, Will.


message 21: by David (new)

David Hadley Will wrote: "Breaking news - my start button has started (!!) working again. Cortana..."

I think that Cortina thing may be one of the things I've turned off or disabled in the settings.

You could have a wander around all the various settings... er... settings that MS spreads all over the place and see if one of the Cortina settings has gone haywire.


message 22: by Will (new)

Will Once (willonce) | 3772 comments Nah, I think I'll leave her quiet. The Mem might get suspicious if I spend too much time talking to women on the internet.


message 23: by David (new)

David Hadley Will wrote: "Nah, I think I'll leave her quiet. The Mem might get suspicious if I spend too much time talking to women on the internet."

Oh, my wife is used to me shouting at computers.

I'm not sure I want one that answers back though.


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments Well the good read app on iPhone sux

Can't find the morning thread

We're at the airport x


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments Well the good read app on iPhone sux

Can't find the morning thread

We're at the airport x


message 26: by Will (new)

Will Once (willonce) | 3772 comments The goodreads app isn't great. Does this help?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments You're a sweetie, thanks.

Dug out my iPad. Was too awkward trying to harass the spammer on Dave's phone. ;)


message 28: by Kath (new)

Kath Middleton | 23860 comments Isn't there a Harrass the Spammer app? There's an opening there!


message 29: by Pam (last edited Oct 05, 2015 10:23AM) (new)

Pam Baddeley | 3334 comments Will wrote: "The goodreads app isn't great."

Half the functionality appears to be missing in that app. The notifications go to the beginning of each thread in the forum, some of them dozens of pages long, instead of to the recent posts.


Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo) (snibborg) | 8204 comments I've long given up on the Goodreads app, it is really poor.


message 31: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments It works ok on an android. Why is it always iPad this and iPhone that? Just because they're ten times the price doesn't make then ten times better. Oh yeah - this is a Windows 10 thread. Shut up, Carter.


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments The Goodreads app on my android phone hasn't worked in weeks.


message 33: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments Patti (baconater) wrote: "The Goodreads app on my android phone hasn't worked in weeks."

Ah well - like Windows 10, I still haven't upgraded to Android 5.1000 or whatever it's now up to.


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments Nor me.

I'm running version .5, I think.


message 35: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments Patti (baconater) wrote: "Nor me.

I'm running version .5, I think."


If it ain't broke...


message 36: by David (new)

David Hadley I only ever use the Goodreads android app to update the books I finish and start. It seems useless for anything else.


message 37: by Will (new)

Will Once (willonce) | 3772 comments The thing that annoys me about the goodreads app is that it defaults to email notifications every time you leave a comment. There may be a way to turn that off, but I haven't found it.


message 38: by David (new)

David Hadley Smartphone apps seem deliberately designed to do all manner of things, except the one thing you downloaded them to do.


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments My flashlight app lights up my phone.


message 40: by Will (new)

Will Once (willonce) | 3772 comments Aaarrgh!

Microsoft has invented a new game to annoy us. In the past few days my PC has decided to block email attachments from outlook. A client sends me a word or excel file but Office decides that I can't be trusted to open it. So it gives me an error message telling me that the file is corrupted or I have run out of memory.

Which is a load of b*ll*cks because the file isn't corrupted and my memory is just fine, thank you very much. What it really means is that Microsoft has turned on a security block in Office.

So I go onto the internet and google how to turn this block off. Eventually I find a Microsoft help page which says that I should go into the "Trust Center" and turn off the block.

Yeah right. So where exactly on my PC is the "Trust Center"? I spend a happy half hour trying to find the bloody thing. It turns out that there is more than one. Outlook has a trust centre. Word has a different one, and so does excel and powerpoint. You have to go into each one and turn off the protected view feature. And then your PC can open attachments again.

What a load of prize pillocks. They turned on a safety feature without telling us. They hide it behind an error message which is frankly wrong. Then they hide the solution in multiple places and don't tell you about it in their FAQs.

And all for something that most of us do all the time - downloading word and excel attachments.

Eejits. I bet they make this difficult so that we don't sue them if we download a dodgy attachment. They will say it's all our fault for turning off their block.


message 41: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments Will wrote: "Aaarrgh!

Microsoft has invented a new game to annoy us. In the past few days my PC has decided to block email attachments from outlook. A client sends me a word or excel file but Office decides th..."


Err... that would be Windows 10 you're talking about, right?

When Win7 gets unhealthily out of date, I think I'll have a laptop for the internet and keep out-of-date Win7 on my main apps computer - unconnected to the web. The best firewall in existence. Nowt wrong with memory stick transfers on the odd occasion the main apps actually need updating.


message 42: by Jud (new)

Jud (judibud) | 16799 comments The start up menu breaking was mentioned in my meeting today, I'll have to get the tech guys to look into this document thing.

Although, I think the version we have is different as the menu problem has only been mentioned in relation to the classroom build.

It's great having you guys as a heads up on these issues :o)


message 43: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments Jud (Disney Diva) wrote: "The start up menu breaking was mentioned in my meeting today, I'll have to get the tech guys to look into this document thing.

Although, I think the version we have is different as the menu proble..."


Jud - you seem to have an inside line on Win10. Honest opinion mate - is it better than win7 or has it just got more bells and whistles and more things to go wrong? i.e: tell me why I should upgrade?


message 44: by Will (new)

Will Once (willonce) | 3772 comments Pete - I think the main reason to upgrade is because Microsoft will stop supporting win7 in the fairly new future, but they will keep on updating windows 10, at least for the foreseeable.

I'm not overly fussed by operating systems. The main thing I want a computer to do is to run programs like word, excel and powerpoint. I am not all that bothered how I get from one program to another. Windows 10 will be fine once they get these silly bugs ironed out.

But my advice is still to wait awhile before upgrading. I only switched because I had to replace my computer and didn't fancy faffing around with windows 8.1 when win10 was around. If it wasn't for that I would still be with win7 and planning to upgrade near the end of the free year.


message 45: by Jud (new)

Jud (judibud) | 16799 comments I'm not the best person to ask, Pete! I'm just running the project which aims to upgrade all the university computers to Win10 but I have no clue about the technical stuff. I believe Will has hit it on the head, it is safer to be on Win10 with regard to updates and security.

I have had Win10 (enterprise) for a while now in work and I really like it, although I removed all the guff on the start menu. It did install with US date/time format and language though but that was easily fixed, there are a few other bugs with some of our other systems so we are waiting for upgrades to solve those issues. Probably worthwhile waiting a little longer so you have the less buggy version


message 46: by Lydia (new)

Lydia St Giles (lydia_stg) | 62 comments My habit has been to skip alternate "upgrades", such as Vista and 8.1. Windows XP was fine; Windows 7 does as it's told. But I've been cautious with Windows 10: I've taken the free upgrade for my private computer but am sticking with Windows 7 on the work computer. When there's no support left, I'll have been using the 10 version for a good while. Maybe I'll switch, maybe not.


message 47: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments Thanks will, Jud, Lydia. I think my present caution is well founded. I am more concerned in a skeptical way ('you get owt for nowt') that Win 10 will become subscription based once the world is saturated. At that point Microsoft will have control of my computer. No thanks.

Hopefully by then, if I can't keep 7 staggering on, there will be other free OS's out there just as good.

Does anyone know if it's possible to partition my hard drive and have both Win7 and Win10 as operating systems, but without having to re-install my various software? I think in that case they would both have to access the same registry, but have never heard that to be possible.


message 48: by Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo) (last edited Nov 07, 2015 10:26AM) (new)

Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo) (snibborg) | 8204 comments You can have Wn 10 and Win 7 on the same computer. You create separate partitions for each OS and choose when one you want from boot up.

The bad news is you have to have 2 licences for everything.

the alternative is to use something like VMWare Workstation or similar.


message 49: by Pete (new)

Pete Carter (petecarter) | 522 comments Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "You can have Wn 10 and Win 7 on the same computer. You create separate partitions for each OS and choose when one you want from boot up.

The bad news is you have to have 2 licences for everything...."


VM is for 64bit. It would, literally, cost me thousands to upgrade my software, as my 5 year old machine (which still flies, except when editing hd video) was state of the art 32bit when new. It was on the cusp of hardly any software supporting 64 bit at the time. (Apart from the fact I only understood every other word in the VMWare ad!)

When you say you need 2 licenses, you mean you have to reinstall the apps in each partition?


Patti (baconater) (goldengreene) | 56525 comments 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?


« previous 1 3
back to top