Windows 10: Problem with Taskbar invisible, non-reactive, win key does nothing along with win+x.

So this was a random issue that I honestly still can't think about what may have caused it. Yesterday, 10-10-23, I was using my pc for gaming like normal, I updated valorant just to give it another shot. After a few games I turned off my pc to go to work, I never force any applications to close while shutting down as once I hit the power button I get up and walk away from my pc. I came home from work and the second I booted my pc fully I noticed no taskbar, no big deal. Tried task manager, restarting win explorer, nothing. Tried updating the pc, that will get to 50% then fail Install error -

:)

 

Fresh Install of Win 10 without Serial Key?

Looking to reformat a laptops HDD, and then reinstall Win 10 fresh. The problem is it came pre-installed with Win 8 and I did the free upgrade to Win 10. How exactly would I re-format the HDD, reinstall Win 10 and ensure it reactivates properly? I don't see a Win 8 serial key anywhere in the contents of the box.

 

Win+X problem

For the Win+X menu issue, please see this article and disable non-Microsoft shell context-menu handlers using ShellExView.

Some third-party shell extensions are known to cause this problem.

 

How to disable Win+L in Windows 10?

As far as I know, there is no mean to disable only one Win+X keyboard shortcut.

What I can suggest is to disable completely Win+X hotkeys:

1. Type regedit in RUN or Start search box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.
   
2. Now go to following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
   
3. In right-side pane, create a new DWORD NoWinKeys and set its value to 1
   

1. Close Registry Editor and restart your system. After reboot, all Win+X hotkeys will be turned off in your system.
   

To re-enable them, delete the DWORD NoWinKeys created in step 3.