Windows 10: Computer unresponsive after aborted Windows 10 upgrade

My mum started up her computer one day and it came up with the message 'upgrading to Windows 10'. I am unsure if she accidentally selected this without realising it or if Windows forced the upgrade but as she didn't want it she clicked 'decline' once the installation had completed and was then told the computer would reinstall the previous operating system (she is unsure of the actual wording of this message).

The Windows 8 menu came up but is completely unresponsive. Upon turning on the computer she is able to log in as normal and it goes through into the Windows menu but is unable to access anything, with either the mouse or the touchscreen. None of the apps will open, she cannot get to the desktop, the menu will not swipe through.

I tried some keyboard shortcuts and the only one I can get to work is ctrl+alt+del which will go through to the option to lock, switch user, sign out or go to the task manager. I click on task manager but it just takes me back through to the windows menu which again is completely unresponsive. You are able to shut the computer down from the ctrl+alt+del page but nothing else. I have also tried using ctrl+shift+esc to get up the task manager which was completely unresponsive but when I pressed the windows key the windows menu flicked off for a second and I was able to see that the task manager is open but I cannot access it. The only thing it stated to be running was Skype but I was unable to click onto more details to see what else is going on in the background as it disappears as soon as it appears.

I tried to boot up safe mode by pressing F8 as it was loading up from being turned off but this did nothing.

Any help on how to either make Windows 8 operational or complete the aborted Windows 10 upgrade would be greatly appreciated. The computer is completely unusable in its current state.

:)

 

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manager nothing pops up.

 

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Hi freya and welcome to Tenforums.
I'm sorry to hear this happened to your mum. I have a friend who just dropped off a system that went through the same thing. Fortunately, it was not quite so borked as your mum's machine, but it was definitely a mess.

If your mum has data on the system that needs to be saved, you can boot the system to a custom recovery media created by one of our members, Kyhi:

Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

You can use the W10 version - it's best, and makes no difference for what you will do:
1. Copy any important user data to an external drive
2. Use the ShowKeyPlus program to grab the W7 keycode and write it down, in case you need it.

On another computer, download the W10 from the MS Media Creation Tool, selecting to make a flash drive.
See option #2 here:
Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Forums

Boot mum's system to the flash drive and install W10 that way. Depending on the manufacturer of her system, there is a certain key to press immediately at boot, to access the boot menu/BIOS (usually F2, F12, Esc or Del) so you can boot to USB.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.