Lost Start Menu

I recently installed the latest cumulative update for Windows 10 2004 and now I can't left click on my start menu. The right click still works. The Start Menu Troubleshooter (yes, I know it isn't really part of W10) tells me that "Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost" and "Microsoft.Windows.Cortana" applications need to be installed correctly"

Re-registering the start menu via powershell with this command didn't help:

Get-appxpackage -all *shellexperience* -packagetype bundle |% {add-appxpackage -register -disabledevelopmentmode ($_.installlocation + “\appxmetadata\appxbundlemanifest.xml”)}

I was able to re-register Cortana but not Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost because the command below failed

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Here is the (I think) relevant section of the powershell error message:

About to service package Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.19041.423_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy. Setting the package state to disabled returned with 0x0.

8/15/2020 11:17:05 AM 310 error 0x80070422: Cannot register the request because the following error was encountered while initializing the windows.capability extension: The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

8/15/2020 11:17:08 AM 404 AppX Deployment operation failed for package Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.19041.423_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy with error 0x80073CF6. The specific error text for this failure is: error 0x80070422: Cannot register the request because the following error was encountered while initializing the windows.capability extension: The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

I've also tried all of the other suggested things: sfc, dism, making a new user account, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

You don't say you have tried system restore?

 

I would rather not do a restore.

Any other thoughts??? Thanks!!!!!!!!

 

I'd try this:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/tweaking_com_windows_repair_portable.html

 

Then image the system first. If restore doesn't work you can revert to where you are now.

 

Yes! That worked!! You're a genius; thanks !!!!!!

 

Thanks for that suggestion; I'm going to make an image now. However, note from my above reply that somehow tweaking.com's windows repair suite did the trick. But thanks very much for you suggestion anyway! Something I should've done some time ago since I do that routinely for some of our instruments at work.