So now we understand the problem. RuntimeBroker.exe crashed (due to heap corruption, according to the call stack in the RuntimeBroker.exe crash dump, shown to the right) and it took more than 15 seconds to upload the crash dump, presumably due to my flaky hotel WiFi. During this time my start menu was inoperable.

This deserves reiterating. My start menu was hung due to the combination of heap corruption and WerFault.exe deciding that it needed to upload the crash dump before releasing the old process so that a new one could be started. //

Klaus Kjærgaard on January 18, 2023 at 7:19 am
I had some of the same issues – just with start menu being too slow. I disabled web search for start menu, and it works, is fast, only finds apps (and other local stuff; documents, folder, settings – but only when you navigate to that specified search target).
Bottomline – turning off web search in start menu = speed

regedit/use at own discretion:
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
“DisableSearchBoxSuggestions”=dword:00000001 //

Aaron Avery on January 18, 2023 at 11:56 am
Thanks for researching that, Bruce. It’s been quite a while since my start menu was that bad (or even non-functional). I landed on Keypirinha as my configurable third-party launcher of choice and it provides a much better experience for most things. Once in a while I’ll want some control panel (Settings) page that it refuses to find and I go back to the start menu for that. But having it index things like RDP machine names and Putty sessions saves time.