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Start Menu layout completely wiped blank. Pinned apps folders turned into dead icons

Sarah Williams 20 Reputation points
2026-06-01T14:49:26.06+00:00

This is highly annoying. I spent an hour grouping my pinned apps into neat folders on the Windows Start Menu. After a forced reboot last night, my entire layout is completely gone. The Start Menu is just a vast, blank slate with a few default Microsoft icons, and all my custom folders have vanished. Is there a way to restore the Start Menu backup database file?

Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | User experience | Other
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Answer accepted by question author

VPHAN 34,635 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-06-01T15:35:51.6266667+00:00

Hi Sarah Williams,

Modern Windows versions store your Start Menu layout in a file named start.bin. You can find this file by pressing the Windows Key + R, typing %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState into the Run box, and pressing Enter.

To attempt a recovery, right-click either the start.bin file or the LocalState folder, select Properties, and open the Previous Versions tab. If Windows captured a restore point or shadow copy prior to the forced reboot, select that date and click Restore to recover your layout.

If no previous versions are listed, Windows does not keep an alternate automated backup, meaning the layout cannot be recovered and must be rebuilt. Moving forward, you can manually copy and save a backup of this start.bin file to another directory so you can easily paste it back if the layout vanishes again.

VPHAN

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  1. AI answer

    2026-06-01T14:49:44.95+00:00

    The Start menu layout is stored in a database that can become corrupted. When this happens, Start can appear blank, tiles can show as generic or “dead” icons, and manual pins/folders are lost. There’s no supported way to “restore” a previous backup of that database, but the layout can be rebuilt by re-registering Start-related components and resetting the layout/cache.

    Use these steps on the affected machine:

    1. Confirm the issue matches Tile Data Layer corruption
      • Apps still launch if started from other locations (for example, search or URI), but Start shows blank, generic, or wrong icons.
      • Start may be mostly blank, and pinned tiles/folders are gone.
    2. Run Tile Data Layer recovery
      • Open an elevated Command Prompt (Run as administrator).
      • Run: 
             C:\Windows\System32\tdlrecover.exe -reregister -resetlayout -resetcache
      • Optionally restart the device after the command completes.
      • Note: Corruption recovery removes any manual pins from Start. Apps remain installed, but tiles and folders must be pinned again.
    3. Re-register Shell Experience Host (if icons remain blank)
      • Open Windows PowerShell as administrator.
      • Run: 
             Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*ShellExperienceHost*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
      • Restart the system.

    These steps rebuild the Start menu’s icon and tile data. They do not restore a prior custom layout from backup, but they address a corrupted Start database and allow Start to function again so the layout can be recreated.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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