The Critical Error saying “Start menu and Cortana aren’t working. We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in” doesn’t let you use the Start menu or Cortana in Windows 10.
The first step toward troubleshooting the issue is to click the “Sign out now” button to sign out and then sign back in. You can even try rebooting the PC which sometime resolves the problem.
If signing out and restarting don’t help, you can start the computer in Safe Mode, and then restart it back in Normal Mode to resolve the issue.
Here’s how:
- ■Open Task Manager
Press the Alt + Ctrl + Delete keys together on your keyboard, and click Task Manager from the screen that appears next. This opens the Task Manager box. Since neither the Start menu nor Cortana are functioning, it can be well-assumed that even the taskbar could be non-responsive. Pressing the Alt + Ctrl + Delete keys together switches to a screen with the options that may help you troubleshoot the issues your PC has.
■Get to the System Configuration box
Click More details from the bottom of the Task Manager box, go to File > Run new task, type MSCONFIG in the Create new task box’s Open field, and click OK. This opens the System Configuration box. From here you can configure Windows services and other boot options for your computer.
■Reboot in Safe Mode
Go to the Boot tab, check the Safe boot box, click OK, and click Restart. This restarts Windows 10 in Safe Mode. Here both Start menu and Cortana should work fine.
■Reboot back in Normal Mode
Type MSCONFIG in the Cortana search box, click System Configuration from the Best match list (or press Enter), go to the Boot tab, uncheck the Safe boot box, click OK, and click Restart. This restarts Windows 10 back in Normal Mode. In Normal Mode, you can notice that the Start menu and Cortana are now functional.