Hi folks I've had the same problem with the same amount of lead time before the screen goes from the Start Screen to the Desktop "App". I had originaly thought it was a registry hang from one of the various "Start-Menu" replacement programs I was testing but ultimatly found out that it was a program loading up as a process, that being a process of Zonealarm. Once I deactivated it as a startup process, the Start Screen with Tiles remained. I have noticed that when some programs are launched, be it a windows native program or second party program, that windows 8 launches them from within the Desktop "App", which is why the Desktop opens after the Zonealarm program begins a few minutes after the start screen loads. Hope this helps some.