The Windows 10 Start menu can be a little confusing for new users and for those who are less experienced, because by default it includes only the icons of some programs and applications, and not the tide of apps and icons with which it presents itself since the first start of the screen (the surprise effect is greater if we come from Windows 7 or other operating systems with a more classic start menu). This leads to the difficulty in finding the desired programs because their icons are missing and we do not know how to put them in the foreground.
In this article we therefore see the best way to organize the Windows 10 Start menu, what to do in case the Start menu does not open and, above all, how to solve the problem of missing program icons so you know how to add them and how to remove those that are not needed.
How to restore the Start menu
Although the Start menu revised in Windows 10 can bring a lot of confusion, we can always customize it to make it easier or to have all the most used programs or apps at hand, so as to improve the use of the menu in the workplace or when we study.Add new programs to Start
First of all it is important to note how each program or file can have a link on the Start menu . To create this connection, simply press the right mouse button on the icon on the desktop or in the list on the side of the Start menu and then choose the Add to Start option.
Another important thing to know is that from the Start menu you can start searches for programs and apps by typing on the keyboard : by pressing the Windows key in the lower left corner or by pressing directly on the WIN key on the keyboard we can open the Start menu and then, without pressing anything else, start writing the name of the program you want to find. The first search results should then display the name of the program searched.
Remove an icon or app from the Start menu
To remove an icon from the Start menu, especially those present on the left side of the screen (often advertising apps or games), just press the right button on it and choose Remove from Start .
By pressing the right button on the Start menu icons, when pressed on a program, the button to uninstall it also appears, which then refers to the Control Panel and the usual uninstallation screen.
Repeating the removal procedure for all the icons on the left side of the Start menu and dragging the left edge to the right we can obtain a very clean Start menu, completely similar to what we can find on Windows 7.
Scrolling through the list we will be able to see all the apps and programs present in the system, without any annoying bricks or animated panels on the left side of the Start menu. At the top we will always find the recently installed apps or programs and, typing on the keyboard with the Start menu open, we can immediately find the app or program we want to use.
How to find apps or programs not present in Start
At this point, the most frequent problem that can happen with the Start menu is that in the list of all apps, not all programs are still present . If you don't find any program or application in the general list of the Start menu, you need to create a link of that program in the reference folder of the list. To be precise, a link of the missing program must be copied to the folder:C: \ Users \ [user-name] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Start Menu \ Programs
In this folder (change where [user-name] is written with the name registered on your PC) all the connections of the general list of all the apps of the Start menu are included, therefore, copying the connection to a program inside it, the will find himself on this list.
If we do not know how to search for a hidden program or executable in Windows folders or personal folders, we recommend using an effective and fast search program such as Everything, which can show in a few seconds any file or executable stored on system disks. or on external disks.
Start menu not working or locked
Another type of very serious problem is when the Start menu stops working or is stuck in some element, for example apps that are not deleted or uninstalled or integrated search that does not work. At other times it may happen that the dynamic cards do not update, or that the search does not work.In the past, Microsoft had published an automatic Start menu repair tool that is used to reset the menu and solve any problem. Today that tool is no longer updated, but you can still download from Majorgeek and try. The utility checks the start menu for common errors, corrects them and restarts the Start menu that previously did not respond or had incorrect icons.
In general, however, we recommend that you perform a scan of the system files for Windows 10, by pressing on the Win + R keyboard, type cmd.exe in the Run window and type the following command in the prompt:
sfc / scannow
Pressing Enter on the keyboard immediately after typing the command will start scanning all system files and registry keys, so that Windows 10 can repair by itself any damaged or missing files. Once the scan is complete we can always restart the computer from the prompt by typing
shutdown.exe -r -t 00
and pressing Enter on the keyboard. At the next restart, the Start menu should be fully functional again.
If not even so we have solved the problem with the Start menu, we recommend that you try the following command from a prompt with active administrator privileges; since the Start menu does not work, let's start Everything (the search program seen in the previous chapter), look for cmd.exe (if there are more similar files, choose the one present in C: \ Windows \ System32 \ ), press on it with the right mouse button, select the item Run as administrator and finally run the following command:
Dism / Online / Cleanup-Image / RestoreHealth
Press Enter on the keyboard to start correcting the damaged files. At the end we always reboot the system from a prompt, using the same command seen earlier:
shutdown.exe -r -t 00
Alternatively, an easier way to solve any strange problem with the Start menu or with other functions of Windows 10, is to Reset the PC without formatting by creating a new user, in order to keep all the installed programs anyway and not to lose the personal files that can be transferred from the old user to the new one.
For problems with the Start menu search, we recommend removing the web results from the Windows 10 search box instead
Conclusions
Fortunately, the problems with the Start menu are uncommon but if we happen to be in one of them it is good practice to immediately understand where to intervene and what we can do to unlock it, to restore it or more simply make it faster and more practical to use in everyday life .If we want to get the practical Windows 7 menu also on Windows 10, we recommend you read our guide Bring the Windows 7 Start menu back to Windows 10 with Classic Shell .
To learn more about the potential of the Start menu seen in Windows 10 and customize it in all its parts, we can continue reading the article Personalize the Windows 10 Start menu .
