Every once in awhile I lose my desktop which turns black and have no taskbar or icons. When this happens windows explorer appears and my gadgets are still showing and my mouse pointer shows and works. Outlook 2007 is still running ok as I hear incoming emails. My PC has a reset/restart hard button which restores everything back to normal. What is causing this to happen?
You might try running the System File Checker to see if that find and replace any possibly missing or somehow made inactive system files that control the display settings and themes. If something got knocked out that would explain the irregular type behavior you are seeing. The only time you should ever need to see a hard boot is when everything is totally frozen on you not when you can hit the Ctrl-Alt-Del combo to bring up the Task Manager and end the "explorer.exe" process to have to sign back in hopefully refreshing things without a full restart or see the restart option selected.
To get the SFC going you will need to open up a command prompt preferred being the "Command prompt(admin)" option found in the right click on Start button menu about 2/3rds the way down. At the dos like prompt ">" you simply type in "sfc /scannow" without quotation marks if you decide to copy and paste that in and press the enter/return key.
You might be prompted to insert the Windows media such as if you saw 10 go on by way of having burned a dvd using the Media Creation tool option or a usb flash drive rather then the download and immediate upgrade. And if this is still the first upgrade the system has been running with you may want to consider replacing the upgrade entirely with a Clean Install of 10 now that 10 has been activated.
Upgrade installs tend to be immediately buggy or get buggy after a much shorter period of time as opposed to see a fully working clean install go on in most cases. 10 is no different from previous versions when it comes down to "Buggyness" found in upgrade installs for sure! I've already run smack into some initial upgrade headaches and have seen multiple clean installs on a pair of desktops and one laptop with a 3rd desktop scheduled plus another pair of laptops to boot!
Did 10 come with the model or did you use the "AnyTime Upgrade" type of offer that comes with 8 or 8.1 on that model to see the 10 upgrade go on? Or did you simply allow it by way of the Windows Updates and reserve a copy if not using the Media Creation Tool MS has provided? I do tend to forget you have a netbook not a laptop or desktop seen there.
Typically upgrades can be buggy and end up needing to be replaced by a full Clean Install of Windows in order to end up with a normal functioning OS! I know that only too well here having a good "1 out of 3" upgrade success without something being goofed up from "something" not going on fully. If you are still on the upgrade type of install you still may have to consider replacing it with a fresh copy of 10 to get things the way they should which would mean starting all over from scratch.
The sound word of advice for anyone planning to try out any newer version or OS is simply to "Expect the Worst and Hoe for the Best"! because things can go sideways on you fast! Clean installs generally insure the best possible results since they don' carry along any of the previous version's errors and even when just seeing a clean install of 7 to upgrade to 10 on a brand new primary partition the upgrade goes buggy on you! This is why the SFC tool was mentioned from the start as a possible way to get things to work before any Refresh PC option was turned to.
Windows 10 came pre-installed on both my desktop and my laptop which on occasion has the same issue.
OUCH! That's a "3 out of 3" buggyness for you there! With three entirely different types of platforms involved being desktop, laptop, and netbook types you know the commonality is with 10 itself where all three are bugged up OEM preinstalls of 10.
I had one laptop upgrade here where the Start button was missing. The Start>Settings screen was totally blank!, And you couldn't get into the AllApps if your life depended on it! I saw a few cleans installs there first to immediately replace the upgrade planned ahead of time to then switch from 32bit to 64bit and then couldn't resize the OEM primary any! So far on either desktop with the second having seen smooth sailing with the upgrade but once again replaced by a clean install neither desktop has run into this type of problem having been custom installed copies of 10 which is where you may just end up.
The Reset PC option would be out for this however as that only restores the preinstalled 10 and not providing a totally fresh 10 install where you would proceed by boot live from 10 media you would need to see made up first by downloading the correct 32bit or 64bit MC Tool from the guide. Windows 1o ISO Download
And then depending on which editions or if you have both Home and Pro want to see a multiple form of 10 media made up since you have three separate 10 machine going you may want to see the solution that was found when someone asked how to make a usb drive with both the 32bit and 64bit options available where you could also select which edition since the MC tool will provide the combo for both Home and Pro but not see both on one download. How to make 4 in 1 installation USB? was a good one as it turned to be asked since a few discoveries were made there!
The other alternative option however before ever reaching the point of a fresh install of "Everything" on all three as the absolute last resort would be considering the option for the upgrade to repair type of install where you get to see most stuff left intact but will still need to see things reinstalled since not everything will be carried over. Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums[2]=Installation%20and%20Setup
Since you have preinstalls you won't run into the upgrade to repair turning into just another form of clean install which still sees the Windows.old created. Here I upgraded over the first upgrade and ended up seeing a "Windows.old00" folder since despite renaming the first the 10 installer still shifted the naming on the second one. But this is still the next to last resort which allows the repair type of install before a complete reinstall or even total wipe including the entire drive people often wanted help with for nuking all of the "Factory Bloatwares" off of their machines.
If all three were identical by the same brand type machines you might be able to look at a particular Windows update being a concern while this seems to be a bug in each preinstall not seen unless in another upgrade install gone buggy. If this was immediately noticed then you would look at these other options indicating the factory installs were crud! With an update you would also be hearing from others running into this as well which seems it may be something you trace back to ??? a 3rd party program or something else you have common on all three but not everyone else?
Quote
