Problems with Start8 and SYSPREP Imaging

I have a problem with Start8.  I recently created our company's first Windows 8 image, and installed Start8 while I was creating the image.  I ran SYSPREP and captured the image to our deployment server.  After deploying the image to a machine Start8 continually prompted for activation, but would never activate.  Additionally this rendered the Windows 8 native Start menu inoperative, and the Start8 Start menu wouldn't appear.  

Thankfully I had an Acronis backup of the system before SYSPREP, so I went back to that state and uninstalled Start8, then ran SYSPREP again and recaptured the image for deployment.  Everything was fine with the machine until I reinstalled Start8.  Once Start8 was reinstalled I had the same issue...  I couldn't open the Windows 8 Start Menu, and Start8 refused to activate.

Please investigate what can be done to fix this issue.  I really want to use Start8 on all of our PC's that run Windows 8, and I prefer the ability to have it as part of the system image, but I'm OK with installing it after the fact so long as it works.  Thank you.