No start menu until explorer restart

[lwinstead]

Describe the bug

Frequently, when I turn on my Windows 11 laptop with OpenShell installed, the Start Menu is totally non-responsive. I mean both the OpenShell icon and the native Start Menu. Nothing happens when I click the Start Menu icon or press the Start Menu keyboard key. I use a dock at work with one external monitor, and this happens to me MOSTLY at work (probably 20-1, work-home). The taskbar is still responsive, regardless if I'm using the native taskbar or the ExplorerPatcher Windows 10 OR Windows 11 versions, or if I'm using Windhawk to shrink the taskbar. Task Manager does not indicate any issue with the OpenShell executable in any noticeable way.

This morning I connected the laptop to the dock and fired it up like normal. The Start Menu is totally non-responsive....but only on the primary screen (laptop)! The native Windows 11 Start Menu opened up on the external screen. That's something I haven't noticed before. I also have 30+ other computers in the business around me, and they all have OpenShell on them, and not one has this issue. Clearly there is something about my setup, but I have no idea what.

I'm looking for advice on how to track this or what to record so I can provide more data. Thanks.

Area of issue

Start menu

To reproduce

1. Install OpenShell directly from the assets section on the GitHub page.
2. (After install and reboot) Start computer, click Start Menu, nothing happens. This is random, but frequent.
3. When this happens, I can't even open the native Start Menu, i.e. SHIFT+WinKey also does nothing.
4. Regardless how, restart explorer.exe process; OpenShell Start Menu is now fully responsive

Expected behavior

I expect the Start Menu to open when I click the Start Menu icon or press the Start Menu keyboard key. I also expect the native Start Menu when I press the default SHIFT+WinKey combo.

Open-Shell version

4.4.196

Windows version

Windows 11 25h2

Additional context

I've see this on Windows 11 23h2 and 24h2, but only ever on the installation on my laptop, which is an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 (late 2024 model). I believe I've also seen this on OpenShell version 4.4.195, but I never kept strict records.