Windows 8 start menu disappeared

mike8500
mike8500 used Ask the Experts™
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I upgraded to Windows 8 and it ran fine until today when I logged in and there was no start menu!  All the apps are gone.  I'm running a distributed file system environment so I deleted the profile locally to allow the server to rebuild it.  Also used regedit to delete the user account registry key (profile list).  Tried to load again and still the same - no start menu.  Logged on as Admin and the start menu is there.  Any thoughts?
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rindi
Most Valuable Expert 2015

Commented:
I'd say that is normal. Windows 8 doesn't have the traditional "start menu" you used have with the better OS's like Windows 7. If you want a real OS, then upgrade to Windows 7, and you'll have the start menu, or if you want to stay downgraded to Windows 8 you will need to install a 3rd party utility.  Maybe if you have installed such  a utility and can see the menu as admin, you might have to install that tool for every user...
Commented:
when I talk about "start menu" i mean the new one - which is more of a desktop start menu.  This was all correct and loaded fine, then this morning i login and <poof> - no start menu - no apps - nothing.

The fix for me was to first delete the local profile, then the registry key for the profile list.  that didn't work - so I deleted it again, then deleted the server profile hooked into the DFS replication.  The rebuild went fine except the "H" network directory where the homes directory is located did not connect.  Went to lunch - came back - computer had restarted itself - everything is back to normal.
mike8500

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Commented:
it fixed it but I would sure like more understanding if there is any more to be had in regards to corrupting profiles.

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