Login Screen Crashing to Desktop with no dissolve effect?

DaveH1 · 15 Oct 2023

Sorry if the thread title sounds a bit vague, I couldn't think of anything better!
This is only a cosmetic problem, but it is puzzling me.

For all the years I've been using Windows 10, when I booted up, after the login screen, it would do a quite elegant dissolve effect to the desktop, which was almost completely populated, except for some of the system tray icons, which would then load.

Now what's happening is that after the login screen, the screen goes completely black for several seconds, and then the desktop sort of crashes in, often with some of its desktop and taskbar icons missing, which then appear, along with the system tray icons.

It used to do this on my underpowered netbook sometimes, but it's now doing it on my desktop too, and it's doing it every time.
I'm sure this started with the last set of Patch Tuesday updates.

Is anyone else seeing this behaviour, and is there any fix?
Thanks, Dave.

dalchina · 16 Oct 2023

That's pretty much what I see.. although usually the desktop is rendered intact. Sometimes more slowly. Really rather depends what startups you have loading I suspect. Your disk will be used intensively after logging in, so there's only so much processing that can be done in a given time, if you see what I mean.

You might try a clean boot for comparison (Google or see tutorial if unsure how).

Note: your specs say 20H2 but you refer to the last patch Tuesday.. also under your avatar

DaveH1 · 16 Oct 2023

Thanks for that.
Sorry, my profile was very out of date, I've updated it now!
I guess from what you're saying that this is not a known issue, so I will try a clean boot as you suggest, and if this works as it did before, I will try to investigate why the startup has presumably now slowed down so much that the transition to the desktop from the login screen is not happening as it should.
Cheers, Dave.

Try3 · 16 Oct 2023

You might usefully consider running Disk cleanup.
Disk Cleanup - TenForumsTutorials
It can have a significant effect on bootup times.

Denis

DaveH1 · 16 Oct 2023

Thanks yes, I will look at that too!

spunk · 16 Oct 2023

Also, have you installed any Windows Themes? This can have an affect on your system.

DaveH1 · 16 Oct 2023

No, I've only got what came with the operating system.

DaveH1 · 23 Oct 2023

OK, I found the culprit!
It was a hardware monitoring program I updated on the machine after running an old version for some time.
It appears to work fine, but presumably causes some sort of temporary hang during boot up.
I found it by process of elimination.
All I've done is now put its service on 'delayed start' and the problem seems to have gone away.
Thanks for the help everyone!
Cheers, Dave.

spunk · 23 Oct 2023

Great job, we are glad you got it sorted.