A frozen Desktop with weird interactions

Hey guys so i got a bit of a nail scratcher. I'm sure restarting the PC will help but there are some things i didnt get a chance to save that i would like to before doing that option. I am using a 2 monitor setup but have unplugged one to try and fix this issue
Currently on the latest win 10 version

So what happens is my screen is mostly frozen after trying to run a game it was able to close it however the desktop is kind of frozen. Funnily enough running narrator highlights things in blue boxes and still somewhat works i can still do keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+r to get into the run command to boot things like powershell and command prompt
Restarting windows explorer can fix it for maybe 5 seconds and the weirdest interaction ive had is if i ALT+TAB into something, it doesnt show up because the screen is in this frozen start but then when i use WIN+TAB instead it shows on the screen, again for about 2 seconds before it freezes! Also sometimes the stuff open will appear on the taskbar and sometimes it wont.

I've attempted to restart GPU drivers and restart explorer but have gotten nowhere, if there is any chance i can restart something else to at least save my stuff before just doing a restart that would be great

dalchina said:

What is it that you want to save exactly, and where is it located?

What happens if you e.g. hit Win key + r, then cmd.exe

Does the command box remain active?

If you hit CTRL + SHIFT + ESC (task manager) is there some process you can kill that helps?

dalchina said:

What is it that you want to save exactly, and where is it located?

What happens if you e.g. hit Win key + r, then cmd.exe

Does the command box remain active?

If you hit CTRL + SHIFT + ESC (task manager) is there some process you can kill that helps?

Done all of those, i can 100% type commands in command prompt or power shell, and i tried killing possible offending apps in the task manager and it was real hard to try and do that as it was... and honestly its only thanks to being able to start Windows Narrator that im able to navigate anything at all!

The stuff i want to save is in chrome and unfortunately in an incognito window which i use so it doesn't mess up my youtube recommendations when looking at current world events and with the youtube algorithm sucking these days no guarantee ill find those videos again. I could MAYBE try and get it to save all bookmarks.

Other stuff i want to save are some paint files but i think i have that part sorted. Like i said killing and restarting explorer via powershell or CMD seems to help a tiny bit but i think it has to do with another part of windows. From what i gather i can select a current open app or window with Alt+Tab and of course nothing happens on screen but then using Win+Tab and pressing that combination again to go back will show the app selected before freezing again. I'll try to get some webcam footage from my laptop showing it.

spunk said:

Try a Clean Boot, if that works, you can leave it that way, or you can add one Startup Item or Service at a time until the computer starts freezing, then you will know the culprit.

I have no doubt that a normal restart will solve the issue and wont really need the fully clean boot section but thank you for the suggestion! The PC has been on for a good while and its probably what it needs. The issue is 100% my fault and something I'm working towards avoiding in the future. Just too used to using sleep mode over shut down for long periods.

Try3 said:

Perhaps your Desktop is not 'frozen' but merely failing to automatically Refresh.
I suggest that you right-click on the Desktop & select Refresh [or press the F5 key].
Your problem might be more involved than that but might not.


Denis

Hey sorry for the late reply I've been busy recently.
I could try how can i make sure every window is minimized before trying this? Is there a hotkey for this?
An idea i also had is i use rustdesk, an alternative to TeamViewer on the desktop do you think this could also get by whatever is happening?
Thanks

No luck unfortunately
Was also able to get into remote desktop and unfortunately displays the same stuff.

Try3 said:

I am not sure from your comments whether you tried Refresh or not but it was only an idea.
As is,
WinKey-Ctrl-Shift-B
Restart Graphics Driver of Display Adapter - TenForumsTutorials



Best of luck,
Denis

Done that originally and unfortunately didn't work went through a command prompt way to use an instance ID to restart it but didn't work either. Luckily for me i was able to save 99% of everything and the last 1% of an already closed window was in one of the paint files i was able to save so i was able to save everything, including my tabs since i was still able to select the chrome windows and use the keyboard shortcut to bookmark all open tabs. Guess windows Narrator was good for a reason after all :) Guess the thread can be closed?