Windows 8 Start Screen and Apps Not Responding

I encountered this problem about a month ago, and I just found this thread. This is what happened to my computer: I had an app installed called Clock, by Jujuba Software, from the Windows Store. After a few weeks of using it with no problems, the start screen began to freeze intermittently from when I signed in. After a few seconds everything would be fine, but then the start screen would begin to freeze again. I could only fix it temporarily by repeatedly pushing the Windows key until the start screen reloaded, and the tiles flew in from the right, but then the screen would still freeze after a bit. I would have to immediately switch to the desktop right while the start screen still responded. This problem would also affect other accounts on my computer (but only the Microsoft accounts). Once I realized the problem and uninstalled Clock by being really quick, the problem got fixed immediately. When I open the Reliability monitor in the Action Center now, it shows multiple problems where svchost.exe_TimeBroker stops working. Here's the description:

Faulting application name: svchost.exe_TimeBroker, version: 6.2.9200.16420, time stamp: 0x505a9a4e

Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.2.9200.16384, time stamp: 0x5010ab2d

Exception code: 0xe06d7363

Fault offset: 0x00000000000189cc

Faulting process id: 0x728

Faulting application start time: 0x01cdc82042e64ad9

Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\KERNELBASE.dll

Report Id: 2733160e-3414-11e2-be77-f80f41485ca3

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

I hope this information helps!

What he said....

"They also didn't think it was worth while putting better error checking into the App interface "to prevent buggy Apps from bringing Windows to its knees but there we go."

Unbelievable - letting what is essentially eye candy effect the basic operations of the OS

Hi Jarfil,

Please see my other two posts on this subject, I've outlined the fact that you cannot make the required changes to a different account even though your new account is an admin.

There appears to be only one reliable way to fix the issue without deleting the account or completely reinstalling Windows and that is to delete the offending clock App using the afore mentioned PowerShell script that someone wrote to be able to delete multiple Apps - something that the genii at Microsoft clearly didn't think worth while.

They also didn't think it was worth while putting better error checking into the App interface to prevent buggy Apps from bringing Windows to its knees but there we go.

SHEIKHADNA, as stated in other posts, the process you've outlined does not help in this case. There is an odd bug that is caused by a combination of having a login tied to a Windows Live login plus a particular Start Screen clock App.

This combination causes a continuous fail of a Windows timer service that brings the machine to its knees.

You cannot get into the settings to change your account back to local and you don't seem to be able to change one user account's installed Apps from another account even though it is an admin account (doubtless there is a way but Microsoft have not seen fit to let anyone know how - perhaps they themselves don't know!!).

You will also really struggle to uninstall the offending App from the user interface, it may be possible but it will take a great many tries.

The best way is to fire up a PowerShell session and download and run the script mentioned in my previous post. It may take a few attempts to get PowerShell ISE running but you should be OK then.

Regards, Julian.

One other note.  I have two user accounts.  My main user account (which is an Admin account) is linked to a Microsoft account.  That account is the one with the problem.  If I login with my second account (which is a local account), it works fine. I would like to try reverting my main user account back to a local account, but I haven't been able to do that because I can't get to the Change PC Settings screen while logged in with that account.  Is there another (like from the command line) to revert to a local account?

I have been struck by this bug too, and based on your experience this is what I've found out this far:

• I was able to access the "Change PC Settings" Metro App by opening Control Panel (from Start 8), going to Create an Account (bear with me for a while) -> Add a new user in PC settings, which opens the "Change PC Settings" Metro App, and there clicking on Switch to a Local account.
• However, this did not solve anything.
• What did work, is going to (again from Start 8) Computer -> (right click) Manage -> Local Users and Groups -> Users -> (right click) New User. Logging in with this account, it does not show the buggy behaviour.

Now I wonder what has happened to my original account's config, so this bug happens. The newly created -and perfectly working- account:

• Loads all the same services
• Loads most of the same startup programs
• Has a different tile configuration
• Has a separate and "virgin" profile directory structure

So now I guess the task is to figure out what to fix on the original account to make it behave like the newly created one.

At least some things thing seems to be clear:

• Reinstall is not needed to have a working account
• Restore is not needed
• Uninstalling patches is not needed