Windows 10 Start Menu and Settings app gone - How do I create a new user for my PC?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

Hi Folks.

I was hoping someone here knew shortcuts on how to get to certain parts of Windows 10 without using the Start Menu.

Here’s what happened: I was playing Grim Dawn two days ago, and it crashed in the loading screen. So I pressed Alt-Tab, and it wouldn’t go away. I pressed the Window key, and brought up the start menu, and I couldn’t switch the display to any other app, but I could bring up the start menu, so I used the start menu to restart the PC.

Ever since then, the Start Menu won’t respond. My PC can start most apps, but it can no longer Alt-Tab out of anything. The window switching app never comes on. The start menu never comes on. When I type Windows + R, and run “ms-settings:”, the settings app never comes on.

I can go into the old Windows 7 control panel, using Windows + R and running “control panel”.

One of the solutions I found online is to run
powershell in admin mode, and then do sfc /scannow.

I do that, but it verifies 100% integrity, and finds no issues.

Other places online suggest typing into powershell:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to do anything on my machine. It gives me a progress bar which never moves.

The other suggestion at Microsoft is to run Start Menu Troubleshooter, but that hangs on the part where it’s registering Applications. And never moves past that.

The other thing it suggests is creating a local account with admin access (as opposed to my account which is tied to a Microsoft Account and email). Except, I can’t do that from the old control panel. It has a shortcut in there for me to add another user, but the button doesn’t do anything. So I guess I can’t follow that instruction and create a new account either?

I’m kind of stumped. I supposed to I can live without a start menu. And the ability to Alt-Tab out of games. I’d rather not do that though. I’d rather find a solution.

2

Roll back to previous restore point?

3

Without a start menu, how would I do that?

The control panel I can get to (not the Windows 10 setting menu which doesn’t launch), says that I don’t have a Windows 7 backup restore point to go back to.

4

Task manager, file, run new task, check admin box, cmd.exe.

In the admin cmd prompt run

net user /add rock9man yourpasshere

net localgroup administrators rock9man /add

Then log out and login as that new user.

5

Win-R compmgmt.msc and then go to local users and groups.

6

Windows key and X , then cmd prompt , then type in rstrui.exe

7

Sweet. I’ll try out those suggestions tonight when I get home from work and report back.

8

Yessss! This did the trick. Once I logged out and logged in as the new admin user, the start menu was back for this new user. I signed out, and signed back in as me, and my start menu and Settings menu, and ability to Alt-Tab is back now as well. Phew.

Thanks guys!

9

Noice!

10

This seems like such a weird bug.

11

And it’s really quite absurd that something of this scope and apparent frequency (I’ve hit some level of it three times myself so far, if not to the degree described here) is still present in their flagship OS that they want everyone using, or that creating new admin accounts is considered an acceptable solution for Microsoft to recommend.

12

Given that it sounds like you have some remnants of a windows 7 install, I’m guessing it isn’t a clean install?

13

I checked when I was at work yesterday. When you type in control panel at my work Windows 10, it shows the same old Windows 7 control panel, with the backup option being a Windows 7 option. OTOH, at work, Windows 10 was also an upgrade from Windows 7, just like it was at home. So maybe this is only the case for upgraded versions of Windows 10? I’m not sure. I don’t have a clean installed version of Windows 10 to compare with. But I’ve compared 3 PCs now that were upgraded from Windows 7, and they’re all the same in this regard.

The backup and restore features are only in the new Settings Windows 10 app (the one that wasn’t launching), not in the legacy app Control Panel.

14

I have had the issue with a fresh windows 10 install. it’s a win10 problem, not a dirty install problem. though that may have complicated things.

15

They want to be kept up-to-date on whatever your latest passwords might be.