No search button, taskbar, settings app, window key unresponsive etc

[shanks]

I had this major incident a few days ago. I upgraded Windows 10 to 11 three months ago and had a problem for a while with Windowns Update. Having solved that I received updates, but after one of them the following happened suddenly

No start button, no taskbar, no settings app, windows key unresponsive. I can access task manager and the run and cmd commands which enables me to access device manager. No response to ms-services.exe. Although I can open control panel, settings and other tabs are unresponsive. Have tried more than 30 advertised solutions, including DISM and windows reinstall. Have tried various msconfig .combinations. However FULL FUNCTIONALITY (ALMOST) IN SAFE MODE BUT NO NETWORK CONNECTIVITY This may be a problem with my Dell laptop.)

There are other bugs, for example task manager always stalls and has to be force-closed. This often happens with Office 365 as well.

Because, not settings, and when in safe mode, no internet I can no longer update.

Any suggestsions?

Thanks
Shanka

Have tried rolling back last update from recovery.

 

[shanks]

I had this major incident a few days ago. I upgraded Windows 10 to 11 three months ago and had a problem for a while with Windowns Update. Having solved that I received updates, but after one of them the following happened suddenly

No start button, no taskbar, no settings app, windows key unresponsive. I can access task manager and the run and cmd commands which enables me to access device manager. No response to ms-services.exe. Although I can open control panel, settings and other tabs are unresponsive. Have tried more than 30 advertised solutions, including DISM and windows reinstall. Have tried various msconfig .combinations. However FULL FUNCTIONALITY (ALMOST) IN SAFE MODE BUT NO NETWORK CONNECTIVITY This may be a problem with my Dell laptop.)

There are other bugs, for example task manager always stalls and has to be force-closed. This often happens with Office 365 as well.

Because, not settings, and when in safe mode, no internet I can no longer update.

Any suggestsions?

Thanks
Shanka

Have tried rolling back last update from recovery.

Thanks - yes did that a couple of times. Not sure that ut dud anything

 

[shanks]

Thanks - yes did that a couple of times. Not sure that ut dud anything

Also did System Restore a couple of times, successfully but no change to the problem. Also did all the DISM stuff - which completed but with improvement

 

[shanks]

Also did System Restore a couple of times, successfully but no change to the problem. Also did all the DISM stuff - which completed but with improvement WORK AROUND

I did solve this in a manner of speaking.
1. I discovered that in safe mode the error of missing taskbar did not occur. However, my safe mode does not have networking (it's a feature of my Dell machine.)
2. I then began experimenting with msconfig facility (which I initiated by using the task manager and "Run new task") Limiting the services on the services tab had an impact on the appearance of the error after rebooting.
3. I found that unchecking the WLan Auto Config tab on the selection of services would cause make the error (no taskbar etc) to disappear when system was rebooted (out of safe mode). (I also chekced all services other than MS Intel and Dell - also Realtek.
4. Once rebooted (the taskbar was back) I used the task manager to find the WLan service (right clocking it to bring "services" up). The Wlan was set to "disabled". By changing it from the properties to "automatic" then pressing OK; and then using the right click to "start" the service, the networking came back on immediately
4. The system was still fragile. Some times the Search worked and sometimes it stalled. Sometimes it could be made to work by right clicking the start button and then searching from the drop down. It was frequently hard to rejoin the wifi network but once it did, and I stopped fiddling with it, it found the connection for itself the next time. Restarting can be abnormally slow, but leave it alone.. When I use task manager I still always have to force close it.
5. Often on the next reboot the taskbar disappearing act would come back. Using msconfig, I found that the the WLan tab was still unchecked. But if I then checked it and pressed OK and then unchecked it again, it would reboot correctly.
6. This got back other functionality like settings, and system restore but some settings had changed, e.g. on Office 365

Victory for trial and error over expertise!

This is a long standing issue with Windows 11 that they have not solved - very irritating because I think thee symptoms are different for different machines.