black screen

My Handicapped Son presents me with his Laptop after he has done something to settings or uninstalling his programs, as he lives in a Cartoon world, he exploits Bizarre behavio/ur (EN/US) to the limits, but cannot communicate.
One Problem was where the Backgrounds, tool bar and typing were all black making it impossible to read what you type on a completely black screen.
I recall I had to have it side by side to my PC giving the same instructions to both and having to Guess many times trial and error where the Laptop Cursor was positioned by reference to the PC.

Hi Bill

Have you tried booting to Safe Mode and then invoking system restore.

To get to process started hold the shift key down and click restart. This should give you the Advance Startup Option screen.

Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10

If I might make a further recommendation. I would look into a product like Macrium Reflect. Image his entire PC to a separate external drive and when these situations present themselves just do a complete restore. The product is free, reliable and member recommended. There is even a tutorial that can be followed.

Hi Ken Nice to hear from you,
following your advice I got to the advance option and seemed to fumble click to an option to get an earlier version of Windows, and once started I had to let it go the distance, thinking I might end up with MS-8, but there has only been MS10 on the Laptop. At the end of the Process. The Laptop Windows Specification shows as Windows 10 Home edition, Version 1709, OS Build 16299.431 - I will have to check it again when I restart it. But it seems OK.
I Note you also mention Macrium to get a snapshot of the HDD, A forum Moderator essenbe also mentioned it's benefits.
Thank you again.