Hi BravaCentauri83,
It sounds to me like the applications are opening, but off screen so you do not see them. The next time you connect to the laptop check the monitor options and also the display settings of the laptop.
GlennD It was doing that before I had connected the monitor. Prior to that I never had a monitor connected. I only hooked it up for the purposes of making sure the laptop functioned normally with the lid closed while in front of it and not using Logmein.
Having said that, I re-connected the monitor (laptop lid still closed), connected to the laptop via Logmein, and opened programs. Everything opened on the main laptop display and not the secondary external monitor. I then disconnected from Logmein, turned off the laptop, unplugged the monitor, rebooted and re-connected. it repeated the same symptoms as my first post.
I did the Windows snapping keyboard shortcuts to reconfirm nothing was "hidden" on a display that wasn't showing. I used all instances of the Win key + up, down, left, right arrows to no success.
Finally, the suggestion doesn't answer the other part of my issues - the programs or windows that actually launch and display for me will not close when I click the X at the top right of a program. And when I click on the Windows start menu nothing pops up. These items have nothing to do with potential things appearing off-screen.
