Windows 10 Start Menu grayed out and unresponsive 2023

If you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 and are having problems with the Start menu, in today’s article we show you what to do to try to fix the problem if your Windows 10 Start menu is grayed out and unresponsive after an update.

Windows 10 Start menu gray or unresponsive

Below is a picture showing exactly how a Windows 10 Start menu is grayed out.

If you experience this problem, try one of the recommended solutions in no particular order:

Run the Windows Store app troubleshooter
Run the Start menu troubleshooter
Re-register the Windows Store
Update the graphics card driver
Run the SFC / DISM analysis.

Let us now see in detail these possible solutions.

1]Run the Windows Store app troubleshooter

Running the Windows Store app troubleshooter can help resolve this issue in some cases. It is therefore advisable to try it and see if it can help you.

2]Run the Start menu troubleshooter

The Start menu troubleshooter is another that could be useful in fixing the grayed out Start menu.

Once you’ve downloaded the tool, do the following:

Open the troubleshooter.
Click on Advanced.
To select Apply repairs automatically.
Then press Next to browse the fixes in the troubleshooter.

3]Re-register the Windows Store

Corrupt installed Windows Store files can cause the Start menu problem to be grayed out. Therefore, re-registering the Windows Store app may resolve the issue. Here’s how:

Launch PowerShell in administrator mode.

In the PowerShell window, copy and paste the command below and press Enter:

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

Restart your device.

After re-registering the Windows Store, you will need to reset the Windows Store cache.

To do this, press the Windows key + R.

In the Run dialog box, type the command below and press Enter:

wsreset.exe

The Windows Store app can then update and resolve the grayed out Start menu issue.

Additionally, you can run the command below in high PowerShell mode, then restart your computer and see if it helps.

Get-appxpackage -all shellexperience -packagetype bundle |% {add-appxpackage -register -disabledevelopmentmode ($_.installlocation + “appxmetadataappxbundlemanifest.xml”)}

4]Update the graphics card driver

Try to update the GPU drivers. This problem is known to have been caused by NVIDIA drivers before, so if you have one, update the NVIDIA drivers. Here’s how:

Press Windows key + R. In the Run dialog box, type dxdiag press enter.
Note the details of the operating system and graphics card model on the System and Pin up tabs respectively.
Then go to your graphics card manufacturer’s website in a browser.
Open the drivers section of the website.
Then select your graphics card model and your Windows platform from the drop-down menus on the site. If the site has a driver search box, enter the model of your graphics card.
Download the most up-to-date driver compatible with your 64 or 32 bit computer architecture.
Thereafter, double-click the driver installer from the folder where you downloaded it to install the graphics card driver.

Once the driver installation is complete, restart the PC and see if the problem is resolved.

5]Run SFC / DISM scan

Performing the SFC / DISM scan operation can help solve this problem. The procedure simply replaces corrupt / damaged system files with new, healthy copies – it can also rebuild the installed Windows 10 system image.

For ease and convenience, you can run the analysis using the procedure below.

Open Notepad – copy and paste the command below into the text editor.

@echo off
date /t & time /t
echo Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
echo ...
date /t & time /t
echo Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
echo ...
date /t & time /t
echo SFC /scannow
SFC /scannow
date /t & time /t
pause

Save the file with a name and add it .bat file extension – for example; SFC_DISM_scan.bat.

Run the batch file repeatedly with administrator privileges (right click on the saved file and select Execute as administratorr in the context menu) until it reports no error – at this point you can now restart your PC and see if the grayed-out Start menu problem has been resolved.

That’s it, friends – all the best!