Start menu and taskbar not working for new users on Windows Server 2019 RDS

Hari Babu Balaraju 5 Reputation points
2025-08-06T10:37:27.58+00:00

we've been facing an issue on our Windows Server 2019 RDS environment: new users can no longer use the Start Menu. The following problems occur:

Right-click doesn't work on taskbar icons

The Settings menu won’t open

  • Outlook fails to connect to an account

The Start Menu doesn't open at all

Windows for business | Windows Server | User experience | Remote desktop services and terminal services

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Hari Babu Balaraju 5 Reputation points
2025-08-11T06:22:01.8+00:00

Thanks for the update, but the appxpackage did not fix the issue,

Tried the below and now users are able to access the start menu.

as this is related to Windows notifications , there is a registry key you need to delete, and everything will work again. Including outlook.

Navigate to HKLM\software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Notifications

Delete everything inside the key, and all will be recreated afterwards. You will notice how everything starts working again.

The key will take a few minutes to load its content so wait for it until it does. Once ready highlight everything inside and delete it.

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  1. Henry Mai 8,225 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-08-11T06:15:15.48+00:00

    Hello Hari, I am Henry and I want to help you with your issue
    My recommendation fix is to re-register these applications for all users.

    Run the following command in an elevated PowerShell prompt on the affected RDS server:

    Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

    After the command completes, log in with a new test user to confirm the Start Menu and taskbar are now working. This command fixes the template for new profiles; it may not fix existing broken profiles.

    I hope it can help you.

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