Windows 10 - Start Menu & Task Bar not working at all

[LNS-Front242-T3]

Hello All - "I Need Help - Please - Anyone" as I just recently(July 30th) installed Win 10 on my Toshiba C55D-A5382 laptop, that originally came with Win 8.1(purchased summer of 2014). After the full install of Win 10 - that took 35 minutes to do(using Brighthouse Lighting 150Mbps connection), Win 10 flashed up saying - install was a success. After it restarted and I signed in(newer start pages look great to me), I placed the cursor on the "Start Button" to have a look see at all the new stuff to be seen(but to no avail). "Start Button" does not work at all nor does the bottom task bar line either, and my laptop has been on for 3 straight days now(getting worried about over heating issues). When I had Win 8.1 OS on this laptop, it use to go to sleep on it's own - but not now. Can someone "Please" help with this matter, I have waited patiently for "Windows Support" to help. Using both "Live Chat" as I waited for over 74 minutes, and over the "Phone Support" as I waited for over an hour - both to no avail. Is there anyway to kick start the "Start Menu" again? Can I go back and re-install Win 8.1 on to it and then re-install Win 10 on it again? Thanks for Everyone's Help in this matter - in advanced, and Enjoy the Rest of Your Weekend.......

 

[USAFRet]

I'm not surprised that trying to call Microsoft on this is taking a long time. They are in the middle of upgrading hundreds of millions of PC's. And as such, the help lines are probably overloaded.

Now, to your actual issue:
Have you actually rebooted the system after the upgrade? Not the reboots it does during...but after.

 

[The_Prophecy]

First, try restarting the Windows Explorer process from Task Manager (you can get to it by using the hotkey combo Ctrl + Shift + Esc since your taskbar isn't working).

If that doesn't work, restart the system entirely. Failing that, You could try using the Reset option. If you do, make sure you click the Keep My Files option:

And back up your data anyway, just in case anything goes wrong with the Reset.

 

[thebrickwall]

Sounds like the same problem my dad had on his laptop. its fixable. you just need to force your way to windows update. to get there you need to right click on the desktop and go to personalize, from there you should be able to navigate to windows update in the control panel.