The Windows logo key is a very important part of your keyboard, as it is used for many shortcuts and brings up your Start menu. As you can see, this key is very useful, so when it doesn’t work, it can make any Windows 10 user feel frustrated.
Even though there could be a lot of reasons why the Windows key doesn’t work on Windows 10, we’ve looked into the problem and come up with a complete list of tried-and-true ways to fix the Windows key doesn’t work on Windows 10 problem. So, make sure to look at all of them because we think we’ve solved your problem.
We strongly suggest that you back up your personal files before you start troubleshooting. This is to make sure they don’t lose everything if something goes wrong. You can do this with either an external storage device or the cloud. You can also move your files to another laptop if you want to.
1. See if The Problem Is With The Hardware.
Your keyboard is a fragile piece of hardware, which is too bad. So, anything can go wrong at any time. Keeping this in mind, you should check to see if it is broken right now. Check to see if the Windows key doesn’t work every time you press it.
Check to see if any other keys on your keyboard are working. If you use an external keyboard, check to see if it has the same WinKey problem on another computer. The point is that the device may need to be changed.
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2. Look in The Start Menu
Now, check to see if you can even get to your Start menu. The thing is, you might have been led astray into thinking that your Windows logo key is broken when the real problem is with your Start menu.
- First, let’s see if we can get your Start menu to work by doing the following:
- Right-click on the Windows logo in the taskbar.
- From the drop-down menu, choose Run.
- Type ‘regedit’ (without quotes).
- Click on HKEY CURRENT USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced.
- Go to the panel on the right and click on it.
- Select New -> DWORD (32-bit) value.
- Call it EnableXamlStartMenu.
Leave the registry. Then, restart your computer and see if the problem still happens. If the above tricks didn’t work, fix your Win 10 Start menu not working problem quickly.
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3. Disable Gaming Mode
If you’re using a gaming keyboard, it can be in gaming mode. This could stop your Windows key from working. In this case, look for a key that turns on/off gaming mode and use it. This key usually has a drawing of a joystick or something similar on it.
4. Push the Win Lock key
Some keyboards have a special key that lets you turn on or off the Windows logo key. You might have pressed the Win Lock key by accident, which turned off the Windows logo key. If that’s the case, you can easily fix the problem by pressing the Win Lock key again.
5. Turn Off the Option for Filter Keys
This feature tells your keyboard to ignore short or repeated keystrokes, which could have caused your WinKey problem in Windows 10. Follow these steps to turn off filter keys:
- Right-click the icon for your Start menu.
- Use the menu to choose Settings.
- Find “Easy Access” and click on it.
- Click on the Keyboard in the left pane.
- Find the “Filter Keys” option.
- Turn the knob off.
- Check to see if this fix has fixed the problem.
6. Use the Windows Registry to turn on the Windows key.
Reports say that “WinKey not working (Windows 10)” can often be fixed by making this change to the registry. What you should do is this:
- Right-click the icon for your Start menu and choose Run.
- To open Registry Editor, type “regedit” without the quotes.
- Then move to HKEY LOCAL MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard Layout.
- Find the Scancode Map in the right pane.
- Right-click on it and pick “Delete.”
- Stop editing. Try restarting your computer to see if this method worked.
7. Start Windows/File Explorer up again
If the Windows logo key issue keeps happening, you might need to restart the explorer.exe process on your PC. Many users say that this simple trick put WinKey back on track. Here’s how it can be done:
- Open your Task Manager. You can do this with the Ctrl+Alt+Delete or Ctrl+Shift+Esc keyboard shortcut.
- Go to the tab that says Details.
- Locate explorer.exe. Right-click on it and pick End task. After you do this, your screen should turn black. Don’t worry—a part that’s of the fix.
- Open your Task Manager again.
- Click File. Choose Run new task from the list of options.
- The window for creating a new task will show up. Put “explorer.exe” in it (without quotes).
- Press Enter.
- Now check to see if your Windows logo key is working again.
8. Update Your Keyboard Drivers
If you are trying to figure out how to fix the problem where the Windows key doesn’t work on Windows 10, updating your keyboard driver is an important step.
- You can look for updated driver software on your own. You will need to go to the website of the company that made your keyboard or laptop and download the driver you need from there.
- So, you are free to use the built-in Device Manager utility to update your keyboard driver:
- Right-click the icon for your Start menu.
- Choose Device Manager from the list of available choices.
- Find your keyboard by navigating.
- Select Update driver when you right-click the device.
- Let Device Manager look online for the driver it needs.