Windows 10/8.1 issues

[techdaimen]

So I'll start this inquiry off with what I personally think is happening. Then I'll break down the exact steps that I took to broaden my story. I have my PC components listed on my profile and I was running Win 8.1 at the time I had these issues occur.

Thanks to anyone who reads through this long post. The short version, if it makes sense to anyone, is as follows .... Control Panel will not display on my screen (running Win 8.1). It only appears on my taskbar. I tried various methods to open it, no luck. Restored my system from 8.1 to an older version, no luck. I upgraded to Win10, it worked for a brief moment, but it stopped displaying. I tried to get into Safe Mode by restarting and pressing Shift+F8, then I got a black screen every time I booted the PC. I plugged the HD into another PC, everything worked great! Plugged the HD back into my main PC, login screen came up, Control Panel came up, but stopped displaying after a short while. I think I have some graphics issue since I can see Control Panel on my taskbar and it will show the preview screen when I put my cursor over it. 

Long Version .... Yesterday, 12/29, so Dec 29th, I booted my computer like any other day, and I noticed that the application C Cleaner was missing from my desktop. i.e. The shortcut. So I clicked on Control Panel to look through my Program Features. Control Panel showed up on my taskbar as having been opened but the window would not appear on my screen. If i hovered my mouse over the icon, it would display the preview window. If I clicked on the preview window, Control Panel would still not display on my desktop. 

I started looking on Google for some answers. I tried to look through my System32 folder by searching for any .cpl files and opening them that way. Not 1 .cpl file in my System 32 folder would open. I used in a CMD window sfc /scannow  but no files were missing or corrupted. After restarting my computer I look at my file associations but for every single .cpl file, Control Panel was the option selected. So I decided I would try a system restore. My last restore point was from the previous night. After the restore happened, Control Panel still would not open. I tried doing the same troubleshoots that I did prior to the restore but still nothing worked. I read through a few forums after that and then my File Explorer started to have the same issue as Control Panel. It would display on the taskbar but the window would not display. 
The only thing I could think to do was to upgrade to Win 10.

(I know this was a very stupid mistake. I did not look into any of the features that Win 10 included, many of which I absolutely hate, but it was the only thing I could think of doing since I could not find any other solutions online.)

Win10 is now installed. I clicked on Control Panel, BOOM! I clicked on File Explorer BOOM! I checked in my program features, C Cleaner was still there. So what did I do next?? I started to customize my Win10 start menu. Unpinning all the junk on it. Pinning Control Panel and all the programs for my various peripherals. Then it happened again..... Control Panel would not display!!! So at this point, I started to see a lot of posts about Win10 having this issue, even though I started having this issue before I upgraded to Win10. I also read about all the crap that Win10 came with and decided that I should just restore back to Win8.1 and try to fix my issue from there. But how do you get to the System Recovery menu when Control Panel will not open up?? SAFE MODE!!!! Except that I am in Win10........ !!!!!!! So apparently I can't just access the screen to boot in Safe Mode using F8 while running Win10 because it boots too fast??? WTF. But some people said that Shift+F8 would work after a restart. So I restarted the PC, mashed Shift+F8 and.......... black screen. Really??? I did a complete shut down, booted the PC and still a black screen. I was so furious that this grew into an even bigger problem.

At this point, I put on my thinking hat and I took out my HD and plugged it into my other pc. I thought I could boot my second computer could boot into its HD, I could access my first HD, copy all the files I cared about over to the other HD and then do a clean Win 8.1 install. But my second PC booted right to my first HD. But sure enough, it booted right to the login screen, Control Panel AND File Explorer worked perfectly. I keep the PC running for a few hours since this same happened before but only after a few minutes Control Panel stopped working again. So now, I am thinking that either my Graphics Card or my Motherboard is having an issue with Control Panel not displaying onto the screen. It does not seem to be an problem with a certain file on my HD causing Control Panel not to open since everything worked fine when plugged into my second PC. I plugged my HD back into my main PC and it booted to the login screen. At least I fixed the black screen some how....  Control Panel would not open at all. File Explorer still works as of now, thankfully! 

 

Control Panel Minimized


Control Panel Opened

Control Panel Opened and preview window is open

Anyone have any idea how to fix this issue?

Thank you all for the responses.

[Djole123]

Does Settings app still work?

[techdaimen]

As in the Windows settings? then yes.

[gamerking]

its opening on a monitor that is not connected fill all your ports that can display video, i had this problem on my system during testing of w10 from 8.1 and vice versa . i have 2 gpu's so it was a nightmare to get all the displays filled but being sent to one of them . but it was like on the 5th screen i attached it showed btw my computer was my issue couldnt see my HD's/ blu ray drive was what i had . different window same bug sounds like . it was random for me also didnt change anything for amonth then boom after a restart its gone and wouldnt come back till i did the screens attach and drag'd it back over.

 

list your pc spec are you running x99 ?

[techdaimen]

That solved all my problems. I only use one monitor but control panel was moved to my 2nd Display port out when I use DVI out.
Thanks a lot. Something so simple...

[gamerking]

np if you run into any other screwed up win10 issues send me  a pm i will help if i can