[Problem]
Windows 8.1 is not booting correctly - it shows a screen with the "shutdown/restart" button bottom right and another button for screen tools bottom left. There is no login prompt and all the shortcuts don't work (e.g. to bring up task manager or explorer, ...)
[Solution]
That one was a ****** to find!
1. Hold Shift, Press the button on bottom right, then choose "Restart". Then release the shift key. This will get you to a menu where you can choose several things.
2. Click "Troubleshoot" -> "Advanced Options" -> "Windows Startup Settings" and then press the "Restart" button bottom right.
3. On reboot, you will get prompted with many options how to start windows. Pick a safe mode with or without network.
4. Windows should now boot to the point where you can actually log in, so let's do that.
5. start "msconfig" (bring up the program menu and type 'msconfig', then press enter; Alternatively you can press "Windows Key + X" and open an Administrator Shell and type 'msconfig there, that should also work)
6. In MSConfig, check the tab "Boot". On the left bottom side in the "Boot Options" section, there might be a checkbox called "Safe Boot" enabled. Uncheck it! In our case, it was enabled and set to "Active Directory Repair", which does not work in a non-domain network on a client windows machine at all..
7. You should be able to reboot and use the system normally now!
Unfortunately I found the following link after several hours wasted fixing this issue, would've saved a lot of time!
http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to- ... -easy-way/