Taskbar unable to pin or unpin anything at all

So I have had this problem for a while, where I was not able to pin or unpin any shortcuts to my taskbar, but I had what I needed there anyways. I just upgraded to the SSD and had to move my Steam folder to do so, which left the shortcut in the taskbar as a default windows icon, which I was not able to click on or remove. I went to the users/appdata/roaming/windows/internet explorer/quick launch/taskbar folder and removed the shortcut, but then all the rest of my pinned items also disappeared!

I can right click and 'pin to taskbar', but nothing actually goes to it, or stays there if tried with an open program. If I do this, in the start menu when right clicking a program I pinned, it will show up at the bottem as pinned (IE; it says unpin from taskbar) but nothing is in the taskbar at all. I did try sfc /scannow, which had some files that were corrupted, but they were totally unrelated to anything about the taskbar, and have been resolved with the deployment and imaging tool cleanhealth command through an elevated command prompt. I have also tried the 'clean and reset taskbar' bat that I found on this site, which also did not help.

I thought maybe my profile was corrupt, so I created a new profile, but I also cannot pin anything to the taskbar on it either. Same goes for the hidden admin profile.

Anyways if anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears!

Thanks!

edit - ALSO! I cannot right click on the start menu peek window to get the power user menu, or use the windows key + x to bring that menu up... Don't know if that is totally related, but I figured it might be worth adding.

Did you install Windows 8 or was it a factory install? If you installed it where did you obtain your install media?

I installed it, the iso was from MSDN Academic Alliance.

OK, I just wanted to make sure it was obtained from a reputable source. Has it always done this or is it something that just happened one day? You may want to try doing a refresh.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2293-refresh-windows-8-a.html?ltr=R or maybe even a http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/26095-repair-install-windows-8-a.html?ltr=R
It may be worth your while to re download the ISO just in case your previous download got corrupted somehow.

It hasn't always done it, just one day I noticed I was unable to pin something to the taskbar, and since then it hasn't worked. I was really trying to avoid doing the refresh, since I have a really crappy internet connection and would need to re-install/re-download a boatload of stuff, but if I can do the repair without losing anything, I may just have to try that.

Thanks!

If all else fails, consider this option:

How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 8 and 8.1 without Losing Anything
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/26095-repair-install-windows-8-a.html

Good luck,

my2cents

Try opening the Taskbar folder, which is

"C:\Users\(your UserName)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar"

(Don't ask me why "Internet Explorer" is part of that path name!)

...and look in THAT folder for the item that you're having the problem with. If it's there, right-click and unpin, or if that doesn't work, delete it from the folder. Then go back to the original item and pin it again.

If an item is NOT in the Taskbar folder (or you've deleted it from there) and yet you see the "unpin" option, then it's a Registry issue, i.e. your Registry thinks it's pinned. In that case, just click the "unpin" option and that should correct the Registry.

Another option is looking at refreshing windows:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2293-refresh-windows-8-a.html

Cheers

Harry

Here are the most availeble psossibilities:
_you may have download windows 8 from unsafe website.
_Try uncheking the "Lock The Taskbar" option and reloggin in.
_You may have a virused or damaged shortcut in the taskbar try removing all of them an put them again
_Refresh your windows.