How I restored sanity to my Windows 10 upgraded computer
May 30, 2016
My First Windows 10 Upgrade Attempt
Prior to using Windows 10, my current self built computer ran on Windows 7 Home Premium. I kept it up to date with Service Pack 1 (the only one released for Windows 7) and all important Windows updates, as well as all third party programs I installed and browser plug-ins and add-ons. Very importantly, I operated as a Windows 7 "Standard User", not as an Administrator. Read why you should operate as a less privileged user.
I have never been afraid to experiment with my computers, all of which I built from scratch. I have updated every one to a newer O.S. since my first Windows 3.1 PC was upgraded to Windows 95. I still have floppy disks to prove it!
And so it happened that when Windows 10 was made available to the public during the Fall of 2015, I went for the free upgrade (saving an Acronis full system image, plus a Windows 7 Backup image, just in case). Nothing went right that time, with many programs crashing or failing to open properly, including the new to me XAML Start menu and notifications window. Fortunately for upgraders, Windows 10 allows us a 30 day grace period to roll back to our previous operating system. After that your Windows 7 license expires and you are locked into Windows 10. So, I used the built-in recovery option to roll back to Windows 7, which had some icons with padlocks and wrong permissions issues, but otherwise went smoothly, and waited for improvements to be made to Windows 10. Two months later I was ready to try again!
My Windows 10 Upgrade: Round 2
My second attempt came in late November, 2015. This time a lot of changes had been made and my computer ran much better under Windows 10, with a few unfortunate exceptions. These exceptions included a recurring problem with the Start menu, Cortana and notifications windows not opening when I left-clicked on their icons in the Taskbar. Furthermore, pressing the Windows key failed to cause the Start menu to open, as it should have. I had to constantly use the right-click menu on the Start icon to even shut down, restart, or log out of Windows. Eventually, I would open Powershell in Administrator mode and paste in a command I saved to a text file and restart. This would fix the non-functioning Start menu until the next automatic Windows update, or some other unexplanable thing would happen and the menu would stop working again.
I researched till I was blue in the face for solutions to the Start menu not opening problem. Windows 10 forums were full of similar complaints from frustrated users, all of who seen to have upgraded from Windows 7. Microsoft was silent about this problem until quite recently when they released a tool for what they call an emerging issue of Troubleshooting Problems opening the Start menu or Cortana. I ran the troubleshooting tool listed on that page and it found no problems. Despite that proclamation, I had no usable Start menu, Cortana, or notifications windows!
I tried every solution I read about and some I thought up, with only temporary success. The most promising candadate was uninstalling Messaging and Skype. For whatever reason this seems to have worked for a while. That is, until another Windows Update happened and broke the Start menu again.
In desperation, I did an in-place upgrade of Windows 10, which just made things worse. The upgrade caused the weather, money and news apps to stop working when I opened them as windows - from live tiles that were working - and with Skype reinstalled, the Start menu stopped starting again. Sigh.
By that time I had had enough. It was too late to "roll back" to Windows 7, not just because my 30 days to decide had elapsed along with the Windows 7 product key, but because I had updated all my programs, installed new ones (with licenses), created tons of new documents and basically used to computer too much to comfortably go back over 5 months. Still, I had the means, if I really wanted to do that. It would have meant spending a week to reinstall and update a 5 months old Windows 7 setup (and preventing a forced upgrade to Windows 10), along with all those new programs, plus files and settings that had changed and been created.
With the saved Windows 7 image in plain view, and the System Recovery disk on my desk, I decided to try one more thing to fix Windows 10. That was a System Reset.
Round 3: System Reset
There are two types of System Reset under Windows 10. One method wipes everything off the installation drive (usually C:\) and reinstalls Windows 10 in a factory state. All user accounts and their files and setting are wiped off the disk. Microsoft refers to this reset as the type used if you plan to recycle or resell the computer and don't want anything personal left on it. The other method - "Keep my files" - removes all non-default programs, reinstalls Windows 10 afresh and most importantly, lets you keep your user accounts and logins, along with their personal documents, pictures, music, movies, etc. Everything under your user account "Libraries" is preserved, along with any custom folders you may have created under the C:\ root folder (e.g.: C:\Downloads, C:\My Saves, etc.). But, all user-installed programs that were within the "Program Files" and "Program Data" and their associated "Application Data" folders are totally removed. Also, any files or sub-folders that your programs may have placed under the Windows folder will be removed.
So, I backed up all my downloads, important files and the entire C drive to another hard drive and to a USB drive, using Acronis True Image and initiated a system "Reset" - keeping my user files.
After I did a full reset, keeping only my user account identities and their "Documents" contents, Windows 10 performed like a champ. My user account logins were left as is. The reset operation left a file named "Removed Apps.html" on both of my user account desktops, with the administrator level account having the complete list. It took me parts of three days to reinstall the programs I actually use, ignoring dozens of others I stopped using over the years. I used my saved Acronis True Image files to extract some important files that needed to go back into reinstalled Program Files and the users' Application Data folders. If you want to learn more about my preferred Windows backup program, read about Acronis True Image here.
As promised, the reset option I chose left my "Documents" and all its sub-folders intact. It deleted all other folders and files belonging to third party programs that didn't ship with Windows 10.
Summary and Recommendation
If, like me, you have upgraded a Windows 7 computer to Windows 10 and are suffering the same types of issues I had, I would recommend a system Reset, with the "keep my files" option. Yes, it takes time to reinstall your programs and data folder settings, but in the end I think it was worth the effort. Your PC should be more stable and the new Windows 10 Start menu, live tiles and information windows should work as intended.
