Black screen in Windows after signing in: cursor visible, desktop missing

The sign-in screen appears normally. Your password or PIN is accepted. Then nothing—just a black screen with a cursor in the middle that follows the mouse as expected. No taskbar, no icons, no Start menu. The computer is clearly running, but you cannot do anything with it.

This situation usually looks worse than it is. In the vast majority of cases, neither the drive nor the graphics hardware has failed—one Windows component responsible for drawing the desktop simply did not start. The bad news is that most people’s first reaction—holding down the power button and trying again, or immediately “reinstalling Windows”—can turn a minor issue into an extra day’s work.

The short answer: Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete. If a blue screen appears with the Lock / Sign out / Task Manager options, the system is running and the problem lies between signing in and loading the desktop. Open Task Manager, select Run new task, and enter explorer.exe. If the desktop appears, save any open work and restart—you have only regained temporary access, not fixed the cause. If the black screen returns after every sign-in, do not reset or reinstall Windows without a backup. Have the driver, profile, and system files checked instead.

When this is the problem—and when it is something else

This article deals with a black screen that appears after signing in, with the cursor still visible. This is a software issue in Windows 10 and 11.

The following situations are entirely different:

• a black screen immediately after switching on, before the sign-in screen,
• failed display backlighting—the picture is present but cannot be seen,
• coloured bands, blocks, and artifacts,
• no picture even in the BIOS,
• a laptop that does not power on at all.

These symptoms point to the display, memory, graphics chip, motherboard, or power supply. We cover bands and artifacts separately in graphics problems: artifacts, bands, or a black screen, and a laptop showing no signs of life in laptop will not turn on.

A quick guide based on what you see:

Restart—but do it properly

Before trying anything else, give the computer a few minutes. Windows may be finishing an update or waiting to connect to company services, and the desktop may eventually appear on its own.

If nothing happens, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete, select the power icon in the bottom-right corner, and choose Restart. Do not choose Shut down. Fast Startup is enabled by default in Windows, which means that shutting down saves the kernel and driver state to the drive and loads them again during the next startup. Turning the computer off and on may therefore preserve the faulty state, while restarting discards it and reloads the system. This is also why “I turned it off and on again, but it did not help” tells you very little with this particular fault.

Hold down the power button only as a last resort if even Ctrl + Alt + Delete does not respond. A forced shutdown can damage files that are currently being written. In a business environment, it may also interrupt OneDrive synchronisation or a write operation in accounting software.

Starting the desktop manually through Explorer

A single process draws the desktop, taskbar, Start menu, and file windows: explorer.exe. If it fails to start or crashes after sign-in, you are left with exactly what you see—a background and a cursor.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc. If Task Manager does not open, access it through Ctrl + Alt + Delete.
2. Select Run new task (in the older interface, File → Run new task).
3. Enter explorer.exe and confirm.
4. If Windows Explorer is already running in the process list, right-click it and select Restart.

If the desktop appears, you are halfway there. You have regained access to the computer, but you have not fixed it. Save your work, back up anything important, and restart. If the black screen returns at the next sign-in, something is repeatedly blocking Explorer—a program, a driver, or a corrupted profile.

When Windows sends the picture elsewhere

This is a typical office scenario: a laptop connected to a USB-C dock and one or two monitors. After a Windows or driver update, the system may change which output it considers the primary display—and draw the desktop on a monitor that is currently switched off or disconnected. Meanwhile, the laptop’s built-in display shows a black screen with a cursor.

Disconnect the dock, adapters, and external monitors, then restart the computer. Next, press Windows + P and select PC screen only. Reconnect the devices one at a time, not all at once—otherwise, you will not know which one caused the problem. With DisplayLink docks, their driver is often the culprit when it becomes incompatible with a new version of Windows.

You can also try waking the graphics subsystem by pressing Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B. The screen will briefly flicker, and the computer may beep. This only reinitialises the driver—nothing is deleted and the computer does not restart, so it is safe to try.

When the problem started after an update

The most common trouble occurs on laptops with hybrid graphics—integrated Intel or AMD graphics combined with a dedicated NVIDIA or AMD chip, with the system switching between them. A new driver may not work properly with a particular laptop model, docking station, or the switching mechanism itself.

If launching explorer.exe gives you access to the desktop, open Device Manager, expand Display adapters, open the device properties, and look for Roll Back Driver on the Driver tab. The button is available only when Windows has retained the previous version—which it usually has immediately after a recent update.

There are two things you should not do. Do not download “driver updater” programs that promise to repair all drivers with one click—they are more likely to introduce another problem than provide a useful driver. And do not blindly uninstall the graphics driver on a laptop. Laptop manufacturers often provide customised versions to support graphics switching and backlight control, so a generic package from Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA may not fully replace it. Record the current driver version before changing anything.

Safe Mode separates the wheat from the chaff

If the black screen returns after every sign-in, the next step is Safe Mode. Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to open the power menu, hold Shift, and click Restart. Then select Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart → Safe Mode.

Be aware of one important detail: on an encrypted computer, the recovery environment may ask for the BitLocker recovery key. You cannot continue without it, and trial and error will not help. The key is usually stored in your Microsoft account; for a company device, it may be held in Microsoft 365 or in the IT administrator’s records. The article what BitLocker is explains where to look, with more detail in when a drive cannot be unlocked. Obtain the key before you start restarting the computer.

If the desktop loads in Safe Mode, the culprit is among the drivers, startup applications, or third-party services. Focus on what changed immediately before the fault appeared: security software, graphics and dock utilities, remote management tools, or programs that modify the appearance of the Start menu. Do not disable Microsoft services or corporate security tools in bulk—and most importantly, keep a record of every change you make, or you will lose track of your own troubleshooting.

Repairing system files without reinstalling Windows

Corrupted system files can also prevent Explorer from starting. In Task Manager, select Run new task, enter cmd, and tick the option to run it with administrative privileges. Then run these commands in order:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

The order is deliberate. DISM repairs the component store—the source Windows uses to obtain replacement system files. Only then does it make sense to run SFC, which checks protected files and replaces corrupted ones from that store. If you run them in the opposite order while the component store itself is damaged, SFC has no reliable source for the repair. Do not turn off the computer while the checks are running.

This is not a substitute for a backup, and it certainly will not repair a failing drive. If the computer freezes, the drive makes unusual noises, or the system reports read errors, every additional repair attempt may make the situation worse. See our article about bad sectors for more information.

You can identify a corrupted profile using another account

Can another account sign in normally while yours shows a black screen? If so, your user profile is probably corrupted. Common causes include an interrupted update, an error in the profile’s registry entry, or failed settings synchronisation. Another telltale sign is being signed in to an empty desktop with default settings—Windows has loaded a temporary profile because it could not open your normal one.

Do not delete the original account. Its profile folder still contains Documents, Desktop files, local email, saved passwords, certificates, templates, and application data in AppData—items that may not exist in any cloud backup. Do not assume that OneDrive files have actually been uploaded, either. Some may be marked as available only locally, while others may exist only in the cloud.

The solution is to create a clean profile, transfer the user data, and reconnect the work account. On a company computer, you must also verify access to Microsoft 365, network drives, the VPN, printers, and accounting or inventory software. The appearance of the desktop does not necessarily mean the full working environment has been restored.

When to stop troubleshooting

Have the computer professionally diagnosed if:

• the black screen returns after every restart,
• even Safe Mode ends with an empty screen,
• you need to preserve business applications and their settings,
• you do not have the BitLocker recovery key,
• important data exists in only one copy,
• the black screen is accompanied by freezing, unexpected restarts, or drive errors,
• you do not know which change caused the problem.

One rule is non-negotiable: do not use Reset this PC or perform a clean installation without a backup. A reset can erase the contents of the system drive, including local databases and program configurations—and data that was perfectly intact until then suddenly becomes a case for data recovery. First, you need to find out where the data is stored and whether it can be read. We discuss whether reinstalling the system is worthwhile or whether it is time for a new machine in reinstall or buy a new computer.

How much does it cost?

Honestly, there is no way to say without diagnostics. There is a vast difference in both time and price between “restart Explorer” and “transfer the profile and rebuild the working environment on a company laptop.” We therefore provide an estimated price based on the current price list only after diagnosing the device, and we do not proceed with any work without your approval.

If the cause turns out to be hardware-related, you can find an overview of services and estimated prices on the laptop repair Brno page, which links to prices based on the exact model and repair type.

Before approving the repair, ask for confirmation of:

• what the diagnostics found,
• whether the price includes backing up user data,
• whether installed programs will remain in place,
• what you will need to sign in to or configure again after the repair,
• what you can do to prevent the problem from returning.

A good result is not a computer that manages to display the desktop once. The technician should verify repeated sign-ins and restarts, the state of the drivers and updates, the profile, and common working functions. On a company computer, they should also test access to documents, the network, and peripherals.

How to reduce the risk of it happening again

Keep enough free space on the system drive. When it fills up, Windows can behave unpredictably during updates and sign-in; our guide to freeing up space in Windows 11 explains how to reclaim it. Do not install unknown driver update utilities. Store the BitLocker recovery key somewhere other than the computer it belongs to. And make a fresh backup of your work data before any major update.

If the problem happens again, note the time, the most recently installed update, and what was connected to the computer. That single note will move the diagnosis forward more effectively than an hour spent switching the device off and trying random instructions from the internet.