Settings (and other Apps) Will Not Start (Metro)

Question

This morning most Modern Apps will not start on my system, including the Settings app. It seems to be a DCOM failure and seems directly related to this old thread.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/7e6fe520-af09-4a38-b333-30ed5978f70c/control-panel-will-not-start-metro?forum=windowsdeveloperpreviewgeneral
This is a current Windows 8.1 installation, full up to date on patches, and the problem still occurs after rebooting. I checked for newly installed patches, etc. and the only thing recent was the Windows Defender definitions update.
It's an i7 with 32 GB of RAM, fast SSD's etc. I don't believe this is a hardware problem in any way.
Here's the details from the System event log:
Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM
Date:          19-Jun-2014 09:21:53
Event ID:      10001
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          SARSYS9\Michael Sargent
Computer:      SarSys9
Description:
Unable to start a DCOM Server: microsoft.windows.immersivecontrolpanel as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error:
"15612"
Happened while starting this command:
"C:\WINDOWS\ImmersiveControlPanel\SystemSettings.exe" -ServerName:microsoft.windows.immersivecontrolpanel
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM" Guid="{1B562E86-B7AA-4131-BADC-B6F3A001407E}" EventSourceName="DCOM" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">10001</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2014-06-19T13:21:53.648625200Z" />
    <EventRecordID>546613</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="972" ThreadID="4068" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>SarSys9</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-21-802678348-186571299-231467638-1001" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="param1">"C:\WINDOWS\ImmersiveControlPanel\SystemSettings.exe" -ServerName:microsoft.windows.immersivecontrolpanel</Data>
    <Data Name="param2">15612</Data>
    <Data Name="param3">microsoft.windows.immersivecontrolpanel</Data>
    <Data Name="param4">Unavailable</Data>
    <Data Name="param5">Unavailable</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>
That matches almost exactly with the referenced thread. But that thread never seemed to give a set of steps to resolve the issue (other than doing a Refresh which would be a catastrophic waste of time, reinstalling my whole development environment).
I really would appreciate some help resolving this issue. If I'm in the wrong forum, please move or suggest a more appropriate place.
Thanks,
    Mike

Answer 1

Please post questions and problems about using Windows in the Windows forums on
http://answers.microsoft.com
The MSDN Windows Store apps forums are for developers to discuss writing their own Windows Store apps.
--Rob