- Windows 10’s April update has messed up part of the Start menu
- Right-click jump lists that were present with some apps no longer work
- These were a very handy shortcut and a key part of the workflow of some users, who are now pretty frustrated at their omission
Windows 10’s latest update comes with an unfortunate side effect in that it causes part of the Start menu to stop working.
Windows Latest reports that after installing the April update for Windows 10, released earlier this month, jump lists for some apps on the Start menu now appear to be broken.
Normally, when you right click on a tile (large icon) in the Start menu – on the right side of the panel, next to the full list of apps installed on the PC which is on the left – the menu that pops up provides a standard set of options, as well as what’s known informally as a jump list linking to various files (note that this only appears with certain apps).
It’s a list of recently opened (or pinned, commonly used) files that you can get quick access to (or jump straight to, hence the name). So, for example, with the Photos app, you’ll see links to recently opened images (or recently viewed web pages in a web browser).
However, that jump list section is no longer appearing for the apps that should have this additional bit of furniture attached to the right-click menu.
Windows Latest observes that this is a problem with all their Windows 10 PCs, and there are a number of reports from those hit by this bug on Microsoft’s Answers.com help forum and Reddit, too.
Analysis: What’s going on here?
Not everyone is affected here by any means. My Windows 10 PC is fine, and I’ve applied the apparently troublesome April 2025 update. Or that upgrade seems to be the problematic piece of the puzzle, at least according to the amateur sleuthing going on.
There are a lot of potential fixes floating around here and there, but sadly, none of them appear to work. The only cure seems to be removing the update, which is hardly ideal seeing as it’s only a temporary solution which leaves you short of the latest security patches. However, restoring the PC to before the update was applied does indeed seem to do the trick in bringing back the jump list functionality, suggesting this update is indeed the root cause.
Windows Latest does raise the prospect that this might be an intentional removal by Microsoft, but I don’t think so. If that’s the case, Microsoft better clarify this, as there are a number of annoyed Windows 10 users out there due to this problem.
I feel a more likely suggestion is that Microsoft has perhaps backported some changes from Windows 11, and this has somehow caused unexpected collateral damage in Windows 10.
Hopefully we’ll hear from Microsoft soon enough as to what’s going on, but meanwhile, the workflows of some Windows 10 users are being distinctly messed with by the removal of these convenient shortcuts.
Of course, Windows 10 doesn’t have much date left on its shelf life at this point – only six months, although you’ll be able to pay to extend support for another year should you really want to avoid upgrading to Windows 11 (or indeed if you can’t upgrade).
