ShellExperienceHost.exe crashes; any other way to open Action Center?

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The Start Menu on my Windows 10 PC no longer opens when I click on the Start icon, and I can no longer view Notifications by clicking on the icon in the lower-right corner of the display. Event Viewer indicates that ShellExperienceHost.exe is crashing. Here are the relevent entries:

Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.14393.447, time stamp: 0x5819bf85
Faulting module name: Windows.UI.Xaml.dll, version: 10.0.14393.479, time stamp: 0x58258ce8
Exception code: 0xc000027b
Fault offset: 0x00000000006d675b
Faulting process id: 0x303c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d25719b03ead53
Faulting application path: C:WINDOWSSystemAppsShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewyShellExperienceHost.exe
Faulting module path: C:WindowsSystem32Windows.UI.Xaml.dll
Report Id: 9dfe6e13-c57d-4b1f-aa88-976eaf2674d7
Faulting package full name: Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.14393.576_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Faulting package-relative application ID: App

I used sfc /scannow to scan the system files, and no problems were found.

I’ve tried a clean boot and booting into Safe Mode, both with and without networking, and ShellExperienceHost.exe still crashes.

I Googled the issue, and found that a corrupt font, ARIALN.TTF, can cause this glitch. I installed using a known-good copy, and ShellExperienceHost.exe still crashes.

The Notification icon is white, and hovering over the icon shows that there are 3 new notifications. Right-clicking on the icon and selecting “Open action center” does nothing, the Action Center doesn’t open, preventing me from reading the notifications.

I tired the Windows-A keyboard shortcut. Still no Action Center..

Is there any other way to open the Action Center, or is it part of ShellExperienceHost.exe and therefore not accessible?

Any suggestions as to accessing the Action Center or resolving the missing Start Menu would be most appreciated; this is driving me crazy.

–Larry

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Still hoping for something, anything, in the way of suggestions. It’s not pleasant using Windows without the Start menu. Here’s a summary of the affected system:

Dell XPS 8900 PC
16GB RAM
2TB boot drive plus two 2TB external (USB3) hard drives, each of which has a minimum of 75% of space available
Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
Latest Windows Update applied: KB3206632

I’ve also used the PowerShell command (below) to reinstall all Windows apps; it made no difference.
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml”}

–Larry

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Larry,

You could try running the dism utility http://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image and then rerun sfc /scannow. If this is unsuccessful you probably are looking at a refresh or reinstall.

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Before I resort to such drastic measures, is there any way to at least access the Action Center to read what are now four Notifications waiting for my attention? I can’t read the notifications directly from the Notifications icon (it doesn’t pop up anymore). When I right-click on the Notifications icon, I can select the first choice, “Open action center”, but when I do, nothing happens. And when I try the Windows-A keyboard shortcut, again, nothing happens.

I have a gut feeling this issue is caused by some conflict between ShellExperienceHost.exe and another recently-updated application (which could be any number of software components that can update themselves in the background, like virus software or some such). I’m very reluctant to start trying system rebuilds before eliminating other, simpler, solutions.

–Larry

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I have a gut feeling this issue is caused by some conflict between ShellExperienceHost.exe and another recently-updated application (which could be any number of software components that can update themselves in the background, like virus software or some such). I’m very reluctant to start trying system rebuilds before eliminating other, simpler, solutions.

–Larry

It seems I was correct. I was actually in the process of downloading a copy of Windows (from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10) when I noticed that the Notifications/Action Center icon at the lower-right of the screen had suddenly changed from white (indicating there were 3 notifications I hadn’t read) to hollow (indicating there were no outstanding notifications).

I clicked on the button, and voila, the Action Center appeared.

I clicked on the Start button, and the full Start menu appeared.

I right-clicked on one of the program icons in the Desktop tray, and the list of documents appeared.

I’ve put the PC through its paces, including restarts and shutdown/cold boots, and the problem hasn’t reappeared.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the issue doesn’t raise its ugly head again; that was frustrating.

My thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions. I’ve bookmarked the links you provided in case I need them in the future.

–Larry

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I assume left clicking the action center icon doesn’t work either. Can you right click the start icon and use the context menu?

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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I found a post saying renaming ARIALN.TTF to ARIALN-bak.TTF resolved the issue.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/windows-10-action-center-wont-open-and/e6a80f97-8cd7-49d9-a0c9-b248f61ac658
Scroll to the last post.

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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I found a post saying renaming ARIALN.TTF to ARIALN-bak.TTF resolved the issue.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/windows-10-action-center-wont-open-and/e6a80f97-8cd7-49d9-a0c9-b248f61ac658
Scroll to the last post.

Mark

Thanks for the suggestion. It was certainly worth a shot, but in my case it didn’t resolve the issue.

Based on the fact that something as “minor” as a corrupt font apparently caused this issue in the past, I’m still thinking there might be a conflict between ShellExperienceHost.exe and some other file on this PC that’s causing ShellExperienceHost.exe to crash.

–Larry

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I wasn’t aware the Action Center had an icon anywhere. Or are you referring to the Notifications icon most often found in the lower-right corner of the display? If you’re referring to that icon, left-clicking on it does nothing other than causing a very brief appearance of that “circling” (working on it) cursor which I suppose is the moment when Windows tries to open ShellExperienceHost.exe, whereupon it crashes. When I right-click on the Notifications icon, the top selection is “Open action center”, but selecting that also does essentially nothing.

If there’s a separate icon for the Action Center, I’d love to try it. Where is it?

When I right-click the Start icon, I get (probably) what everybody else gets (from the bottom: Desktop, Shut down or sign out, Run, Search, File Explorer, etc.). What I don’t get, among other things, is the nice alphabetical list of applications to choose from that you get when you left-click the Start icon. I can still use Windows, and once I launch an application it seems to work fine; I very much miss the normal functionality of the Start menu and the Notifications area.

I’ve also lost the ability to right-click on a program’s icon in the Desktop toolbar, which used to give me a list of documents I can open. Now right-clicking on those icons does nothing.

From what I’ve been able to find out, the Start menu, Notification area, Action Center, and right-clickability of desktop-toolbar icons are all controlled by ShellExperienceHost.exe, which is why I specifically mentioned that module, and why I’m hoping for suggestions regarding how to fix it.

–Larry

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We are both referring to the Notifications icon at the lower right. Right clicking the start icon then, Control Panel Security and Maintenance troubleshooting might be worth a shot. I can understand this is very frustrating.

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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We are both referring to the Notifications icon at the lower right. Right clicking the start icon then, Control Panel Security and Maintenance troubleshooting might be worth a shot. I can understand this is very frustrating.

Mark

I’ve spent quite a bit of time using those troubleshooting tools, with limited success. They haven’t solved anything, certainly. One of the tools (not sure which one) gave me the following message:

Required applications are not installed correctly. Not fixed
“Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost” and “Microsoft.Windows.Cortana” applications need to be installed correctly.

That was what first caused me to home in on that ShellExperienceHost.exe module. After that, I used sfc /scannow to scan the system files, but it claimed everything was fine.

I wish there were a way to simply reinstall the latest versions of those modules….

–Larry

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I’m not sure the font is corrupt. ShellExperienceHost.exe may just choke when trying to use it. Renaming takes it out of play. ARIALN.TTF is not in my font folder.

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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I’m not sure the font is corrupt. ShellExperienceHost.exe may just choke when trying to use it. Renaming takes it out of play. ARIALN.TTF is not in my font folder.

Mark

I have that font on my PC. I found it by double-clicking on the Arial font family. That showed nine different fonts in the family, including Arial Narrow. I deleted that font and rebooted the PC; it didn’t make any difference. I later reinstalled Arial Narrow using a copy of the file from one of my other PCs.

–Larry

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Another thought. Do you have an image or a restore point from before this problem started?

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Another thought. Do you have an image or a restore point from before this problem started?

Mark

Yes, I did (I had a restore point), and I had high hopes that rolling back that update might resolve the issue (the glitch appeared about the same time as that update). Sadly, rolling back the update didn’t help. I eventually redid the update, since it doesn’t appear to have been involved.

By the way, thank you for continuing to offer suggestions, I appreciate it.

–Larry

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Microsoft has this troubleshooter for the start menu or Cortana
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12385/windows-10-troubleshoot-problems-opening-start-menu-cortana

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Microsoft has this troubleshooter for the start menu or Cortana
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12385/windows-10-troubleshoot-problems-opening-start-menu-cortana

Mark

Thanks for the pointer, I hadn’t found that in my searches. Unfortunately, that troubleshooter seems to be basically the same one used in the Troubleshooting control panel that I’d tried earlier. I wound up getting the same error message I’d seen before.

The troubleshooter displayed this summary:

Troubleshooting was unable to automatically fix all of the issues found. You can find more details below.

Required applications are not installed correctly.
“Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost” and “Microsoft.Windows.Cortana” applications need to be installed correctly.

–Larry

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Whenever I feel my Win 10 isn’t running as it should, I usually disable Norton then do a repair install which doesn’t affect installed programs or personal stuff.

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Whenever I feel my Win 10 isn’t running as it should, I usually disable Norton then do a repair install which doesn’t affect installed programs or personal stuff.

I use Webroot, but the principle is the same. I’m holding off doing a repair install until I’m sure there isn’t a less drastic fix for this issue. It seems to have cropped up off and on ever since Windows 10 was born, and lots of people have resolved it without resorting to reinstalling Windows. Sadly, their specific solutions (there have been several) haven’t worked in my case. I’m still hoping someone has come up with a more straightforward way of resolving this.

–Larry

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With my method you don’t end up pulling your hair out 🙂

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Tenforums.com has a nice tutorial if you end up using Sudo15’s repair install suggestion.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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I opt out of it searching for updates during the process so I end up with 1607.14393.0 and then if everything works, I’ll check to see what the updates are doing.

Given the time you have been trying to resolve this, you could have done the repair install and job done.

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I like to hear a happy ending 🙂

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Me too!

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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