Windows 8 Start Screen and Apps Not Responding

Have you made any recent software or hardware changes on the system?

Let’s try the following steps and check if it helps.

Step I:

You may try booting in safe mode with networking and check for the issue.  Post the results, so that we help you with further troubleshooting.

a. Right click at the bottom left of the desktop and select Run.

b. Type msconfig and hit enter.

c. Now click the boot tab.

d. Place a check mark on the safe boot option.

e. Choose the type of safe mode by selecting one of the options below the Safe boot check box:

> Network- For safe mode with networking.

f. Click apply and then ok. Restart the computer.

Note: After you have finished troubleshooting, follow these steps to boot to normal startup.

a. Press the ‘Windows + R’ key on the keyboard.

b. In the ‘Run’ windows type ’MSCONFIG’ and click ‘Ok’.

c. On the ‘General’ tab, click the ‘Normal Startup’ option, and then click ‘OK’.

d. When you are prompted to restart the computer, click ‘Restart’.

Step II:

If you are not facing the issue in safe mode with networking, then place the computer in clean boot state and check if it helps.

Follow the steps to perform Clean Boot:

Step 1:

a. Press the ‘Windows + R’ key on the keyboard.

b. In the ‘Run’ windows type ’MSCONFIG’ and click ‘Ok’.

c. Click the ‘Boot’ tab and uncheck ‘Safe Boot’ option.

d. On the ‘General’ tab, click to select the option ‘Selective startup’, and then click to clear the option Load startup items check box.

e. On the ‘Services’ tab, click to select the ‘Hide all Microsoft services’ check box, and then click ‘Disable all’.

f. On the ‘StartUp’ tab, click ‘Open Task Manager’. In the Task Manager window under startup tab, right click on each startup item which are enabled and select ‘Disable’.

g. Click ‘OK’, and then click Restart.

Step 2: Enable half of the services.

a. Follow steps 1a and 1b to start the System Configuration utility.

b. Click the Services tab, and then click to select the Hide all Microsoft services check box.

c. Click to select half of the check boxes in the Service list.

d. Click OK, and then click Restart.

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

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.

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.

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