I recently upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 10 and loved it so far until recently. I came across an error, that when I would sign in i'll get an error saying \"Critical Error: Start menu and cortana aren't working\" and ask me to sign-out and sign back in, in hope to fix the error. No matter how many times I restarted my computer and signed back in I still got the same error.
I was able to find a solution to bypass this error. This is not a permentant solution, but will work until Microsoft comes out with a fix.
- Bring up the task manager (either by CTRL + SHIFT + ESC or ALT + CTRL + DEL)
- On the tab press File > Run new task.
- Next type in \"msconfig\" (without quotes) and make sure you have \"Create this task with administrative privileges\" selected.
- Under the Boot tab in Boot options enable \"Safe boot\" and have \"Network\" selected.
After pressing \"Apply\" and \"Ok\" you will get a prompt to restart your computer. Restart it. - Now your computer will start in Safe Mode. Everything should be working fine even the start menu.
- In safe mode follow step 1-3 again and undo what you did in step 4 (unselect \"Safe boot\").
After restarting again, your computer should startup in regular mode and the error should not be coming anymore.