The Start menu in Windows 11 is completely different from Windows 10. The Start menu in Windows 11 removes the live tiles for application icons and displays recently viewed files and newly installed programs directly in the Start menu. A search bar has also been added to the Windows 11 Start menu.
Now the Start menu works without problems. It opens fast and the Start menu search works quite well too. However, sometimes, especially when connected to an external display, the Start menu may not open.
If the Start menu won’t open or you have other problems, you can manually restart the Start menu to quickly fix the problem.
In early versions of Windows 10, we were able to restart the Start menu by restarting the Windows Explorer process. However, in recent versions of Windows 10 and the latest version of Windows 11, the Start menu has its own process, and restarting Windows Explorer will not restart the Start menu.
Below are the three easy methods to reset the Start menu in Windows 11.
NOTE: You can always restart your PC to restart the Start menu.
Method 1 of 3
Restart the Start menu via Task Manager
Step 1: Open Task Manager. There are several ways to open the Task Manager in Windows 11. The easiest way is to use the control + Change + Esc keys. You can also use the Start / Taskbar search to open the Task Manager.
Step 2: If you see the smaller version of Task Manager, click the More details to see the full version.
Step 3: Under the Processes tab, find an entry named Start. Make a the right button of the mouse in the Start entry and then click the The end option.
Clicking the Finish option will stop and start the Startup process, which restarts the Start menu.
You can close the Task Manager now.
Method 2 of 3
Another way to restart Windows 11 Start menu via Task Manager
Step 1: Launch Task Manager using search or control + Change + Esc hotkey.
Step 2: Switch to Details tab. Here, look for the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe process.
NOTE: If you have multiple users registered on your PC, two or more instances of StartMenuExperienceHost.exe the process will appear. the Users The column next to the entry shows which user the process belongs to. Please finish the process that belongs to the currently signed user.
Step 3: The right button of the mouse on it and click on the Final task option.
Step 4: When you get the following confirmation dialog, click the Ended process button. This will restart the Start menu.
Method 3 of 3
Restart the Windows 11 Start menu via command prompt or PowerShell
If Task Manager won’t open for some reason, you can use the command prompt or PowerShell to restart the Start menu. We are restarting the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe process via command prompt or PowerShell.
Step 1: Open command prompt as administrator. You can do it by writing CMD looking, right click at the command prompt entry and clicking on the Execute as an administrator option.
Click on the Yes when the User Account Control message appears.
Step 2: At the command prompt or PowerShell window, copy and paste the following command and then press the Enter key to restart the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe process.
taskkill / f / in StartMenuExperienceHost.exe
You can close the Command Prompt or PowerShell window now.