Windows 8 Start Screen and Apps Not Responding

Hmmm.  I just noticed that these offending apps are still showing within the Store as being installed on my PC, even though I am also being offered the choice to "install" them.  So, perhaps deleting them while in safe mode isn't sufficient to really start afresh.  Anyone have any ideas how to totally uninstall them?

What a cruel world to provide hope for us that continue to follow this thread.  I probably should be thankful, as I do not have any problem getting into Windows 8, either desktop or Metro.  However, about half of my Metro Apps, including News, Finance, and Weather, hang up upon partial display of the main photo or perhaps a few stories.  They never completely load and are not scrollable.

I'd tried deleting the apps previously.  I've run the ISE script to assure that the offending clock app has been deleted.  And I just optimistically deleted all but IE, Desktop, and Store within safe mode... to no avail.  I still get the same misbehavior upon reinstall.  As noted, the culprit is the timebroker failure, noted by many previously, causing the wwahost.exe app to hang and be shut down by Windows.

Since I actually don't use Metro for anything practical, this is mainly a matter of principle, so keep those ideas coming.  I want to get the behavior that we were promised.  FWIW, these Metro apps all work fine on another machine that's an upgraded netbook, so it's not a matter of memory or horsepower.

I fixed my problem.  Here's what I did, YMMV..

Have previously run the app checker, the script that was posted earlier, and several WSResets.

Had a clock app installed via the store, but I don't remember which one. I know it was a gray background when installing.  My apps did not want to uninstall via the store, nor that script.  It seemed the store 'remembered' all apps I could uninstall, and even in the store it listed all apps, even uninstalled, as both installed and waiting to be installed. (!)

Booted into regular safe mode.

Upon entering the start screen there, removed almost ALL MS apps from the left side.  Mail, Camera, etc. I only left the desktop IE, and store.  Did NOT visit store from there, just removed apps and rebooted.  Did not remove any personal apps from right side.

Booted regularly, and presto, problem was gone.  Installed the Mail, messaging, calendar, and a few other stock apps back via the store.

So far, working as it should again.  Tiles can now be highlighted all the time, no more time broker errors.

I will NOT be installing any clock apps anytime soon.

I've had exactly the same problem. I tried all sorts of things and was ready to roll back to Windows 7 when I found this thread. It is such an annoying problem. Deleting the clock app by being really quick was what did the trick for me as well. I had it installed for weeks without any problems and now all of the sudden it starts to mess things up? It is crazy how a little app like that can affect the whole system. Not acceptable. Please Microsoft fix this bug as soon as possible. I've recommended Windows 8 to everyone who asked me about it... not any longer.

Yep, what Jensen10111 wrote worked for me. Had to keep deleting the Clock app several times, I think because it would freeze up before the app was uninstalled properly (although the live tile would disappear each time). Just keep pressing the windows key until the start screen is responsive and very quickly uninstall the Clock app as many times as is necessary to properly remove it.

Thanks Jensen