Troubleshoot Start menu errors

Start failures can be organized into these categories:

• Deployment/Install issues — Easiest to identify but difficult to recover. This failure is consistent and usually permanent. Reset, restore from backup, or rollback to recover.
• Performance issues — More common with older hardware, low-powered machines. Symptoms include: High CPU utilization, disk contention, memory resources. This makes Start very slow to respond. Behavior is intermittent depending on available resources.
• Crashes — Also easy to identify. Crashes in Shell Experience Host or related can be found in System or Application event logs. This can be a code defect or related to missing or altered permissions to files or registry keys by a program or incorrect security tightening configurations. Determining permissions issues can be time consuming but a SysInternals tool called Procmon will show Access Denied. The other option is to get a dump of the process when it crashes and depending on comfort level, review the dump in the debugger, or have support review the data.
• Hangs — in Shell Experience host or related. These are the hardest issues to identify as there are few events logged, but behavior is typically intermittent or recovers with a reboot. If a background application or service hangs, Start will not have resources to respond in time. Clean boot may help identify if the issue is related to additional software. Procmon is also useful in this scenario.
• Other issues — Customization, domain policies, deployment issues.

Basic troubleshooting

When troubleshooting basic Start issues (and for the most part, all other Windows apps), there are a few things to check if they are not working as expected. For issues where the Start menu or subcomponent isn’t working, you can do some quick tests to narrow down where the issue may reside.

Check the OS and update version

• Is the system running the latest Feature and Cumulative Monthly update?
• Did the issue start immediately after an update? Ways to check:
  • PowerShell:[System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version
  • WinVer from CMD.exe

Check if Start is installed

If Start fails immediately after a feature update, on thing to check is if the App package failed to install successfully.

If Start was working and just fails intermittently, it’s likely that Start is installed correctly, but the issue occurs downstream. The way to check for this problem is to look for output from these two PS commands:

get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost

get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana

Failure messages will appear if they aren’t installed

If Start is not installed, then the fastest resolution is to revert to a known good configuration. This can be rolling back the update, resetting the PC to defaults (where there is a choice to save to delete user data), or restoring from backup. No method is supported to install Start Appx files. The results are often problematic and unreliable.

Check if Start is running

If either component is failing to start on boot, reviewing the event logs for errors or crashes during boot may pin point the problem. Booting with MSCONFIG and using a selective or diagnostic startup option will eliminate and/or identify possible interference from additional applications.

• get-process -name shellexperiencehost
• get-process -name searchui

If it is installed but not running, test booting into safe mode or use MSCONFIG to eliminate third-party or additional drivers and applications.

Check whether the system a clean install or upgrade

• Is this system an upgrade or clean install?
  • Run test-path «$env:windir\panther\miglog.xml»
  • If that file does not exist, the system is a clean install.
• Upgrade issues can be found by running test-path «$env:windir\panther\miglog.xml»

Check if Start is registered or activated

• Export the following Event log to CSV and do a keyword search in a text editor or spreadsheet:
  • Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational for Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost or Microsoft.Windows.Cortana
    • «Package was not found»
    • «Invalid value for registry»
    • «Element not found»
    • «Package could not be registered»

If these events are found, Start is not activated correctly. Each event will have more detail in the description and should be investigated further. Event messages can vary.

Other things to consider

When did the problem start?

• Top issues for Start menu failure are triggered
  • After an update
  • After installation of an application
  • After joining a domain or applying a domain policy
• Many of those issues are found to be
  • Permission changes on Registry keys or folders
  • Start or related component crashes or hangs
  • Customization failure

To narrow down the problem further, it’s good to note:

What is the install background?

• Was this a deployment, install from media, other
• Using customizations?
  • DISM
  • Group Policy or MDM
  • copyprofile
  • Sysprep
  • Other

• Group policy settings that restrict access or permissions to folders or registry keys can cause issues with Start performance.
• Some Group Policies intended for Windows 7 or older have been known to cause issues with Start
• Untested Start Menu customizations can cause unexpected behavior by typically not complete Start failures.

Start menu

The Microsoft Windows Start menu is the primary location in Windows to locate your installed programs and find any files or folders. By default, the Start menu is accessed by clicking Start in the bottom-left corner of the Windows desktop screen. The picture shows an example of the Windows 7 Start menu.

In Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, the Start menu was replaced by the Start Screen. The Start menu returned in Windows 10 and is discussed later on this page.

You can press the Windows key on the keyboard or Ctrl + Esc keyboard shortcut to open the Start menu.

If you’re more familiar with Apple computers, you can think of the Start menu as the Apple menu.

Where is the Start menu?

For versions of Microsoft Windows supporting the Start menu, it’s found by click Start and is shown in the bottom left portion of the screen by default. Its position can change if the Taskbar position is changed from the bottom of the screen.

Computer’s that are not running Microsoft Windows (e.g., Linux computers and Apple computers) do not have a Start menu. Also, there are no smartphones or tablets with a Windows Start menu.

What versions of Windows have the Start menu?

The Microsoft Windows Start menu was first introduced with Microsoft Windows 95, and since it’s release, all versions of Windows except Windows 8 have a Start menu. Before the release of Windows 95, earlier versions of Windows (e.g., Windows 3.11) also did not have a Start menu.

What is accessible in the Start menu?

Below is an overview of the Windows Start menu found in Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 7. If you have Windows 10 Skip down to the Windows 10 Start menu section.

Left pane

The left pane shows recently started programs or any pinned program shortcuts. In the above example, there is one pinned program separated by a line and then the recently ran programs.

All programs

At the bottom of the left pane is the All Programs option that displays all programs installed on the computer.

Search

Directly below the All Programs option is the «Search» bar. This useful feature allows you to type in the name of the program or file you’re looking for and have the results displayed above.

Right pane

The right pane shows each of the more commonly accessed sections of the computer, such as your Computer, Control Panel, Documents, Music, and Pictures.

You can find the version of Windows on your computer if you right-click Computer and select Properties. In the System window, you can view basic system properties, including the Windows version and access the Device Manager.

Shut down

At the bottom of the right pane is the Shut down button, which allows you to turn the computer off. You can also click the arrow next to the Shut down button to switch users, log off, restart, sleep, or hibernate the computer.

Windows 10 Start menu

The Windows 10 Start menu made some drastic changes to the Start menu available in previous versions of Windows, as is immediately apparent in the picture below. One of the most noticeable changes is the integration of tiles (from the Windows 8 start screen) into the Start menu. From this Start menu, you can access all your programs through the «All apps» option and in the left pane.

Should I capitalize «menu» in Windows Start menu?

In early versions of Microsoft Windows, such as Windows 95 and Windows 98, Menu was capitalized as shown in the following picture of the Windows 98 Start Menu. With all modern versions of Microsoft Windows such as Windows 7 and Windows 10, the «m» in menu should be written in lowercase. So, when referring to the Microsoft Windows Start menu today, it should be written as Start menu.

Как открыть «Система» (System). Просмотр основных сведений о вашем компьютере в Windows 7

Для того, чтобы посмотреть основные сведения о компьютере, на который установлена операционная система Windows, проще всего воспользоваться панелью «Система» (System), в которой эти сведения собственно и отображены. Найти её очень просто. Ниже будет показано несколько способов как отрыть панель «Система» (System) на компьютере. Все они приведут к одному и тому же результату. Можно пользоваться тем, который покажется наиболее удобным.

Чтобы было понятно о чём речь, картинка ниже — это то, что нужно: Панель «Система» (System): Просмотр основных сведений о вашем компьютере.

Способ 1. Открытие панели «Система» (System) с помощью горячих клавиш Win + Pause/Break .

Пожалуй это самый простой способ. Для тех кому часто приходится пользоваться панелью «Система» (System) — это идеальный инструмент.

Итак, на клавиатуре нажимаем и удерживаем клавишу Win (нижний ряд левый угол клавиатуры). И нажимаем клавишу Pause/Break (верхний правый угол клавиатуры).

Способ 2. Открытие панели «Система» (System) с помощью ссылки-иконки «Компьютер».

Иконка «Компьютер» обычно находится на рабочем столе или в программе «Проводник». Найти ещё не составляет труда, так как ей постоянно приходится пользоваться, сохраняя или открывая фалы на компьютере.

Для того, чтобы открыть панель «Система» (System) с помощью ссылки-иконки «Компьютер» нужно кликнуть по ней правой кнопкой мышки, затем левой кнопкой кликнуть на пункте «Свойства» выпавшего контекстного меню:

Способ 3. Открытие панели «Система» (System) с помощью ссылки «Компьютер» в меню по кнопке «Пуск».

Этот способ очень похож на предыдущий. Открываем меню по кнопке «Пуск». Для этого нажимаем кнопку Win на клавиатуре (нижний левый угол клавиатуры) или кликаем левой кнопкой мышки по кнопке «Пуск», которая располагается в левом нижнем углу экрана.

Далее нужно кликнуть по ссылке «Компьютер» правой кнопкой мышки, затем левой кнопкой кликнуть на пункте «Свойства» выпавшего контекстного меню:

И ещё 2 способа открытия панели «Система» (System) с помощью ссылки «Система» в «Панели управления». Как открывать «Панель управления» подробно описано в этой статье, а как менять режимы отображения «Панели управления» можно вспомнить, прочитав эту статью.

Способ 4. Открытие панели «Система» (System) с помощью ссылки «Система» в «Панели управления» (режим Крупные значки).

Всё очень просто. В «Панели управления» в режиме Крупные значки находим ссылку иконку «Система» и кликаем на неё левой кнопкой мышки:

Способ 5. Открытие панели «Система» (System) с помощью ссылки «Система» в «Панели управления» (режим Мелкие значки).

Всё также просто. В «Панели управления» в режиме Мелкие значки находим ссылку иконку «Система» и кликаем на неё левой кнопкой мышки:

В принципе, этих способов достаточно, чтобы открыть панель «Система» (System). Есть ещё и другие, но нужно ли про них всех знать? =)