I open Windows 11 and log in to a blank (black) screen.

Question

This problem may have started after rebooting from a Windows 11 update. It also may have started after I looked at a Facebook notification that I couldn't exit and that warned me not to shut down my computer, which, of course, I did.

So, after I shut it down and restarted, I used my finger to login but the screen came up black, not with my desktop. This is a Lenovo Yoga 6, if it matters. I could see and move the cursor but clicking anywhere on the screen did nothing. Ctrl-Alt-Del brought up Task Mgr and I'm able to run Chrome from there. I tried restarting Explorer.exe but it did nothing. I've restarted the computer several times and the same thing happens. I don't know if I can run other programs from Task Mgr or not.

Is there a way I can update again, in the dark? Any ideas on how to fix this? Is it a virus?

Answer 1

I ran into a similar issue with a black screen after login, except i couldn’t open task manager. Was able to get mine fixed:

1. Ctrl-alt-del. Click the power icon, then hold shift and select restart.
2. After it loads, it should open a blue screen. Troubleshoot -> Advanced options -> Startup Settings -> Restart
3. Select 6. Enable safe mode with command prompt.
4. Log in.
5. (probably optional, but did it anyways) Click on the terminal window and type sfc /scannow. Press enter, and wait for it to complete.
6. Type explorer. Press enter. This caused the taskbar and the typical windows desktop to appear.
7. Press Windows+R and type regedit. Click ok, then yes if you get a prompt.
8. On the left side, navigate to Computer -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> Session Manager -> Environment (click the environment folder).
9. If you don’t see windir in the list on the right, add it. Right click an empty space on the right side of the menu, New -> String Value. Type windir, press enter. Double click windir. Under value data: enter C:\Windows
10. Press ok, then restart your computer. After logging in the issue was resolved for me.

Turns out I was missing the windir environment variable. Hopefully this helps someone (the other threads out there are locked :’)

Answer 2

I had the same issue with Windows 11 as Gary mentioned in the first post. Over several months I tried several solutions from other online posts, none of them worked for my system.

System: Asus ROG Strix b550-f Gaming AMD MB, Ryzen 7 3700x processor, 32gig ddr4 ram, Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics card, 2 NVMe M.2 ssd's (1 gig each), one 4tb storage/backup hard drive.

I decided to start uninstalling software beginning with the most recent one, working my way backwards in the order I installed them. After restarting the system after each uninstall the Windows 11 desktop screen appeared after login, NO BLACK SCREEN. I had removed 14 programs from my system at that point. Number 14 was a program called "Folder Guard".

Just to check if that program (Folder Guard) was the one that was causing the issue I reinstalled Folder Guard and when I rebooted and logged into Windows, I got the BLACK SCREEN. I uninstalled Folder Guard again, even cleaned the registry entries of Folder Guard then rebooted. NO BLACK SCREEN after rebooting and logging into Windows.

PS. Yes, I have the latest graphics drivers from Nvidia installed.

I really did like the Folder Guard program and hope someday either Microsoft or Folder Guard programmers can fix the issue of "black screen after login".

Hope this post might help somebody.

Answer 3

I have inadvertently found the fix for this issue. Download "Explorer Patcher" from github and install it. If you don't have another computer to download it, you can use ctrl+alt+delete, run task manager then use the "Run New Task" option with this path __C:__Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe to open edge.

Navigate to:

https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/releases/tag/22621.4317.67.1_b93337a 

and go to bottom of page to download ep_setup.exe

Open folder to view downloads and run this file. Your computer may freeze but give it some time. Then reboot. After reboot Windows Explorer will now be working. Then remove the "Explorer Patcher" from "Programs and Features" in the control panel to clean up. Finalize updating your system.

You can also download this to a usb drive and browse to it through the "Run New Task" option in Task Manager.

Answer 4

Hi Gray, Thanks for your post. Can you please open any actions as follows.

1. Scan your PC with Windows Security or 3rd party antimalware software Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security and then Virus & threat protection.
2. Start your PC in safe mode in Windows; it can help identify if any third-party software is causing the issue. To boot Windows in safe mode, press and hold the Shift key, restart Computer, then Troubleshoot > Advanced option > Startup Settings > Restart.
3. Check for Windows updates. Settings > Windows update > Check for Windows update.
4. Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e
5. Run Startup Repair. a. Boot Into Windows Recovery Environment. b. Next, under Choose an option, click on Troubleshoot. c. Next, click on Advanced options. d. Click on Startup Repair. Now it will start to diagnose your PC to find issues with the start-up. e. Next, select a user account and enter the password. f. Click Continue to begin Startup repair. This process may take some time, so wait till it is complete.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

---

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Answer 5

I fixed it. I ended up rebooting into safe mode by holding the shift key. Then I chose to let the computer find the last good boot and put the computer back to before that update, which was one day earlier for me. It worked. I'm not 100% sure it was the actual update that caused the problem, but now that I think about it, I've had problems with almost all of my updates and this was the worst. Luckily a fixer update comes out within the next day or two.