Black Screen after logging in (Cursor still there)

So after I started my pc today I had a black screen after logging in. This might be unrelated to that issue but It first started the day before when the windows button stopped functioning and I had to move the mouse to the bottom of the screen to access the taskbar. Clicking on the windows logo in the taskbar also did nothing. I tried a few keyboard tester sites and the windows button seemed to be working there. I thought nothing of it and just pressed alt + f4 to shut my pc down after I was done gaming. The next morning I booted up my pc, I logged in and after entering my password it took almost 30 seconds for the "welcome" text next to the loading icon to disappear. After that its just a black screen with a cursor. I can press Ctrl + Alt + Del and click on task manager, but when I do the cursor shows a loading icon for a few seconds but nothing seems to open. I also tried Win + Ctrl + Shift + B to reset graphics drivers but that didnt do anything either, neither did Ctrl + Shift + Esc, I just got the same loading icon for a few seconds and nothing happened. I read a few articles and posts about this issue but since I cant open Task Manager, CMD or regedit I cant do any of the fixes I saw. The only thing I can do is press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and look at menu.

When I was in safe mode/ the recovery menu tried doing the fixes I saw in another thread on here like changing shell=cmd.exe to explorer.exe or removeing a comma from the userinit prompt line, but since I can only open stuff like cmd or regedit through a few hurdles when im in windows recovery mode the changes wont stick, because its a seperate image (someone also tried that on the other thread so thats how I know why it didnt work)

One odd thing I noticed that on the second or third restart, after I logged on, Wallpaper Engine opened. Nothing else, only wallpaper engine. I set it to autorun a year or so ago so that I get the wallpaper from it as soon as I boot up my pc.

At this point I dont know what to do. Ive read through so many articles but nothing has helped.

Malneb said:

Well actions done in safemode carry over to your normal environment so there is something loading or lack there of when you log in normally that is causing the issue.

Hard to say and that other stuff you changed you should revert back to normal. The fact that safemode logs in and functions means there is something happening outside of that as safemode loads the bare minimum needed to operate the OS.

Go into safemode:

- spend some time there looking at stuff. What is loading when the computer first logs in? use Autoruns to check.
- Have you got basic functionality? like can you open the file explorer and browse around?
- can you open a command prompt?
- can you run SFC and it completes the scan
- can you view task manager

if you can do all those then there is something that is loading or happening in normal mode but not safemode and its causing an issue.

Shell should also be explorer.exe by default so there is something funny happening.

Turns out I mixed up safemode and recovery mode. I entered safemode earlier and all I saw was my windows build version and number at the top of the screen, an empty taskbar and no desktop icons, on a black background. When clicking on the windows logo in the taskbar or anywhere else in the taskbar it freezes and tells me that "the process windows may not work correctly", with the options close and wait. Task Manager doesnt show up when pressing the Ctrl Shift Esc either.

Malneb said:

Well what have you done in recovery mode?

tried loading a backup from yesterday, that gave me an error. Tried removing the latest function and visual update, both also didnt work. What I also noticed was that all my drive letters changed. The C drive was now E, the D drive was now C etc.