@Rich-O-Brien Right? Microsoft always has the same cut and paste answers. It was sort of by accident that I found the answer and as is often the case I had to find the answer myself. I was bolt up trying to fix this thing since Friday and 20 packs of cigarettes later I fixed the damn thing. Maybe this is the answer for the commonly disappearing start menu with other people? I don't know.

I should add that the answer I found wasn't directly associated with my issue. All I saw was "Windows Font Cache" and went from there.

I saw Cirque du Soleil many moons ago in San Francisco.

Holy smokes I think I fixed it. It was the Windows Font Cache Service.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/start-menu-and-others-broken-in-profile/cbb2a51b-081e-426d-a4c2-b3a276e5b263

@Rich-O-Brien Thanks Rich.

I either forget about these problems and just work with what I have or I start all over again with a clean install. I'd have to get an external drive since my current work profile is huge and it includes my documents directory. Everything else is still on my work hard drive which is separate. I think if I copy over to a new profile it might be a big mess. I don't know what to do yet. I suppose I have to figure out if transferring everything to the new profile or starting over would be easier. The original repair was $639.

I should have become a mailman.

Looks like moving everything over to a new profile will be a real nightmare.

What's broken:

Start menu broken
Search in start menu broken
Calendar won't open
Can't create new user in normal Windows boot

Everything else is working fine. A new profile won't pay the bills.

Microsoft of course doesn't have a straight answer. It's not like the old days when you could re-install something from a disc.

I created a new profile (user) and it works. I don't know what I did. I've tried everything. Including doing a Window.iso install. Nothing changed. It wasn't the OS. It's the profile. That means moving everything over to the new profile.

@Gus-R Lost the start menu. I give up.

All systems go. Ready for Autocad.

Surprised at how much was saved.

@TIG It was stuck with my old computer name. I had to get two new ssd's and a new Windows 10 Pro install. I reinstalled SU and everything was almost still there and everything was working fine. I re-associated the directories except for the templates which was stuck with the old name which was no longer present. That meant I kept getting a warning on SU start-up. So I created a dummy user directory with the old name and SU...templates and it took.

@Rich-O-Brien They're licensed. I fixed it. Now I have another issue. The dreaded "red out" templates file location.

Got rid of the error. Deleted the signature file and re-started SU per Rich in another post. Works one by one.

Getting an A0B error....

Not related but here's the Sketchucation output.

Fredo6 Plugins Information on 2025-02-07 07:49:38 -0700

• Platform: x64-mswin64_140 - Ruby: 2.7.2
• Sketchup: 22.0.354
• LibFredo6: v15.0a
• LibFredo6 Binary loaded
• Sketchucation ExtensionStore: 4.4.1
• SCFLicense: v6.4a - 74
• Fredo6 Plugins

  Curviloft v2.0a
  Curvizard v2.5a
  ElevationProfile v1.1f
  FredoCorner v2.7a
  FredoScale v3.6a
  FredoSpline v2.6a
  FredoTools v4.5c
  HoverSelect v1.5a
  JointPushPull v4.8a
  MoveAlignMe v1.4a
  RoundCorner v3.4a
  ToolsOnSurface v2.6a
  TopoShaper v2.7a
  VisuHole v1.5a

• SCFLicense directory present

  Signature File: 2022-03-17 16:44:16 -0600
  ClothWorks: 2023-03-02 11:31:00 -0700
  Curviloft: 2023-01-21 17:48:06 -0700
  Curvizard: 2022-03-31 21:36:49 -0600
  FredoScale: 2022-03-31 22:39:51 -0600
  FredoSpline: 2022-10-13 19:37:57 -0600
  JointPushPull: 2022-03-31 21:36:01 -0600
  RoundCorner: 2022-04-02 08:17:45 -0600
  ThruPaint: 2024-07-15 13:07:06 -0600
  ToolsOnSurface: 2022-03-31 21:42:23 -0600
  TopoShaper: 2022-03-31 21:38:52 -0600
  VisuHole: 2022-04-01 07:11:46 -0600

Is there an easy way to update my licenses for all my licensed products? Mostly Fredo. Rather than one at a time? I'm just rebuilding my system here and am still working on it.

@Rich-O-Brien Is that an external drive?

This sucks.

@L-i-am

Thanks. You know, I think I caused it by unplugging the backyard spotlight on the same dual outlet. I might have sparked it. I'm going to leave the single extension chord connected to one outlet and shift the spotlight to another outlet across the way. I think I did that last time and I ended up having to reset the BIOS. This is an old house. I tried getting someone to check the ground yesterday but as usual he never showed up. He's always late.

@Mike-Amos said in Computer Died:

I'm not an electrician so cannot say and the last time I came into contact with UPS it was work related. ALL hospital departments have to have a UPS local to them and all the homes I have lived in as an adult were grounded to some degree or other. Any elctricians in the forum membership?

I'll consult the tech that's dropping off my computer on Thursday.

Rich, can you delete two of those last posts?

Thanks.

From Microsoft...

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-i-get-rid-of-the-error-exception-break/cb222a25-89c2-4b36-910e-9130bc686cba

Or.

Run CMD as admin and...

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth 		 

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth 		 

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth 		 

sfc /scannow

Shot in the dark but try from a CMD prompt...

sfc /scannow

Let that run through.

Then.

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth