Windows Server 2012 R2 Troubleshooting: Empty Start menu and Windows can not load classes registry file.

In some cases, after a power failure, a malware infection or other types of failure, the user registry is corrupted, after that the Start menu, task scheduler, etc. do not work.

Symptoms:

In the events of the application (Eventvwr.msc -> Windows Logs -> Application), you can notice the following errors:

Error: (05/29/2020 11:29:35 PM) (Source: Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service) (EventID: 1542) (User: NT AUTHORITY)

Description: Windows cannot load classes registry file.

DETAIL - The system cannot find the file specified.

Solution:

The winlogon.exe process should automatically load the UsrClass.dat, if it is not, please see below.

1) You need to make sure that the classes registry file exists, it is usually located in the following path:

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\\UsrClass.dat

2) If the file exists, then you need to check the existence of the key in the registry, for this we can execute the following command at the command prompt (cmd.exe):

reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"

In case the result is:

ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

then the problem is related to the absence of this key in the registry.

Usually the indicated problem in the topic is connected with the absence of the "Local AppData" parameter, but it is better to restore all the keys in this registry path, after that the problem should be solved. For example, taking from another working server as a template.

It is important to create a System State backup or create a system restore point before any manipulation.

An example of a key for the Administrator account (by default), you can find at the following link : User-Shell-Folders.zip