Microsoft has confirmed an issue causing the Windows Start menu to become unresponsive and preventing certain applications from launching.

The newly acknowledged issue only affects client platforms, including Windows 10 20H2, 21H2, and 22H2, and Windows 11, version 22H2.

“The Start Menu, Windows Search, and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps may not work as expected or have issues opening,” Redmond said.

“Affected Windows devices may have corrupted registry keys or data that may affect applications that use Microsoft Office APIs to integrate with Windows, Microsoft Office, or Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Calendar.”

Like BleepingComputer reported a week agoone of the apps affected is ClickShare, a tool that lets you wirelessly share the screen of a Windows device.

Microsoft said today that the underlying issue behind these Start menu and app opening issues is not triggered by a Windows update, but “could be exposed by a Windows update.” ‘an affected application’.

Workaround available

Microsoft said The Windows team is investigating this issue and will provide affected customers with more information in an update to the Windows Health Dashboard entry.

Until a fix is ​​available, the company has shared an interim fix that will work around the issue.

“To alleviate this problem, you can uninstall apps that integrate with Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, or Outlook Calendar,” Redmond said.

“Updates for affected apps or guidance from the app developer may also be available.”

Application users who use the Office APIs on a computer where Office was installed via Office ClickToRun are also encouraged to use a workaround available at this support page to solve the problem when it occurs.

To prevent the issue from reoccurring, affected users should remove the affected applications from Startup or configure them to start on demand.

Today’s update follows reports from Windows admins that users are having issues not seeing the Windows Start menu when clicking, can’t launch UWP apps, or use the Windows search function.

Although Redmond didn’t mention it, other reports also mention issues connecting to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to activate Office 365 apps.