Windows 10: Windows 10 programs lose functionality every couple of hours, however can still open and...

Hello everyone, I have a serious issue that has been going on with my PC through out multiple installs of windows 10. Every couple of hours, lets say I'm on Mozilla fire fox, it will freeze but I can still close it and open it again, however when I open it, I'm met with a blank search bar and no functionality whatsoever. I tried checking other programs and they experienced the same issue, they either wouldn't open or they would open without functionality. I checked task manager, and it reported that the programs were all responsive.. But even task manager itself lost functionality, the data wasn't being updated and everything was stuck at the same usage percentage. Also, I noticed every process and program was stuck at 0%, however, my CPU usage was stuck at 38% and disk usage, etc were all stuck.


I checked the Windows event viewer and the only errors I received were the watch dog timer being set off ( basically the system shutting down due to system failure ) and an unexpected shutdown. Also I saw errors with event ID 10016 but those errors are by design so I doubt they are the true culprits of all my programs losing functionality. I even attempted to solve the event ID 10016 error but the issue at hand still persists so I was able to rule out that it wasn't causing the issue. After the issue happened again, I checked windows event viewer once more and I found something new, Cortana and backgroundtaskhost.exe were both causing errors, and event ID 10016 was still there too. Ive run sfc /scannow multiple times in safe mode, and DISM too, but the problem still persists. I'm reluctant to remove Cortana though, I doubt removing that would solve this issue, and I kinda don't wanna lose the functionality of the windows search feature by removing her.


I found that If I repeatedly tap the windows button, my programs would begin to unfreeze again, but only at the rate of which I spammed my windows key. I noticed this while I was playing some Roblox. Also, most of windows basic functions would stop as well during the issue, like the search bar next to the windows button, and it wouldn't let me restart nor shutdown, it would just show the splash screen but with no ring.


I tried looking at posts about Windows 10 freezing, but none of their directions have helped me because my issue is entirely different from theirs as my windows is not actually freezing, its just losing a ton of functionality and acting really weird.


Please help me, and let me know if I'm not the only experiencing this exact problem.

:)

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Why did the startup window get cleared?

I didn't missed any step, the list was gone and gone , even after using lot of programs the programs were not listed in that list.

 

Windows 10 installing progs

I decided to take the plunge and upgrade to windows 10 from 7. I used the Media Creation Tool from MS website. It took awhile, but I am finally running Windows 10 (12-14).

I opened the new App & Program feature to remove programs that I no longer needed. Scrolling down the list, I was horrified! Apps that I didn't install somehow magically installed themselves. Two programs stood out: Facebook and Candy Crush Soda Saga. Both programs have those tale-tale icons that they came from Windows Store (which I've never even opened). The install date for both of them were on 12-26.

Is this a common thing for Windows 10? Or is it because I did an upgrade and not a clean install?