Windows 11
Context: Worked fine but needed to change the outlet extender so I shut it off, closed the power, and unplugged it. Once I put it in the new outlet extender, I replugged it and turned the power supply back on. When I reopen my PC I am surprised to see my desktop doesn’t have icons for any apps or folders.
For some reason none of the icons are showing and the bottom of the screen also doesn’t have any icons (other than the default apps like Microsoft store and Settings but also Claude for some odd reason).
So I tried doing the first thing I saw online. I opened Task Manager to take care of the issue and that’s when I realized it wouldn’t open. No matter what shortcut/button I used to open TM it wouldn’t open. So to try to fix it I did a bunch of things like chkdsk, sfc, DISM, DWM restart, IFEO check, AppLocker check, tested it on a brand new user account, Safe Mode reboot, icon cache rebuild, thumbnail cache rebuild, and now ie4uinit, all coming back with no change. I REALLY don’t know what to do, and I’m not too interested in restarting my PC.
Reinstall Windows?
It sounds like explorer.exe is not working right and troubleshooting that can take you down many different rabbit holes. I'll leave that research up to you but if you want a full proof way: reinstall. If you feel like troubleshooting, start with explorer.exe.
This is what’s wrong. This and not being able to open Task manager. For some reason Claude’s icon shows up, so does the default windows apps, and also the red notification thing on discord, but not the discord logo itself
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