[Tip] Do This When Start Menu Not Working in Windows 10

If Start Menu in Windows 10 is not working, not opening or taking too much time in showing on screen, this tutorial will help you in restarting Start Menu to fix these kind of issues.

Many times users face several annoying problems related to Start Menu in Windows 10. Some of them are as following:

• Start Menu hangs, freezes, stuck or becomes not responding. You can’t use Start Menu at all.
• Start Menu immediately crashes with error message or weird error code when you try to launch it.
• Start Menu is broken and stopped working. Nothing happens when you click on Start button.
• Start Menu becomes very slow. It starts crawling and takes lots of time delay in opening.

Above mentioned issues are only a few ones reported by readers. There are many other irritating issues related to Start Menu in Windows 10 which are regularly faced by users.

These kind of issues used to occur in Windows 10 because Start Menu was executed by the operating system using a process called “ShellExperienceHost.exe”. This process was used by Windows Shell to manage various shell elements such as Start Menu, Taskbar, Notification Area (system tray) icons, etc.

Since so many shell elements were controlled by a single process, Start Menu used to start crawling or slowing down whenever it was unable to get sufficient amount of CPU and RAM resources from “ShellExperienceHost.exe” process. Many times when the process crashed, Start Menu also crashed or became not responding.

There was also a known issue which we reported long time back. If users removed or uninstalled built-in modern UWP apps in Windows 10 using PowerShell method, it also caused Start Menu and Taskbar notification area icons not working problem. You can check out following article for details:

[Fix] Start Menu and Taskbar Icons Not Working in Windows 10 After Update

To overcome these issues, Microsoft decided to provide an exclusive separate process to Start Menu in Windows 10. Now in newer versions of Windows 10, Start Menu uses a new separate process called “StartMenuExperienceHost.exe”. You can check the new process yourself using Task Manager as shown in following screenshot:

PS: StartMenuExperienceHost.exe executable is stored under “C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy” folder.

Since Start Menu got its own dedicated process, it no longer hangs or slows down in Windows 10. This step has been taken by Microsoft to improve reliability and performance of Start Menu. Now Start Menu launches faster and appears quickly on screen.

If you are using a new version of Windows 10 and you face any kind of problem with Start Menu, you can end task of this new process using Task Manager to immediately restart Start Menu without affecting other shell elements.

If Start Menu not responding or opening very slow or you are unable to select items from Start Menu, you can do as following to restart Start Menu in Windows 10:

1. Open Task Manager. Right-click on Taskbar and select “Task Manager” option. You can also directly open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys together.

2. Now look for “Start” process in the given list.

3. Select “Start” process and click on “End Task” button or press “Delete” key on your keyboard. You can also right-click on the process and select “End task” option from context menu.

It’ll immediately kill Start Menu process and restart it.

PS: If you prefer to use “Details” tab in Task Manager, look for “StartMenuExperienceHost.exe” process in Details tab. Select the process and click on “End Task” button or press “Delete” key on your keyboard. You can also right-click on the process and select “End task” option from context menu. It’ll restart Start Menu process.

That’s it. Now Start Menu will become more responsive and you’ll notice a boost in Start Menu performance and not it’ll no longer hang, freeze or become not responding.

Also Check:

[Guide] Different Ways to Close and Restart Explorer in Windows

[Windows 10 Tip] Force Task Manager to Always Open in Your Desired Tab

[Tip] Speedup Start Menu Opening / Launching in Windows 10