Windows 10: All desktop programs not working, including Start

Hi.

I came upon a strange problem with a customer of mine who has just installed Windows 10 on 29th July.

It is a Dell Desktop computer and it logged on fine, loaded the desktop but not one of the program icons did anything. I clicked on the start icon and it did nothing. I right-clicked each executable and only the shortcut to program and properties options appeared.

I tried opening Task Manager and got an error message saying something like "interface unavailable".

I removed the HDD and started a CHKDSK thinking maybe one of the main system files was corrupt. It was taking ages so I cancelled that and re-installed the HDD.

I booted up and everything worked perfectly! I examined the event logs and could find nothing to explain what had happened. I have tested it all since, there are no hardware issues and I haven't been able to recreate the problem.

I am reluctant to return the desktop without knowing why this problem occurred.

Any advice would be most welcome. Thanks

:)

 

All desktop programs fail to operate, including Start

Thank you for replying Vijay.

It wasn't that a particular program wouldn't work. ALL programs wouldn't work. There was no access to the list of apps because the Start button did nothing when clicked. Task Manager would not open so basically there was no way to access the operating system
in any way.

It had been working fine for several days. Perhaps when the user came to use a particular app that was corrupted then problems began but I have never known a situation, with any operating system, where one corrupted program was capable of preventing all
the others from working. I didn't think that was even possible.

I am returning the desktop to the user but if the same thing happens again I am at a loss to know what to do.

 

All desktop programs fail to operate, including Start

Hello.

I repair laptops and desktops and a customer of mine reported that a few days after upgrading her Windows 7 installation on her Dell Desktop, although she could sign in and see the desktop, not one of the program icons there would work. Clicking on the Start
icon did nothing either. In fact, there was no way at all into the operating system, including Task Manager, which gave a message "interface not available".

I brought it back, removed the HDD and did a CHKDSK on it, thinking maybe there was a corrupt system file. That hung for over an hour, so I cancelled and re-installed the HDD.

On booting up after that, it worked fine. I have done various tests, including hardware. I have checked all event logs and found nothing relating to the time the OS failed. I am at a loss to understand this one.

I haven't been able to re-create this situation. Any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks.