This is on Windows 8.1.1 x64 Professional using DF V6.0 and Start Menu X V5.20. Start Menu X is set to display a custom Start Button.

On system startup, Start Menu X and DisplayFusion appear to startup at close to the same time. This is on a Dell XPS 8700 with 24 gigabytes RAM, I7 4770 CPU, and all solid state disks...so the system fires up pretty fast

Because of the closeness of starting up, DisplayFusion does not display the custom Start Button of Start Menu X. I do an "About" on DF to get it to pick up the custom Start Button. I'm not sure if there is an easy way to fix this. I tried putting DisplayFusion's startup in the Task Scheduler with a slight delay; however, DF will not start up via the Task Scheduler. It errs out with an "needs elevation" error even when I tell it to run with highest privileges.

Possible solution?

You can put a shortcut tp DF on your desktop (if it is not already there). In the properties > shortcut tab > advanced button, you can set it 'run as administrator'. If you schedule the shortcut to run, it should solve your issue.

Hmmm...tried this suggested. It didn't work and the same error in the Task Scheduler.

I've tried it with and without "Run with Highest Privileges" and no luck. Same error.

Tried the log on trigger with and without "Run with highest privileges" and still get the same error and DisplayFusion does not start.

It won't start if I right click on the Task Scheduler entry and select Run (I have this allow option set).

I did a little experiment this morning in an attempt to confirm that this is a timing issue. I turned off "Write Caching" on my C:\ drive which is an Intel 240 gbyte mSata drive mounted on the motherboard of my XPS 8700. This slowed down the boot time by 4-5 seconds and was just enough to slow down DisplayFusion's startup process. The Start Menu X logo was loaded in the DisplayFusion taskbars. I boot 4 times and each time the Start Menu X logo was loaded in the DF taskbars.

Obviously I don't want to penalize my system this way so I turned the Write Caching back on.

Maybe an Advanced Setting option such as "Delay loading Custom Start Button by X seconds" would fix this, eh?

Update: This is no longer an issue for DisplayFusion. I put Start Menu X in the Task Scheduler to run on Computer Startup. It now loads very quickly and several seconds before DF needs it. The DF task bar start button is now properly updated.

Thanks for your efforts.