SOLVED: When I RIGHT CLICK the START BUTTON Nothing Happens in Windows 8.1

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• This worked like a charm! Thank you very much

• Same problem in Windows 10
  After reading this post i checked to see if the folder c:\User\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX exists, it did and when i clicked on Winx folder to check sub directories it said i did not have permission to access so i clicked to allow access and now all works :)

  • This has worked for me in Windows 10. When I opened the files there was nothing in them. I went to the other user (admin) and copied the filed over. Walla! after restart it worked. Thanks!

• Thanks, it works :)

• Yes, it works well when you copy all the folders Group1, Group2 and Group3, from another user which work.
  You can copy them from the "defaultuser()" or "Default" directory in Users directory.
  In my case, when it did not work, the shortcut were in the directory but they were not real shortcut (no target), they may have been corrupted.

  • Thanks very much for the help.. This worked like a charm on Windows 10. Copied from the default folder over to my folder, rebooted and it worked. Thanks very much for the help.

• I have been looking for a solution to this problem for days. Win+X doesn't work on my Windows 8.1 Pro computer. All the other Win+ keys work just fine. Right-clicking on the Start Button does nothing - no context menu appears. This happens when logged in as any user, including a new, clean profile. It happens in Safe Mode. It happens with a Clean Boot. The %appdata%\...\WinX folder is present and correct. I tried every fix suggested on every website I could find and none of them worked until I hit on this forum.

  http://www.tenforums.com/general-support/15591-win-x-doesnt-work-anymore.html

  I had previously removed the shortcut arrow from desktop icons. I have been doing this for 20 years, ever since Windows 98 came out. I found a tip for Windows 98 years ago that said you could remove the shortcut icon arrows by editing these two keys:

  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile]
  "IsShortcut"=""

  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile]
  "IsShortcut"=""

  All you had to do was rename the two values "ShortcutIs" and restart or logout and log in, and the arrows would be gone. Been doing that for 20 years with no problem, from Win98 to Win7.

  However, it seems that when you do this in Windows 8.1 Pro, it disables the Win+X key. As soon as I set both values back to the default (IsShortcut) and restarted, the Win+X key worked, and right-clicking on the Start button gave me back the Start context menu.

  I don't actually like the Win+X menu, I always install Classic Start Menu and give myself back a Windows 7-style Start menu. But it annoyed me that the Win+X menu was missing, even though I don't use it. I knew this meant something was wrong, which bugged me.

  I had NO intention of reinstalling Windows 8.1, which many sites (including Microsoft) had suggested - that is too drastic a solution and it wasn't worth the time and trouble, and I would simply have hidden the shortcut arrows again and been back where I started.

  This may not work for everyone who has the Win+X problem, but it worked for me.

  • Hi Queen Maeve,
    That's just great! Your solution was the only one that helped. I also removed the arrow for years by changing to xIsSHortcut. How did you come up with this?
    Thanks anyway!!!

• Tried every suggestion here and still nothing happens if and when I try to right click on the Windows Icon (Start button)! I'm at a loss here. Next suggestion? This is the brand new July 29th MS installation. All seems alright so far except for this issue.

  • I just added two more potential fixes for this problem so please try them and let me know how it goes.

• Brilliant

  Thank you

• Thanks that worked like a letter in the post office you are really great in providing solutions ;)

• Thanks provided solution worked for me like a charm... :)

• show hidden folders
  go to c:\User\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX instead of c:\User\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX and you will see the group folders. should be uncorrupted. then you can copy/paste and restart explorer and be good to go

  • Thank you Mark! It was easy, safe and... it worked

  • I wanted to try your solution but there is no app data right after users on my machine. Typo??

    Tried using another account but it still does not work.

    • APPDATA is a hidden folder so you need to click VIEW, HIDDEN FOLDERS (from the menu at the top of any control window, like COMPUTER/THIS PC)