Start button popup menu disappeared

The start button at the lower left corner of my desktop now turns blue when I hover the mouse over it, and, more importantly, when I right click on it the popup menu no longer appears

Hello JFH, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If you have not already, see if restarting the PC may be able to sort it if it's just a glitch.

If not, then you might see if doing a system restore using a restore point dated before this started may help.

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

It will do that with 8.1 or if you are using Start8.

The first thing I did was reboot the computer - no help. Since Win 8.1 does not create daily restore points (like XP) I would have to select a restore point several days ago and lose the stuff I have been trying to get loaded on this new computer. Fortunately, I found that I can bring up the popup menu by just pressing on the Windows+X keys, a minor inconvenience compared with others I'm encountering in Win 8.1.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4503-power-user-tasks-menu-open-windows-8-a.html

@jfh,

Did you install any sort of 3rd party Start Menu program that could be preventing the WIN+X menu from opening normally?

I have installed several programs on the new computer that I had on the old one. but none, as far as I know, start automatically. e.g., Revo Uninstaller, Speccy, CCleaner, Irfan View, VLC Media Player, Rainlender2. I use all of them, and rather than uninstalling any, I'd rather just keep doing the Win+X thing.