“Critical Error – Start menu and Cortana aren’t working. We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in.”

“Critical Error – Start menu and Cortana aren’t working. We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in.”

We are aware that some customers experience one of the following errors consistently in Windows 10:

“Critical Error – Cortana isn’t working.  We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in.”

Or

“Critical Error – Start menu and Cortana aren’t working.  We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in.”

Or

“Critical Error – Your Start menu isn’t working.  We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in.”

You may be able to temporarily resolve the issue by booting to Safe Mode, and then immediately booting back into normal mode.  This workaround may resolve your problem for a while, however the error may return later.

To boot to Safe Mode: 

  1. From Hold the Shift key down while you press the Power icon and select Restart.
  2. Once you are within the Windows Recovery Environment, select Troubleshoot, then Advanced options, then Startup Settings, and Restart.
  3. When it restarts, you should see a number of options.  Press 5 or F5 for Safe Mode with networking.
  4. Once you sign into your account in Safe Mode, you’re done.  Just restart your PC to return to a normal boot.

If you are running a 3rd-party antivirus software, we recommend uninstalling and then reinstalling the antivirus software, as this may also provide a workaround for this problem.  The easiest way to uninstall an app is to find it in the Start menu’s app list, right-click the app, and select Uninstall. 

Some customers have reported that adding a new local administrator account has resolved their Critical Error. If that doesn’t work, try removing the original administrator account now that you have a new one created.

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