Ahsan MuGhaL
How to Repair a Frozen Start Menu or Taskbar in Windows 10. Certain essential features in the Windows 10 user interface go idle from time to time. Nothing happens when you click or touch the Start menu or any taskbar icons. Nothing happens no matter how hard you try. This might range from annoying to aggravating.
How to Repair a Frozen Start Menu or Taskbar in Windows 10
Fortunately, as I shall shortly demonstrate, there is a very simple cure for this type of behavior.
When the UI starts acting up, many Windows users’ default response is to restart their machine. That will, in fact, solve a nonresponsive Start menu or taskbar icons. It does, however, take time at least a minute for most PC users and can stymie your work.
Although File Explorer handles processing for the Start menu and the taskbar, including the notification area, there’s a simpler, speedier solution worth exploring before resorting to heavy weaponry.
You may quickly and conveniently start the Task Manager application by using the Alt-Shift-Esc key combination or right-clicking an empty place in the taskbar. Depicts the right-click pop-up menu from which you can run the Task Manager tool by selecting the Task Manager item (third from the bottom).
Restart File Explorer using Task Manager
When Task Manager is launched, check for an entry on the Processes tab under the Apps heading. File Explorer was previously known as Windows Explorer, and here is how it appears in Task Manager.
(It’s okay if you don’t see anything like this.) Simply launch a copy of File Explorer. If you can’t accomplish it from the taskbar, press the Windows key-R key combination. This will open the Windows run box, where you may launch the app by typing explorer (or explorer.exe). It will then appear in Task Manager under Apps (as “Windows Explorer”).
To reactivate the Start menu and taskbar, right-click Windows Explorer and select the Restart option (second from top).
On some PCs, this function can take up to 30 seconds to complete, although it is still significantly faster than a full system reboot. Don’t be surprised if the taskbar goes blank and all icons vanish. This is an expected side effect of relaunching File Explorer. Before it can be restarted, it must first be stopped, and when it is stopped, all UI components are momentarily removed. This will not continue long, no matter how unsettling it is.
When the File Explorer process is restarted, the Start menu and taskbar icons, as well as the UI behaviors they support, are restored. In the vast majority of cases, this will resolve whatever was causing the Start menu or taskbar icons to stop reacting to mouse or touch inputs – and you can go back to work.
And that’s the end of it! Try it out the next time you have unresponsive taskbar icons or an apparently frozen Start menu.
