Big picture mode + Windows 10 (+ Steam Controller?) possibly breaks Windows Start Button?

[Petrus]

I haven't found any discussion about it so I thought I'd make one.
Annotation: If there is anyone with a similar issue out there or is brave enough to try to fix it by themselves, please let me know! I'd also appreciate people who check my steps and verify that it's legit and not anything that'd harm either you or your Windows machine.

TL;DR Windows 10 user using Steam Controller in Big Picture mode uses the default "windows" key to tab out and crashes his entire Windows taskbar + semi fix at the bottom.

TL;DR semi fix: Delete TileDatalayer(your windows taskbar files), install all AppX Windows files through powershell, restart pc. -> more detailed description below.

I really like the steam controller and I have barely even used big picture mode before I got my controller at all. But yesterday I've found a bug and I'm not quite sure about whether it's just big picture mode that causes it or big picture + steam controller.
I'm 99.9% sure it has to be the issue since today it happened again, not right after booting up my pc but right at the same moment, when I tried to use windows key in big picture mode.

So I start up my steam controller, get into big picture mode, start my game. I'm used to watch videos on my second screen while playing so I usually "windows key" tab out of the game to change a video. However, if I ever switch out of the game with the windows key, my windows start menu (with the tiles and recently searched apps, etc.) just stops working and doesn't even open up, even when I close big picture mode and steam (restarting explorer.exe and rebooting my pc does not fix it, also going back to a different recovery point didn't do the trick for me).

Also, my entire taskbar is buggy, means when I windows key + e open the explorer, it takes a whole 10 seconds to load it up (SSD user here, it never takes longer than a split second to open), also every Windows window, task manager, system control window takes forever to load up but every app that's not windows based just loads up normally.

FYI I've got a clean installed windows 10, about 2 months after the release of Windows 10, never had an issue yet.

My thoughts are that for some reason the data used for the taskbar gets corrupted by using the windows key while in big picture mode (+beeing in-game? +steam controller? not sure).

My (semi) Solution: [PLEASE READ IT ALL BEFORE ACTUALLY DOING IT]
The only way I could fix it so far is to go to the the Windows task bar folder here:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database

I delete (or just cut/paste backup) the content of "Database". You can't delete all of them so just delete everything that's possible inside the folder.
After deleting the content of the Database folder, my start button works again but..with issues:

http://imgur.com/hyUuf4f

All the content of the window is missing.

The best way to reinstall the AppX Windows files is to open powershell (since I cannot search for powershell due to deleting my start button tiles and removing my quick search index) is to navigate to your Windows folder and start powershell (or powershell ise), which is located here:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell_ise.exe

Important: Run it as an administrator.

Now all you have to do is to copy paste this phrase:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

and execute it. This will download all the AppX packages that Windows needs and fix broken packages (since we deleted the Database files inside the TileDataLayer, it will reapply the missing files). This may take a while but once downloaded, redoing this process (in case it happens again) does take a few seconds since you have already downloaded the AppX files and you just reapply them.
Don't worry, it will show up a few error messages marked in red, that's intended.

Now you should restart your PC and it should be working again.

Bear in mind though if you have a standard HDD, it will create a new search index file for your -windows key- "search" bar, this can actually take a while so don't worry if u can't instantly find any of your desired apps via shortcut.
Bear in mind that your recently used apps are gone, your pinned apps and pinned tiles are gone BUT you can reapply them just as you usually would, so the damage isn't that big.

http://imgur.com/MYsTaYb

P.S. In case it still doesn't work, there is one little thing you can try
1. Create a new user on your Windows 10 machine
2. Copy all the files in the folder C:\Users\YOURNEWACCOUNT\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database
3. Paste them into your account's "TileDataLayer\Database" folder
4. Reboot and cross your fingers.

Other than that, all other methods like explorer.exe reboot, pc reboot, recovery point reset didn't do anything for me and this is the only solution I could come up with.

I do NOT know if this breaks anything else on your windows machine, as far as from the steps we take from my guide, we don't do anything that'd break your windows, other than replacing your anyway corrupted Windows taskbar files and replace them via powershell command line (and maybe fix another of your Windows issue along your way).

So far this fix helped me get back on track and I didn't see any harm or loss in data while doing so (twice...).

[Bloodyangel]

Why you don't alt/tab out? This works fine for me.

[Petrus]

Originally posted by Bloodyangel:

Why you don't alt/tab out? This works fine for me.

Of course I could do that BUT still, it's a bug that exists and not everyones going to use the same method to tab out of a game.

[uttsvlad]

уын