Win10 start menu no longer works

I've had the start menu stop working twice, both times with newly installed guest VMs of Windows 10 RTM. Once it breaks, there is nothing I have found so far that will get the start menu to work again. The most recent time this occurred, I disabled Retina resolution to use the VM on an external monitor. Unfortunately turning the Retina setting back on did not fix the problem.

I am using a MacBook Pro Retina with 10.10.4 installed.

juls

 

Hi JulsS,
Please check for Parallels Desktop updates and update to the latest build. This will resolve your issue. Refer, http://kb.parallels.com/122647

 

Hi Druba.

I am running Parallels 10.2.1. When I do check for updates, Parallels says that I am running the latest version.

juls

 

@JulsS, please try to update Windows 10 to the beta 2, reinstall Parallels Tools and check the issue.
Except for that we would like to let you know that the latest version of Parallels Desktop 10 (10.2.2-29105) has been released yesterday. Please check Parallels Desktop for updates once again.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I upgraded to the 10.2.2 version but it did not fix the problem. The new tools installed but the start menu is still broken. I reverted to an earlier snapshot with a working tools menu and canceled the tools install when it started. I confirmed that the start menu works fine. If I then install tools, the start menu breaks.

juls

 

@JulsS, could you please let me know if you also tried updating Windows 10 to the latest version?

 

Yes, I am using build 10240 with all patches through yesterday installed. I tried switching to Coherence mode and I can launch Office apps but when I switch back to modality/full screen view, the start menu still does not work. Cortana can find apps but can't launch them.

I also tried uninstalling tools and the start menu remains broken.

What is strange is that I never saw this behavior during the beta cycle. It was only when I upgraded a Win 8.1 VM (not keeping any files) to Windows 10 10240 that I ran into this issue.

juls

 

I rolled back to an earlier snapshot, installed all updates and the new version of Parallels tools. The start menu is working fine. It is possible that something else caused the problem and it was a just a coincidence that Parallels Tools was updating.

I highly recommend that users take a snapshot of their VM after installing Windows 10. Without the snapshot, I would have had to go through the entire upgrade process again.

juls

 

I experienced the start menu problems through most of the builds, but with the last few, the tile database would get permanently corrupted and then that 'user' could never work again (check the event log). Deleting that user and creating another has so far fixed this. Adjusting the start menu appeared to make the corruption more likely. Snapshots are very handy so I do one before before/after updates.

BUT I have also experienced this once with the latest windows 10240 build and parallels Version 10.2.2 (29105) so it is not fixed yet! I assumed it was a windows problem but now thinking its probably how parallels tools interacts.

 

Thanks CccA for posting your experience. It helps to know that it may not be something specific in my configuration. I think you are onto something regarding making changes to the start menu. I did not have my start menu break until after I had installed Office 2013 and made changes to my start menu.

I thought for sure it was Parallels Tools because one of my snapshots had the start menu working, then Parallels Tools would update to the 10.2.2 version and the menu would be broken. However, I am not so sure now. I used that snapshot, canceled the Tools update, confirmed the start menu still worked, disabled the three Parallels services, set the three Parallels services to manual and then rebooted. Upon reboot, the start menu was broken.

Your point about having a snapshot cannot be understated.

juls

 

@JulsS I'd like to let you know that I was able to reproduce this issue on my Mac and after the manual reinstallation of Parallels tools the start menu works correctly.
So, I think there is some conflict between Parallels Tools and some internal Windows 10 component.
Except for that could you please reproduce the issue and provide me with the problem report in order to investigate the issue further?

 

This is what gets put in the event log at the time it goes wrong:

svchost (2084) TILEREPOSITORYS-1-5-21-2768525531-915675545-3657958920-1013: The log range read from the file "C:\Users\msain\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database\EDB.log" at offset 143360 (0x0000000000023000) for 4096 (0x00001000) bytes failed verification due to a range checksum mismatch. The expected checksum was 4096 (0x1000) and the actual checksum was 152105744948 (0x236a357a34). The read operation will fail with error -501 (0xfffffe0b). If this condition persists then please restore the logfile from a previous backup.​

Followed by many other errors stating corruption of that file.
I'm not sure why it happened when it did but its happen many times. The mac was plugged in and awake this time it happened to me and not during parallel tools install. There is a loadPerf event 19sec before.
On a previous occasion I fixed the "user" by coping the Database folder from a previous snapshot.

 

Running into this same issue, sometimes start menu works, and sometimes it doesnt.

when it does work, many times it moves into a new mac desktop with a gray screen

I am on latest versions of both windows 10 and parallels 10.

 

Experiencing the same issue here.
It started when I uninstalled the Parallels Tools prior to upgrade to official Win10. (had to in order to work around the Win10 beta BSOD issue.

Now if I navigate directly to the .exe or use the Mac App, the programs launch but Start, Search and R-clicks in the toolbar go unrecognized.

 

Hi Maria.

Unfortunately I removed the snapshot that allowed me to reproduce the problem. I will see if I can get it to happen again.

juls

 

Ok, will be looking forward to your reply.
Thanks a lot for your cooperation.

 

I made a bunch of changes to my start menu and turned the retina resolution off/on. I was not able to reproduce the problem.

Microsoft released a large new patch earlier today that I installed.

I will report back if the start menu breaks again.

juls

 

I've had this problem twice and had to reinstall both times as I was unable to fix it. This time I did managed to fix it. I noticed loads of errors in the EventLog complaining of a corrupt database file in the following location:

C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database​

A search in Google brought me to this forum which pointed me in the right direction - replace the contents of this folder with good non corrupt files. As my user account was the only one on the machine, I had to create a new user account and copy this entire folder from that account and overwrite mine. As the files in my folder were locked, I actually had to create two new user accounts. I tried creating only one but it wouldn't let me copy the files from the new account I was signed into as they were also locked.
Steps:

1. Create 2 new user accounts, sign in to each, then sign out of all accounts.
2. Sign in to one of the new accounts again.
   
3. In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database folder of the other new user account (not the one you're signed into).
4. Copy the contents of this folder into the equivalent folder of the broken user account.
5. Assuming all files copy successfully, sign out of the new account and sign into the "broken" account.
6. The start menu should be back to normal.
   
7. Delete the new user accounts as they are no longer needed.

Very annoying problem, but at least I've managed to get around it (for now).

 

ScottJ1 - Thank you for this information. The exact same thing happened to me today and this resolved it.

 

Thank you @ScottJ1! That worked perfectly. Excellent step-by-step instructions.