Member Avatar for wilko1995

Hi all,

When i log into my Administrator account it only has a black screen and the cursor. I have tried Repairing it and Restoring to a previous time, but neither have worked. I can get it to work in safe mode but thats it.

Please help, i need it to be back to working ASAP as i use it to monitor all the computers on my network.

Thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by compnutt

Dani AI

Generated

Since Safe Mode boots successfully, this points away from physical disk failure and toward a per‑user shell, startup, or profile problem rather than hardware. and made useful points; the checks below target the shell, system files and startup items that commonly produce a black desktop-with-cursor after a normal logon.

Quick diagnostic (no reinstall needed): with the black screen invoke Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del). Check whether explorer.exe is present; if it is not, starting explorer.exe from Task Manager often restores the desktop — that result narrows the fault to shell/launch rather than graphics hardware. Record any error messages seen in Event Viewer (Windows Logs → Application and System) at the logon time; look for entries referencing Winlogon, User Profile Service, or Explorer.

Key investigations and safe repairs:

  • Verify Winlogon shell settings at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon (the Shell value should be explorer.exe, Userinit should point to C:\Windows\system32\userinit.exe,). Export the key before changing anything.
  • Run the System File Checker from an elevated command prompt in Safe Mode: sfc /scannow to repair protected system files.
  • Use a startup auditor (Sysinternals Autoruns) or msconfig in Safe Mode to disable non‑Microsoft startup entries and shell hooks — third‑party monitoring/remote‑management agents are common culprits on machines used to monitor networks.
  • Check whether a group policy or logon script is replacing the shell or redirecting desktop folders (inspect user shell folder values under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders).

Cautions and next steps: always export registry keys and back up the user profile data before making changes. If the shell can be manually started but the profile shows corruption (errors in Event Viewer referencing the User Profile Service), preserve Documents/Desktop and rebuild the profile or migrate to a clean administrator profile as a last resort.

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Member Avatar for crunchie

Does 'Last Known Good Configuration' work?

Member Avatar for jak0b

I would first boot to safe mode, and run "chkdsk /f /r /x" to see if there are any errors in the file system. (might require a reboot here)

If that doesn't help, then next step would be to boot to safe mode, create a new user account with admin rights, and then log in to that new account.

If that is working, then I would copy all documents, favorites, and desktop links/files to the new account from the old one - and run a complete malware scan.

If it isn't working, I would go back to safe mode, and uninstall all recently updated drivers. (and try to log in again, and so forth)

Edited by jak0b because: n/a
Member Avatar for compnutt

You are referring to Vista or W7.
Having a similar issue with Vista Home premium 32 bit also & have a thread about it with a booting issue on a Compaq Presario F700 laptop. Does the smae thing at boot with the cursor flashing.

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