Critical Error - Your Start Menu Isn't Working in Windows 11? Re-register It and Fix the Service

You click Start (or press the Windows key) and get a pop-up: “Critical Error - Your Start menu isn’t working. We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in.” Clicking Start does nothing, or the menu flashes and closes.

Why: the Start menu in Windows 11 is its own app — a packaged process called StartMenuExperienceHost — that depends on a background Windows service. If the app’s registration gets damaged (often after an update or a profile problem) or the service it relies on isn’t running, Start can’t draw, so Windows shows the Critical Error. The fixes below restore both, fastest first.

Fix 1: Restart Windows Explorer

The shell that hosts Start sometimes just hangs. Restarting it is instant and loses nothing.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
2. On the Processes tab, find Windows Explorer.
3. Right-click it and choose Restart.

The taskbar will blink and redraw. Click Start again. If Explorer isn’t even listed, choose Run new task, type explorer.exe, and select OK.

Fix 2: Confirm the Start menu app is installed, then re-register it

The Critical Error frequently means the Start menu package lost its registration for your user. First check whether it’s there.

Open Windows PowerShell (not elevated — right-click Start… or if Start is dead, Ctrl + Shift + Esc → Run new task → powershell) and run:

Get-AppxPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost

If you get output with a PackageFullName, the package exists but may be mis-registered. Re-register it for your account by pointing at its manifest. Run this from a normal (non-elevated) PowerShell prompt — running it as administrator registers the app to the admin, not to you:

Add-AppxPackage -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode

Sign out and back in, then test Start. If Get-AppxPackage returned nothing, confirm the package still exists for other users from an elevated prompt:

Get-AppxPackage *StartMenu* -AllUsers

If that returns details, the files are on disk and the Add-AppxPackage command above will work. If it returns nothing at all, the package is gone for everyone — Microsoft’s guidance is to revert to a known-good state (roll back the update or reset the PC); there’s no supported way to hand-install the Start AppX files.

Fix 3: Make sure the Background Tasks Infrastructure Service is running

Microsoft documents that an unresponsive Start menu is commonly caused by the Background Tasks Infrastructure Service (BrokerInfrastructure) not being started. Start depends on it.

1. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
2. Find Background Tasks Infrastructure Service.
3. Confirm Status = Running and Startup type = Automatic. If it’s stopped, right-click → Start; if startup is wrong, right-click → Properties → set Automatic → Apply.

This service must be Automatic on every supported Windows version for a stable Start menu. You can’t stop it while Windows is running, which is expected.

Fix 4: Repair system files with SFC and DISM

If re-registering didn’t stick, an underlying system file may be corrupt. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator and run:

sfc /scannow

If SFC reports it couldn’t fix everything, repair the component store, then run SFC again:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

Restart and test Start.

FAQ

It says “We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in” — does signing out actually help? Sometimes, because sign-in re-triggers app registration. Try it once. If the error returns, work through Fixes 2 and 3, which fix it deliberately instead of hoping.

Why must the re-register command run from a non-elevated prompt? Add-AppxPackage registers the app to whoever runs it. From an admin prompt it registers to the administrator account, so your own Start stays broken. Run it as the affected user.

The error appeared right after a Windows update. Should I roll it back? Check Settings → Windows Update → Update history first — installing the latest cumulative update often fixes a regression faster than rolling back. If Start is completely unrecoverable for all users, reverting the update is the documented fallback.

Sources: Microsoft Learn — Troubleshoot Start menu errors