I've been using 8.1 for about a week and except for an issue with IE not working, it's been OK... until this morning.  Booted and the Win 8 Start screen opened.  I've tried opening Outlook, IE, task manager and settings and nothing changes.  The "start" icon located in the bottom left corner for switching to the desktop does not appear at all, though right clicking there does open the tools menu.  After trying to open Outlook & task manager, a reboot resulted in a window indicating that both were open and asking me if I wanted them closed so the programs are working, but I'm stuck on the Start screen.   I've also tried running other apps including Settings and they briefly act  like something is going on, but I stay stuck. 

I tried to restart into SAFE mode only to discover that the only way to get to SAFE mode or set it up as an option, as I understand it, is to already be in windows!!  I'm sorry, but I don't understand the logic of that at all

I used the machine all day Friday and left it turned on part of Saturday and Sunday and wonder if an update might have caused the problem. 

At any rate, here I am looking at all these pretty tiles and not only unable to do anything but it appears that my hands are completely tied when it comes to fixing this.  In my 25 years as a Windows user, I've had my share of problems with new releases, but never, ever have I been in a situation like this where it doesn't work and there's no way to get to the tools under the UI. 

I could use some suggestions ASAP; I'm dead in the water and stupid, installed 8.1 on my business machine.  for that I should be shot!

Ken

Right click the lower left corner to open the menu. Select command prompt(admin). From there you can execute system restore (rstrui.exe) or sfc /scannow to find and fix missing or corrupted files. Having a bootable repair disc/usb flash drive might be handy if you are unable to execute these options with the machine in it's present state. There are a few options.

Thanks.  I'll try these.  Interesting twist since I posted the above. I switched to another user on the same machine and was able to toggle back and forth and to run msconfig to switch to Safe Mode.  Before rebooting, I was able to get into Settings | Change PC Settings | Update & Recovery and ran Refresh your PC without affecting your files.  However, the program came back with "some files are missing, Your Windows installation will provide the files".  Unfortunately the only option then was to Cancel so nothing really changed then.  

Rebooted, into Safe Mode, then booted again into Normal.  The user with the hung Start screen is still hung, but fortunately the other user works.

Go figure.