Windows 10: Black screen after restarting explorer.exe

This issue has also happened after startup. My computer screen is black, but I can use my cursor and the start menu. I can open apps, but I can’t see them or the taskbar for that matter or interact with them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

:)

 

Windows 10 infinite restart black screen


Black screen after sign-in and you can see a mouse cursor:


Unplug your external devices

When you are at the black screen, try unplugging any peripherals you have plugged in at the time, and wait for a moment. If your screen becomes visible again, plug the peripherals back in one at a time.

Use Safe Mode

If unplugging peripherals not resolve the issue, for each of the troubleshooting steps below, you will need to use Safe Mode to troubleshoot this issue. To enter Safe Mode:

1. Reboot the PC, and when you reach the sign-in screen, hold the Shift key down while you click the Power button and select Restart.
2. When the system reboots, you will enter the Windows Recovery Environment.Select Troubleshoot, and then Advanced options, then Startup Settings, and Restart. When it restarts, you should see a number of options. Press 5 or F5 for Safe Mode with networking.

Reinstall your graphics card driver:

1. Once you’ve entered Safe Mode, right-click the Start icon and select Device Manager.
2. Expand Display Adapter.
3. Right-click your display adapter and select Uninstall. Then reboot your PC.

Check the registry

You may also see a black screen after signing in if the user interface has been replaced with software that is incompatible with Windows 10. You can check this in the registry. Warning: This solution will modify the registry. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Prior to attempting these steps, you should backup the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

1. Once you’ve entered Safe Mode, right-click the Start icon and select Run.
2. Type regedit.exe into the Open text box and click OK.
3. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
4. Click to select the WinLogon key, and then, in the right pane, click Shell. The value of Shell in the Data column should be explorer.exe. If the value of Shell isn't explorer.exe, double-click Shell, and then, in the Value data text field, enter explorer.exe, and then click OK.
5. Close the Registry Editor and then restart your PC.
   
   

Check for a corrupted user account

There could be a problem with the user account. To test this, create a new administrator user account and check if the new account also boots to a black screen:

1. Once you’ve entered Safe Mode, right-click the Start icon and select Command Prompt (Admin).
2. In the Command Prompt window, type the following commands (changing “<password>” to something of your choice):
   
   net user test <password> /add
   net localgroup Administrators test /add

Provided by: Sharath Srinivasa, Microsoft Forum Moderator.

See if any of this works for you,
John

 

Black screen after Windows update.

Hi Crystel,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

• Were you able to get to the desktop screen after you restarted the system?
  
• When the screen was blank, were you able to see the cursor on the screen?
  
• Did you get any error code or error message?
  

Please get back to us with answers to above questions, for us to suggest the appropriate troubleshooting steps.

Meanwhile, I suggest to try the steps mentioned in the article below and let us know if it helps.

Troubleshoot black screen or blank screen errors

We look forward for your reply.

Thanks,

Peer Samie

Microsoft Community-Moderator

 

Black Screen after Log on


Here is where I'm at now, still have the black screen after log on. I can get into task manager and open any program with new task and it opens the program. After I close the program black screen is back, if I try and open Explorer.exe from new task I get Error performing inpage operation. So I think we are getting closer on a fix,not sure how to fix the Explorer.exe error? Should I try a CHKDSK C: /R from new task? Any more suggestions I can try?