Start Menu Repair for user account

Windows 10 Start Menu Not Working

As I mentioned above: when the windows 10 start menu stops working, it is usually because of a corrupt user profile, or user profile setting. Oftentimes this can be fixed if you can reset the profile setting, which happens to be located in the user profile "Tile Data Layer" database folder. The steps below explain how to just that.
To do so:

1. Save and close all of your work, such as open documents, etc - except for the web browser. Next, right click the task bar and select Task Manager from the dialogue menu; when Task Manager appears, click the File -> Run new task. In the "Create new task" window, type in "cmd" (no quotes), then check mark the option that says "Create this task with administrative privileges," then click OK. If successful, a black administrative command prompt window will appear.

2. Next, highlight the text below using your mouse:

taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
rename %userprofile%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\database %userprofile%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\database.old
start explorer
echo this is a dummy line

3. Right click over the highlighted text above, then select Copy from the dialogue menu.

4. Go to the administrative command prompt you opened in Step #1 and right click in the middle of the window, then select Paste. The text you copied in Step #2 should now be output onto the command line, your task bar should now appear, and your "Tile Data Layer" database folder should now have been regenerated by Windows. Try clicking on the Start button - hopefully it should now work.

5. If that didn't fix your Start menu, continue on. The next sequence of commands requires the Windows firewall be temporarily disabled so that files can be downloaded to your machine in order to fix the parts of the broken Start menu. To do so: right click the task bar and select Task Manager from the dialogue menu; when Task Manager appears, click the File -> Run new task. In the "Create new task" window, type in "powershell" (no quotes), then check mark the option that says "Create this task with administrative privileges," then click OK. A blue Windows PowerShell window should now appear. Next, use your mouse to highlight the text below:

NetSh Advfirewall set allprofiles state off
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
NetSh Advfirewall set allprofiles state on
cls; echo "`nTask complete - try using the Start Menu now.`n"
echo this is a dummy line

6. Right click over top of the highlighted text above and select Copy from the dialogue menu. Next, right click in the middle of the Power Shell window you opened up in the previous step and select Paste from the dialogue menu. The text you copied in Step #5 should now have been output onto the command line. This process will take a while - anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes or longer; if you see red text being output during the process, you can safely ignore it. At the end, your firewall will be re-enabled and the Power Shell window will say "Task Complete - try using the Start Menu now." Do just that.

7. If that did not fix it, another option is to copy over the Tile Database Layer folder from another, properly working user account; in this case, we will use the built-in Administrator account. To do so: right click the task bar and select Task Manager from the dialogue menu; when Task Manager appears, click the File -> Run new task. In the "Create new task" window, type in "cmd" (no quotes), then check mark the option that says "Create this task with administrative privileges," then click OK. Next, use your mouse to highlight the text below:

net user administrator /active:yes
echo this is a dummy line

8. Right click over top of the highlighted text, then select Copy from the dialogue menu. Go to the administrative command prompt, then right click in the middle of the window and select Paste from the dialogue menu. The text you copied in Step #7 should now be output onto the command line.

9. Bookmark this page if you have not already, and optionally print this page - please also read Step #10 and #11 before you execute this step. In the following instructions, you will need to log off as the current user, then sign on as the Administrator user to generate the Administrator desktop profile. Following that, you will then need to log off as Administrator, then sign back on as your regular user account and come back to this web page.

To do so: right click the task bar and select Task Manager from the dialogue menu; when Task Manager appears, click the File -> Run new task. In the "Create new task" window, type in "shutdown /l" (do not use quotes). IMPORTANT: the command to type in is: the word 'shutdown' followed by a space, followed by a forward slash, followed by the L key - as in 'logoff'. Next, check mark the option that says "Create this task with administrative privileges," then click OK. If successful, you will be logged off of Windows.

10. Click the Welcome Screen picture to activate the sign on, then select the Administrator account near the bottom left of the screen - do not login to your account yet. Once the administrator user is selected, it will take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to generate the Administrator's desktop profile.

11. When you reach the administrator desktop, the Start menu should work. Click Start, then click the Administrator's name at the top of the Start menu, and select "Sign out". When you get back to the Welcome Screen, login as your user as you normally would. If the Administrator's Start menu isn't working either, then you have a very deeply rooted problem - in that case, you can stop now and optionally contact me below (see: Additional Support: From Dennis) section.

12. Next, right click the task bar and select Task Manager from the dialogue menu; when Task Manager appears, click the File -> Run new task. In the "Create new task" window, type in "cmd" (no quotes), then check mark the option that says "Create this task with administrative privileges," then click OK. Next, use your mouse to highlight the text below:

Taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
net stop tiledatamodelsvc
move %userprofile%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\database %userprofile%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\database.old2
net stop tiledatamodelsvc
mkdir %userprofile%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\database
net stop tiledatamodelsvc
copy c:\users\administrator\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database %userprofile%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\database
net start tiledatamodelsvc
start explorer
echo this is a dummy line
With any luck, that would have copied over a the "Tile Data Layer" database folder from the Administrator's account onto your account, and the Start menu should now work. If it does not, then you may have some other deeply rooted problems - and in that case, you are welcome to contact me (described next).