Right click 8.1 'start' button does nothing

Hi,

-Did you check if the issue persists in new user account?

I would suggest you to check if the issue persists in Safe Mode, if right click works place the computer in Clean Boot.

Method 1:

Step 1: Boot the computer in **Safe mode******and check if the issue persists. Safe mode starts Windows with a limited set of files and drivers. Startup programs don't run in safe mode, and only the basic drivers needed to start Windows are installed.

**Step 2:**If the issue does not persists in Safe Mode then perform a **clean boot** to check if any third party application is causing the issue, as clean boot helps in eliminating software conflicts.

Note: After troubleshooting, see the section “Reset the computer to start as usual” to return the computer to a Normal startup mode.

Method 2:

Run a system file checker scan and check if that helps. Refer the following steps to run SFC scan.

a) Press Windows key + X which bring up a list of Windows settings.

b) Click on ‘Command Prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated command prompt. Note: Click ‘Yes’ if it prompts for permission.

c) In the command prompt type in the following command: ‘sfc /scannow’.

Let us know the status of the issue. If you need further assistance, please post back. We will be glad to help you.

A probing question to possibly improve the answer: aside from respond, what do you expect to happen when you right-click on the Start button? What are you looking for it to do, that perhaps it did before in 8.0?

( I expect it to show the "power user" shortcuts menu -- you can also press Windows+X to get the same menu -- and this is what right-clicking it does for me.)

Created a non-administrator account, the problem is not there, right mouse click pulls up the expected menu of options.

Method 1 changed nothing for the admin account used to apply the upgrade.

Method 2: Because I can't right click the start button and pull up the advanced options menu (and windows key + x does not work either), I had to go to the start menu, search on command, then right click and select run as administrator the command prompt option.

Ran sfc, got this result:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]

(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.

Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some

of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For

example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not

supported in offline servicing scenarios.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

So it appears I have corruption of some sort that impacts the administrator account.  I will dig into this and see if I can figure out what is going on.

thanks

Forgot to mention: this is the 3rd windows 8.1 update I have done thus far;  1 was on a system running the 8.1 preview, 2 was on a system running windows 8.0 from a clean install (just as this 3rd system).

Both of the previous updates had no issues.

Ok, figured this issue out.  However, I am not real wild about this problem happening during the 8.1 upgrade process.

The problem was missing shortcut entries in:

c:\User<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\Group1

c:\User<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\Group2

c:\User<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\Group3

I copied the entries from the non-administrator account I had created, rebooted, and everything is as expected, including windows + x.