Cannot open any folders or run notepad on Windows 11 Dell G7 laptop. When I try, taskbar and desktop disappear, then reappear

Yesterday, in the late afternoon, my Dell G7 15 laptop, running windows 11, was working fine. Late in the evening, it started to fail.

When I try to open a folder, the desktop becomes black, the task bar disappears; then, moments later, the desktop and taskbar reappear. I cannot open _any_ folders.

Additionally, trying to start Notepad causes the same problem (disappearing desktop and task bar which then reappear).

Oddly enough, I am able to run Chrome.

When I try to run task manager, nothing happens. (desktop and task bar do not disappear, but no task manager starts) I tried right-click on taskbar --> task manager and also ctrl-alt-del --> task manager.

I can run command prompt and powershell from the search field next to the start menu on the task bar.

I deleted everything in C:\Users\charl\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

From an administrative powershell, I tried running:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register "$($_. InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode}

But it failed with:

Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073D02, The package could not be installed because resources it modifies are currently in use.

error 0x80073D02: Unable to install because the following apps need to be closed Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.22621.3085_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy.

NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] ebd8fd76-7264-0003-ca8b-07ed6472da01 in the Event Log or use the command line Get-AppPackageLog -ActivityID 

ebd8fd76-7264-0003-ca8b-07ed6472da01

At line:1 char:66

+ ...  | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register "$($_. InstallLocation)\appxman ...

+                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (C:\Windows\Syst...ppxmanifest.xml:String) [Add-AppxPackage], Exception

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.AddAppxPackageCommand

I ran:

Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_. InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

and it seems to have succeeded, but did not solve the problem.

I tried: sfc /scannow

but got: Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service

I tried to restore to an earlier point last week but it failed. claiming there was file corruption.

I checked disk for errors, and ran chkdsk /R, but it has not helped.