Wolflegal,

I also updated from win 8 to 8.1. Some of my start page apps were not working right either. Some of them had a down arrow on them all the time. The solution for this was to uninstall all apps that were not working properly and then go to the “store” and re-download and install.

From searches I made, this has been a common problem with the 8.1 update.

Like you I was furious with win 8 on this new machine I just bought and was thinking of returning it. But once I got it going, and boot directly into the desktop, I am starting to get used to it.