Windows 10 start up menu how to reinstall ShellExperienceHost, Cortana?

Question

I have problem with Windows 10 start up menu. I visited this page https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12385/windows-10-troubleshoot-problems-opening-start-menu-cortana and tried the troubleshooter. It says

Required applications are not installed correctly. 

"Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost" and "Microsoft.Windows.Cortana" applications need to be installed correctly. 

Troubleshooter did not fix these problems. Can someone tell me how to install these applications manually?

Answer 1

Start PowerShell as Administrator. PowerShell.exe is located in this folder:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0

Right-click PowerShell.exe and click Run as Administrator.

Execute these two commands:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

This reinstalls ShellExperienceHost and Cortana.

Src: Start menu and Taskbar Stuck in Windows 10. How to Fix it?

Answer 2

w32sh's answer has the standard way of reinstalling these. However, for me this didn't work at all, nor did any other suggested solutions. My issue came with the taskbar, start menu and W10 apps being unusable.

If w32sh's solution doesn't work for you, have a look at my answer here.

Answer 3

If re-registering the Windows 10 apps does not work, and this is a domain user...

I discovered that the default profile I created in \domain\SYSVOL\domain\scripts was breaking the profiles.

I tested this theory by creating a new profile on the local machine (before joining to domain) and it working normally after the 1706 update. I then joined domain, and verified creating a domain profile account broke the start menu. Then I removed the "Default User.v6" from my logon scripts, and created a second domain user account. The start menu worked as expected.

Answer 4

Adding on late in case someone else stumbles across this as I did: AppLocker can break the Start menu and Cortana. I attempted to follow w32sh's answer, and got the following error message:

Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073D01, The package deployment operation is blocked by policy. Please contact your system administrator. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80073D01) error 0x800704EC: Deployment of package Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.15063.674_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy was blocked by AppLocker.

When I enabled AppLocker I had it create default rules and autocreate rules based on what was on the system, but apparently that wasn't sufficient. Perhaps an update broke it.

Regardless, the fix for me was to change the enforcement to "Audit" mode. Be aware that this disables the protections you get from AppLocker. And it's tricky since the damned start menu is broken. You can get around this by using Windows-X and clicking the Console or Powershell (depending on your setup) with Admin Priveleges. Then run secpol.msc and follow the instructions at Configure an AppLocker Policy for Audit Only in the section To audit rule collections by using the Local Security Policy snap-in

In case that site ever goes away, here are the rather quick steps:

1. Click Start, type secpol.msc in the Search programs and files box, and then press ENTER.
2. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Yes.
3. In the console tree, double-click Application Control Policies, right-click AppLocker, and then click Properties.
4. On the Enforcement tab, select the Configured check box for the rule collection that you want to enforce, and then verify that Audit only is selected in the list for that rule collection.
5. Repeat step 4 to configure the enforcement setting to Audit only for additional rule collections.
6. Click OK.

Answer 5

So I have a fix for this. It's pretty easy.

Install the newest cumulative update for W10. If you're unable to install it remove the newest one and re-install it.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows-10/release-information is where you can find the newest updates. Manually download the relevant cumulative release.

Answer 6

depending on what caused this.

• 1) system restore
• 2) sfc /scannow using CMD window in admin mode.
• 3) create new local administrator account

check for windows updates.

Answer 7

If the Start Menu, Apps, or the Wifi network buttons do not expand to show signals and drop down menus, then:

1. Start CMD as administrator (rightclick Command Prompt & run as administrator)

2. Paste this single lined command in and press enter-

powershell -EncodedCommand IAAgACAARwBlAHQALQBBAHAAcAB4AFAAYQBjAGsAYQBnAGUAIAAtAEEAbABsAFUAcwBlAHIAcwB8ACAARgBvAHIAZQBhAGMAaAAgAHsAQQBkAGQALQBBAHAAcAB4AFAAYQBjAGsAYQBnAGUAIAAtAEQAaQBzAGEAYgBsAGUARABlAHYAZQBsAG8AcABtAGUAbgB0AE0AbwBkAGUAIAAtAFIAZQBnAGkAcwB0AGUAcgAgABwgJAAoACQAXwAuAEkAbgBzAHQAYQBsAGwATABvAGMAYQB0AGkAbwBuACkAXABBAHAAcABYAE0AYQBuAGkAZgBlAHMAdAAuAHgAbQBsAB0gfQAgAA==

Its just a way to reload the Windows Store and apps which includes the Shell Experience.

I posted the same solution here - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-start-win_menu/windows-10-start-menu-broken-after-april-2018/f9fccd53-0dd3-42e6-a6e9-f4fa102c0a3e