There are widespread reports of the Start Menu and taskbar not functioning on PCs that have updated to todays new release of Windows 11, build 22000.176 for Beta/Release Preview channels, and 22449 on Dev channel. It also may affect older versions too as some commenters have mentioned. If you are on Windows 11 and your Start Menu and/or taskbar is not loading right, crashing, missing all the icons/clock, and otherwise being useless, you have come to the right place.

The issue is being investigated and is listed in the known issues, and they have acknowledged it on Twitter too.

We're investigating reports across our Dev & Beta Channels that Start and Taskbar are unresponsive and Settings and other areas of the OS won't load. We appreciate your patience as we investigate. Please Stay tuned for more details.

https://twitter.com/windowsinsider/status/1433593880541163529?s=20

Microsoft is reporting the issue is resolved, the and shouldn't affect anymore PCs, and "we will be rolling out a new server-side deployment that will automatically fix Insiders in this state over the next few hours."

If you are still having trouble with this, here are a few different methods that appear to be helping others resolve the issue:

Official fix from Microsoft##

Recently, Windows Insiders in both the Dev and Beta Channels began reporting that Start and Taskbar were unresponsive and Settings and other areas of the OS wouldn’t load. We quickly discovered an issue with a server-side deployment that went out to Insiders and canceled that deployment. If you were impacted by this issue, you can use the following steps to get back into a working state on your PC.

• Step 1: Use CTRL-ALT-DEL and choose to open Task Manager.

• Step 2: Choose “More details” at the bottom of Task Manager to expand Task Manager.

• Step 3: Go to “File” and choose “Run new task”.

• Step 4: Type “cmd” in the “Open” field.

• Step 5: Paste the following: reg delete HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\IrisService /f && shutdown -r -t 0

• Step 6: Hit enter, and then your PC should reboot. After rebooting, everything should be back to normal. Additionally, we will be rolling out a new server-side deployment that will automatically fix Insiders in this state over the next few hours.

https://twitter.com/windowsinsider/status/1433615378362503177

Below are unofficial fixes reported by others that worked for them

You can uninstall the latest update by doing "Ctrl + Alt + Delete" taking you to your lock screen where you can select "Task Manager." Once Task Manager starts click "File" then "Run New Task." Then type in "Control Panel" and wait for that to open. Once it does, click in the left panel "View Installed Updates." Then find Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5006050) and uninstall.

So,

• Ctrl + Alt + Delete

• Blue screen with Lock, Switch User, Sign Out and Task Manager

• Select Task Manager

• Click File

• Click Run New Task

• Type in Control Panel - Click Ok

• When Control Panel opens, click the link in the left panel labeled "View Installed Updates"

• Find update "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5006050) and uninstall it.

• Reboot

Thank you /u/Ag3nt0rang3_ for this.

Change your date to some time in October and disable time sync

• Open task manager

• Run, then type in Control and hit OK

• Select date and time

• Change date and time, then pick something in the future, hit OK

• Go to the Internet Time tab and disable the automatic sync.

Note! I've seen comments that simply changing the time sync server from Windows to NIST helped without having to adjust the clock itself. Worth a shot.

Run System Restore:

• Open Task Manager with Ctrl Alt Delete

• Run New Task

• Then Type in CMD and make sure you check the box that says create as admin task.

• When CMD starts type in rsutil.exe which starts up Windows Restore and set it back to before today's date.

Registry key fix

• Use CTRL+Shift+Esc to Task Manager, run regedit as task.

• I went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell\Update\Packages and created a DWORD by name UndockingDisabled with a value of 1 [then restart your PC].

(The start menu didn't work, but at least now I can wait for the bug to be fixed from the Win11 taskbar.) To undo, Delete DWORD Value to restore Win11 explorer. I can see Settings by clicking on Taskbar and selecting Taskbar Configs.

Another way to do that registry key fix:

Open a command prompt as an administrator, and type the following command:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell\Update\Packages" /v "UndockingDisabled" /d 1 /t REG_DWORD /f

That is all I have for fixes at the moment, I'm still trying to read everything, and will keep adding more as I find them. You guys have posted over 300 comments in about an hour between this thread and others, they are coming in faster than I can read them but I am trying to at least look at everything.

Guide is old and Reddit stripped all the images after an edit. There's a YouTube video I've made covering a new process.

UPDATE 2: This has not been tested for the new beta. I will try to update this later for beta and final releases.

UPDATE: Thanks for all the feedback! Glad to hear this is helpful. I have cleaned up the guide a little and welcome anyone else's suggestions for registry changes etc. that they had to use specifically for their machine. Feel free to send me a message if you know something that could further assist others with this guide. Let's collect all the info that's relevant for now and try to put it here! Please see important disclaimer at the bottom, too.

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If you have an older system like me with no ftpm or htpm support with an older gen processor (4th gen in my case) then this guide is for you. SecureBoot should be bypassed with this as well as I don't have it enabled.

I don't have an option in my bios for the intel trust platform available on my CPU.

So after all the Youtube videos and articles I found with mixed info, this is how I finally got Windows 11 on my "unsupported rig", at this stage.

Will this work for future/final/non dev releases? I don't know.

This is the process for getting Windows 11 installed via the Windows Insider Programme and ultimately through Windows update.

First, in Windows 10, I did the following:

Modify the registry

Note: Changes are xcluding quotes " ".

STEP 1:

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\UI\Selection

Change "UIBranch" key to "Dev", "UIContentType" key to "Mainline" and "UIRing" key to "External"

STEP 2:

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\Applicability

Make "BranchName" key to "Dev", "ContentType" key to "Mainline" and "Ring" key to "External"

STEP 3:

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup

Added a new key "LabConfig"

Create two DWORDs (32) in that key:

• BypassTPMCheck

• BypassSecureBootCheck

Set both their values to 1.

Enrol in the Windows insider programme

Step 4:

Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Programme.

Once you've signed in, check you are on the dev branch.

If not, click on the branch you are on itself "Eg. Custom, beta, preview" and it will take you to some sub options. You should see "dev channel" on that next page that is unticked. Go ahead and tick it and return back to the Insider Programme to make sure you are now on the dev channel.

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You'll still see this warning on the main page but we've bypassed it already. Just make sure you're now enrolled in the dev channel as you can see below.

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Get Windows 11 via Windows Update

Step 5:

Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and check for updates.

You should see the Windows 11 preview start to download.

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ONLY IF YOU GET ERROR 0cx190012e. If you don't, or the WSUS directory doesn't exist, just skip this.

IF YOU GET ERROR 0cx190012e in Windows update then you may need to delete a file called setupconfig.ini.

Delete setupconfig.ini from C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WSUS

Step 6:

Once Windows 11 has downloaded in Windows update, eventually the Windows 11 setup will start and might still tell you that you require TPM 2.0, SecureBoot or both.

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Close that setup window and do the following:

Navigate in explorer to C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources

Download the TPM fix from here: CodeProf14/Fix-TPM (github.com)

Replace AppraiserRes.dll in C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources with the one from the fix. I don't recommend using one from Windows 10 as there have been reports of crashing and other issues.

Step 7: (ALMOST THERE)

Go back to Windows update and start downloading the update again. It might have a "fix issues" button you can click to start the Windows 11 preview download again.

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After a minute or so, the Windows 11 setup will open again only this time if you did the AppraiserRes.dll replacement & registry mods correctly, then the TPM/SecureBoot check will be bypassed and the Windows 11 preview will continue to download and install on unsupported hardware.

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My specs as above. What's my experience been like?

Stability has been fine, no BSODS or crashing. Just GUI glitches they still need to work out. Lots of options and context menus taken away at this stage. Honestly, Windows 10 offers more than this preview at this time. I only recommend this truly for devs or someone curious just to check it out on a spare computer.

Don't use the preview as a daily driver!

Thanks and enjoy!

Kyle GP

P.S - Don't expect this to work flawlessly for any subsequent releases. This doesn't bypass a CPU check, which at this stage does not seem to be present in the dev builds. If Microsoft changes this, other work arounds might apply in future. Do not also expect Windows 11 to work flawlessly just because you got it installed on unsupported hardware. Don't use it as a daily driver. It's a very early release of the OS and you're installing it with these methods on a system that isn't officially supported. Nobody else will be liable for downtime or loss if things go wrong! If you wanna take the risk, go for it, but if there's a dev update next week that enforces CPU checks or otherwise, you could find you have an unbootable system suddenly.

why is it showing up how to remove this??