I have seen this problem in a number of threads but none provided me a solution.
The symptoms
1. Windows 8 logon process works (you can enter your password)
2. When logged on, you get a black screen, no desktop, no taskbar
3. Starting Task manager, you see explorer.exe running with 0% CPU
4. Killing and starting explorer.exe shows desktop normally
5. Restarting takes you back to (1)
The internet provided solutions:
There are all kinds of suggestions and some people suggested they work, like just running "sfc /scannow". I tried everything I found online to no avail... even reverted to an earlier restore point
My solution, posted here, in hope that it will help someone in the future:
1. Download Process Explorer from Windows powertools
2. Unzip wherever you want
3. Restart and start task manager but don't kill/start explorer.exe
4. From the task manager, run Process Explorer
5. From PE switch to see all processes including hidden processes, as admin
6. Switch to the tree view
7. Find explorer.exe. Most likely there are going to be some children processes.
8. Go to the one at the bottom of the tree and select properties. This child process blocks explorer.exe.
9. Go to the image tab and see what is the command it is trying to run
Your hint of what is going wrong is (9) above. To make sure this is the problem, kill this subprocess. Now explorer.exe should be unblocked and run normally. Use the hint to resolve your problem.
In my case, it was Binkiland, one of those persistent search helpers (sigh....) that was installed by some freeware package and although I uninstalled it, it left a RunOnce registry entry to update it upon logon! The update executable was not there, and this blocked the whole explorer.exe process. That said, and in case you suspect a similar problem, check all your entries under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
I hope this helps someone in the future
The symptoms
1. Windows 8 logon process works (you can enter your password)
2. When logged on, you get a black screen, no desktop, no taskbar
3. Starting Task manager, you see explorer.exe running with 0% CPU
4. Killing and starting explorer.exe shows desktop normally
5. Restarting takes you back to (1)
The internet provided solutions:
There are all kinds of suggestions and some people suggested they work, like just running "sfc /scannow". I tried everything I found online to no avail... even reverted to an earlier restore point
My solution, posted here, in hope that it will help someone in the future:
1. Download Process Explorer from Windows powertools
2. Unzip wherever you want
3. Restart and start task manager but don't kill/start explorer.exe
4. From the task manager, run Process Explorer
5. From PE switch to see all processes including hidden processes, as admin
6. Switch to the tree view
7. Find explorer.exe. Most likely there are going to be some children processes.
8. Go to the one at the bottom of the tree and select properties. This child process blocks explorer.exe.
9. Go to the image tab and see what is the command it is trying to run
Your hint of what is going wrong is (9) above. To make sure this is the problem, kill this subprocess. Now explorer.exe should be unblocked and run normally. Use the hint to resolve your problem.
In my case, it was Binkiland, one of those persistent search helpers (sigh....) that was installed by some freeware package and although I uninstalled it, it left a RunOnce registry entry to update it upon logon! The update executable was not there, and this blocked the whole explorer.exe process. That said, and in case you suspect a similar problem, check all your entries under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
I hope this helps someone in the future
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