I don't know if the UI problems above were, Start button, cortana and task bar not functioning properly but..

I did multiple fresh installs of windows last weekend trying to figure this out.  After the DDU, I would usually end up with the start button not working along with cortana and some of the task bar features.  I found a solution for this.

1- Right click on start menu and click on Run. "For those who the start menu does not respond with right click, right click on taskbar - click on Task Manager - from File menu on the left upper corner select Run new task".
2-White the command regedit and click Enter.
3- Go to path [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService].
4-Double click on Start from the right side.
5-Change the value data to 4 then OK.
6-Reboot

Now my start button, cortana and task bar work as they should.

Ended up with 1709 updated before turning off windows update. DDU and installed Beta Blockchain Aug23rd and MSI afterburner Beta 16 (maybe 19).

Maybe this will help someone else.