Windows 8 Start screen stopped working

jhom

New Member
I updated from Windows 7 Home Premium. Everything was working fine until this morning. I am able to boot to my user account and the Start screen appears. However, none of the tiles work. I can't get onto my desktop. When I try Task Manager, it will flash briefly but won't display. I can switch users, shut down, etc by using ctrl-alt-delete options. When I switch to a different user account, everything works including the Start screen. When I switch back, the Start screen doesn't work. I am now using an alternate user accounts, but I need to get back to my main account. Any advice?

TIA
Jim
 
I have exactly the same problem. Win8 installed from a download on the day it was released. It worked perfectly until the beginning of December when the start screen froze. Can't access the applications or anything. While my data is, in the main backed up, I can't get at a thing.

Help please
 
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It really sounds like some major corruption problems. I suspect you both did the Upgrade Installation rather than taking the time to do a Custom Install. This works quite often, but when it does have a problem it often creates very strange problems. It depends too much on what's going on with the original OS.

It sounds like something did not install correctly. You could try a Refresh Install, but be advised any non-MS apps you installed will have to be reinstalled. (They are uninstalled during the Refresh)

A better option could be to reinstall from scratch. Did you originally burn a DVD or Flash Drive? If so you can just pop the media in and start over. Having a DVD also gives the option of using the Repair Console.

If not, your email receipt has a link near the top to start over. This time choose Install by creating media. Burn the media, then boot to it.

Once you fix this problem, check my tutorial on starting with Win 8. It might help relieve some of the confusion.
 
I did a restore to an earlier point. So far everything is working well. Next time I will do a fresh install.
 
I'm not sure if this is your problem or not, but when my tiles stopped working, I went to the Windows store. I had a number of updates available. When I installed them, the tiles started working again. The same thing happened to me daughter. It seems to be important to install the app updates as soon as they are available. I've seen this problem all over the web, so a lot of people seem to have it.
 
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