Classic Shell: Forum

After running win10 with 4.2.3 classic shell for several days, I got the above error immediately after logging in with no error code or other info. Win10 immediately logged me off, as there was no other choice except to click OK. Logging in again, same error. After a restart however, I'm back to normal. Mentioning start menu hints at perhaps some conflict with win10 start menu. I'll see if it comes back and write down the exact wording which I think is as above or close to it

Ron

Yes, if it happens again, please write the exact message and if you can, take a screenshot.
I have not seen this error before.

It happened again after log off. It appears to be a win10 error having nothing to do with classic shell. Everybody on the web is complaining. The exact wording immediately after log in using a ms account is "critical error. start menu and Cortina aren't working. we'll try to fix it the next time you sign in" with a box to click sign out OK

Restart fixes it but not another log in. If you search the above error text, you get hundreds of hits

Ron

So the error is related to the Windows 10 Start Menu, not the Classic Shell Start Menu.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I've got the error on a 2nd machine already (1st was 10 Pro 64-bit last week, 2nd 10 Pro 32-bit today). A fast escape from the infinite loop situation is to uninstall Classic Shell temporarily, then immediately reboot. After that it is safe (for now) to install and use Classic Shell 4.2.5.
Note: While the critical error message is active, a fast way to get to cmd or explorer is through Task Manager.

@andreshko, Windows Start Menu and Classic Start Menu are two entirely different things. Do not confuse the two please. Can you provide a screenshot of the error/what is the exact wording used by the error, and a way to reliably reproduce the bug? Also, some reasoning why you think is caused by Classic Shell? Classic Start Menu is like a regular app which injects a DLL into Explorer.exe to load the Classic Start Menu. It does not even attempt to modify Windows 10 Start Menu's behavior or Cortana or any of the Metro UI. That is Microsoft's code which might be breaking.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I cannot provide the exact wording, I need to check in the event logs on the 2 machines if these events are logged.
However the message was always on top, the title bar stated "Critical Error", the error text and a [Sign out] button.
On the task-bar there were only the native start menu icon, the search and the task-switch icons.
I don't remember what was there in the system tray, but at least the clock was there.
There was no response from anything on the task-bar, only a busy mouse pointer on hover.

What I can confirm is that on both machines it happened after a cold start.
Both machines are using Bulgarian display language provided by the OS. Both machines had CS 4.2.4 with Bulgarian language active.
It could be relevant.

No other changes, updates or modifications to anything have been made except uninstall "Classic Shell" followed by a restart.

I couldn't find the error in the event logs. But, I've found the exact (I hope) wording of the error in other unrelated to CS information elsewhere:
"Start Menu and Cortana aren't working. We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in."

On the 2nd machine there is an administrative event in the log though, which is unique and has a time stamp around the time the critical error occurred (30.11.2015 19:11):
"The program explorer.exe version 10.0.10240.16431 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel."
There are also numerous other errors and warnings not related to the critical error, which are unusual compared to dates before the critical error. Later in the evening there is also a Windows Error Reporting event related to Cortana.
I need to compare this data to the 1st machine's event logs.

It looks like CS may not be the reason, but uninstalling it helped.

That error is related to Windows Start Menu, and Classic Shell Start Menu is not the cause of this error you can 100% sure about that. I see you are getting mixed up between two different Start Menus.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

CS is related to start menu, isn't it?

EDIT: No offense, of course. Windows has no way of being aware of CS, hence there may not exist a special critical error wording for CS in Windows.

CS is not related to the Windows start menu. As far as I've heard, there are plenty of cases where the WSM and Cortana are failing. None of them so far have been linked to Classic Shell.