I thought that Winaero causes screen to go black - multiple new Win 2H23 Pro installs - but I was WRONG

Running Winaero on two separate Windows 11 Pro install caused the screen to go blacks. Does anyone else have experinece with this issue and can help me identify which which Winaero tweak is responsible for thjis problem.

I'm in the process of customizing two new Win 11 Pro installs. One is my wife's new Lenovo 7i Slim. the other is my 2019 Lenovo T14S, which was running Windows 10 until I recently, but I wanted to do a clean Win 11 install as a way of leaving all the "debris" behind. I had wanted to change the Win 11 UI to resemble Win 10 as much as possible to ease the Windows 11 learning curve.

Winaero seems well-recommended for that purpose. However, however, after configuring each of these systems with my Winarero selections, the screen went black, and only Task Manager window could be opened. On both systems, I did export the Winaero changes, but I had no way to recover each ini file. However, I can say that I selected almost all of the changes intended to change Windows 11 appearance to match Windows 10 as much as possible.

Any safer way to accomplish my plan?

Thanks in advance

Win 11 2H23 pro.

x509 said:

I can say that I selected almost all of the changes intended to change Windows 11 appearance to match Windows 10 as much as possible.

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The guy at Winaero makes solid apps. I've used his apps for years in previous versions of windows. It's not intended that his changes be mass applied.

When applying tweaks of any kind, rule #1 is to always make an image of your system.( and more images as you go along making other tweaks) or at the very least make a system restore point. Better still is to do both. Rule #2 is to apply them one at a time. Test them out. That way you know which tweak is the cause when something breaks so you can undo your changes. And you have the image to restore if you get into a dilemma you can't recover from.

There are other tweaking apps that others here use, but I can't give a recommendation since I do not use them. I've not changed that much in 11, but what I have changed has been done by using one of the trusted tutorials in the extensive tutorial section of this forum. I did use Winaero early on to apply a couple of tweaks that wasn't in the tutorial section, but i have since reversed them. But I would not hesitate to use Winaero again if need be.

iI you hate Windows 11 so much that you want to change it to the point that you applied almost all of Winaero tweaks at once to make it look and function like Windows 10, why not stay with Windows 10,or, consider one of the Linux distros. Mint Cinnamon or Ubuntu would probably work for you and they're beautiful operating systems. You can run them straight off an install drive to see if they suit your purpose. If they do you can install them.

I think I would be safe to say that most everyone here who runs the Windows 11 native GUI has made one tweak or another. Some have tweaked more than others. No, we don't like everything about Windows 11, but we've learned it, accepted most of its changes, and adjusted.

The smart way to do it would be to select a tweak and either restart explorer or even better, log out (not shutdown or restart) and log back into Windows again. This way you should know if there is a conflict.

There is an option to undo all tweaks. Perhaps do that and then use the above suggestion of one at a time.

I’ve never had this happen and I use many tweaks in Winaero.

Click on the following, paste it all into a Google search box. Hit Enter.

Make windows 11 look like windows 10 site:elevenforum.com

x509 said:

... caused the screen to go black...

Click to expand...

x509 said:

... only Task Manager window could be opened.

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Probably crashed Explorer...,
In Task Manager, click on Run new task>explorer.exe>Enter

Reset all the settings done by Winaero from Actions menu.

When the screen is black,

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager
2. Choose Run new task
3. Type in %programfiles%\Winaero Tweaker\WinaeroTweaker.exe
4. Press Enter to run Winaero Tweaker
5. In Winaero Tweaker, choose Reset all tweaks... and let it complete the reset
6. In Task Manager, choose Run new task again
7. Type in shutdown /r
8. Press Enter to restart your computer.

Guys,

Turns out that Winaero was NOT the cause of thsi problem. In one of the many iterations of Win 11 installs (2H23) I tried to install a problem before I had run Winaearo, and still the screen went blank.

I do appreciate all the replies.

So pfui on clean installs using the MCT. I don't know if the install USB had file corruption or there was some subtlety of the install/config process that tripped me up. And at this point, I don't care. I'm going to do a post in the Installation, Updates and Activation about this whole experience.

glasskuter said:

The guy at Winaero makes solid apps. I've used his apps for years in previous versions of windows. It's not intended that his changes be mass applied.

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OK, good to know,but there is a real tempation for a one-and-done,

glasskuter said:

iI you hate Windows 11 so much that you want to change it to the point that you applied almost all of Winaero tweaks at once to make it look and function like Windows 10, why not stay with Windows 10,or, consider one of the Linux distros. Mint Cinnamon or Ubuntu would probably work for you and they're beautiful operating systems. You can run them straight off an install drive to see if they suit your purpose. If they do you can install them.

Click to expand...

I don't HATE Windows 11. I'm quite pleased about some of the new functionality. But I have issues about changes in the UI.

It's not wise at this point to do a new Win 10 install. Microsoft has announced Win 10 EOL for October this year, unless you want to purchase a one year reprieve at $30/system. Not worth that for me. More importantly, at least one of my important software vendors won't support updates on Windows 10 after EOL. I use Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop regularly, and that's a subscription product. On on the photo forums, there are regular complaints from MacOS users because their older hardware won't support a recent OS, not even the latest, so they are restricted to using Lightroom Classic and Photoshop that were released one or more years ago. I can't blame Adobe for not wanting to deal with support issues on an unsupported OS. And I don't want to suffer the same fate when new major releases are announced in Oct. 2025.

Linux. No thanks. That Adobe software and other programs that I use on a daily basis are simply not available under Linux. (GIMP is simply no in the same class as Photoshop, no matter what anyone says.) If I were a software vendor for home users, not enterprise, I would look at the Linux distro scene and throw up my hands. Exactly which distro(s) should I support. There is a heavy regression test component for each release for each OS platform and release. Desktop Linux market shares across all distros are maybe 5% of the end-user marketplace.

glasskuter said:

I think I would be safe to say that most everyone here who runs the Windows 11 native GUI has made one tweak or another. Some have tweaked more than others. No, we don't like everything about Windows 11, but we've learned it, accepted most of its changes, and adjusted.

Click to expand...

Obviously both my wife and I will adjust where necessary.

x509 said:

But I have issues about changes in the UI.

Click to expand...

I have been running Windows 11 24H2 on 2 different laptops (see my specs) since early October last year. Both laptops are on build 26100.2605 currently. 3 years and 3 months ago I upgraded the oldest of the 2 (System Two in my specs) from Windows 10 to Windows 11, it's a 4 year-old laptop.

I have been using ExplorerPatcher alongside Open-Shell since about a week after Windows 11 was officially released by Microsoft.

ExplorerPatcher lets me replace the Windows 11 taskbar with Taskbar style: Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher). This new taskbar is functionally the same as the Windows 10 taskbar so it fixes many problems (limitations, annoyances and bugs). ExplorerPatcher also lets me replace the Windows 11 File Explorer (that has a command bar, tabs, annoyances and bugs) with Control interface: Windows 10 Ribbon. This is the same as Option Three from Brink's tutorial.

Open-Shell has a separate component called Classic Explorer. This component lets me do various customizations of the aforementioned File Explorer that has the Windows 10 Ribbon. Additionally, the main component of Open-Shell, called Open-Shell Menu, lets me replace the start menu with Start Menu Style: Windows 7 style. It has the most customization options and added functionality options. (On a side note, using this start menu's search bar to search for settings that belong to Windows Settings was recently broken, but has already been fixed in Pre-release version 4.4.195 of Open-Shell so that's the version that I use; I also always make sure to update ExplorerPatcher to the latest Pre-release version when available.)

Another thing that I use alongside all of the above is Windhawk. Specifically, I use its Better file sizes in Explorer details mod and Middle click to close on the taskbar mod.

I also use several of the tweaks that are available in Winaero Tweaker, but definitely not that many. The vast majority of these tweaks are well-known registry tweaks that can also be found elsewhere (e.g., in the tutorials section right here on ElevenForum).

x509 said:

Guys,

Turns out that Winaero was NOT the cause of thsi problem. In one of the many iterations of Win 11 installs (2H23) I tried to install a problem before I had run Winaearo, and still the screen went blank.

Click to expand...

@x509
Then maybe you ought to change the title of your thread?
I am sure Sergey, the developer of Winaero, would appreciate that.

OAT said:

@x509
Then maybe you ought to change the title of your thread?
I am sure Sergey, the developer of Winaero, would appreciate that.

Click to expand...

@OAT. Thanks for this suggestion. I just changed the title.