I'm in a bit of a jam—I have a lot of work and rendering to do, but my File Explorer isn't working at all. When I turn on my computer, all I see are the names of my desktop icons, and the icons on my taskbar are showing as the default Windows program thumbnails. To make matters worse, Task Manager isn't opening either. I've already tried restarting Explorer, deleting the icon cache, and running the system file checker, but nothing's worked. I'm really in a hurry, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
3 Answers
It sounds like you might be dealing with issues caused by a recent Windows update. Have you tried booting into recovery mode? From there, you could either roll back to a previous point or uninstall the latest update to see if that resolves the issue. It could also help to run DISM commands to repair your OS—just be sure to look them up first! Good luck!
If you're really in a hurry, you might have to consider performing a system restore as a quick solution. Just restore from the last working point, ideally from yesterday. It shouldn't cause any file loss, but it'll revert settings back to how they were.
Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend doing a system restore or reinstalling Windows just yet. Instead, try focusing on running the System File Checker (sfc) and DISM commands to repair your system. Those tools can fix system corruption without the hassle of restoring everything.

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