4.4.2 palettes crash

On Windows 11. Recently updated to 4.4.2. When I load a score, the 'palettes' bar is present but there are no dropdown menus.
When I click on the "view -> palettes" option, the program crashes. Similarly, using the 'f9' shortcut causes a crash.
I would like this not to happen! :-) If I am doing something horrendously wrong and there is a fix I am missing, please let me know.