#206 Start Button disappears on restart

[Steve Hogan]

When restarting a Windows 8 Pro machine that has two users, the Start Button disappears. If comes back if you log out the user and log them back in. I think the service lights up the button when a log in occurs. It probably should light it up when the active user is changed or when the desktop is selected.

[Ivo Beltchev]

What version of Classic Shell are you using? Do you automatically log in one of the users after reboot?

[Steve Hogan]

Hi Ivo,

Thanks for getting back to me so soon.

I am using Classic Shell 3.6.1
Windows 8 Pro 6.2.9200 Build 9200 (The official release)

I can duplicate it by having two users logged in.
Select restart (which gives the warning that there is another person logged
in)
Hit OK to blow off the other user and let the system restart.
It comes back with the current user still logged in but the start button is
missing.
I sign out and sign back in and the start button reappears.

If I do not have the second person logged in, it seems to intermittently
happen.
It's as if windows does not log off the user when it does a restart (which
I believe is how Windows 8 is intended to work).

For what it is worth, this issue is showing up on my two Asus UX31A
zenbooks, which have solid state drives and use some sort of fast-start
system (I believe they store a memory image on disk at shutrdown and pull
it back in when starting up).

It does not happen (as near as I can tell after a few tests) on my Lenovo
desktop (also Windows 8, but with conventional drives).

So it MIGHT be hardward configuration specific.

I will try to get better information for you.

Thanks for your help.

Steve Hogan

[Steve Hogan]

When I get home later, I will try an experiment - Will get the system in a mode where the button is gone, then will restart the Classic Shell service to see if the button is restored. If that works, I will build a shortcut to a batch file to stop and start the service and put it on the desktop as a workaround until a permanent fix is determined. WLUK.

[Ivo Beltchev]

Try the latest version 3.6.2. It improves the way the service detects logged in users, so it may fix your problem.

[Steve Hogan]

Will try it. FWIW, I did try the Restart the service idea and it did not work. Plus, this is now happening my Lenovo desktop and started right after an update to Bitdefender. It may be that I was just not observant before, but I don't think so. Will load 3.6.2 now

[Steve Hogan]

Loaded 3.6.2 and it would appear that the problem has gone away. WLUK if it reoccurs. Did notice something (and it may be my imagination) but with 3.62 the Start Button appears right away in the Desktop view -- before anything else is loaded. I recall it taking longer with 3.6.1 (but I might be nuts). At any rate, I appreciate your patience and understanding. I guess I should have checked sourceforge for the latest version. I got the 3.6.1 from windows8startbutton.com and made the (stupid) assumption that it was the latest version. Thanks again. This is a great add on.