Automatically logs on to guest account, can't access anything from desktop screen.

[kbraut832]

Hi,
Help if you can.....Dell Optiplex 786 with Windows 10, once you hit the power button it starts up, goes to my son's guest account screen that doesn't have a password, then to his desktop screen. Cannot do anything from there, it stays on that screen, cannot open a browser, cannot open the anti virus icon or any other icon for that matter. Cannot open start menu, so I can't get to my administrator page. I can get to the "boot device menu" if I hit F12 when powering up the computer, but I don't know what to do from there, very much a non-tech savvy user. This desktop PC was purchased refurbished back in Dec 2015, came with Windows 7 installed already, Windows 10 downloaded one night a few months back after me rejecting it repeatedly for many weeks, so I don't have any software discs whatsoever. Worked ok for a month or so then started having various issues. This is where it stands now, cannot run a boot scan or virus scan with my Avast free version.

 

[Trouble]

So what happens when you are in your "son's guest account" and you right click the Start Button, select Shut down and sign out and then choose sign out.
That should prevent an auto logon to your guest / no password account and present you with a choice of user accounts on the machine to select

 

[kbraut832]

Nothing, cannot right click, or left click on anything, just stays on the desktop screen, refreshes itself every 4 to 5 minutes, that's it. I have to turn it off by holding onto the power button until it shuts off.

 

[Trouble]

Can you use the
Ctrl + Alt + Delete
Keyboard combination at all? Does it produce a screen with some options that include "Switch user" and "Sign Out".
See if Sign Out works from that screen.
IF explorer.exe is crashing and relaunching itself frequently then you might also want to use that keyboard combination to launch taskmanager and right click Windows Explorer in the processes tab and choose End Task.
That will kill your desktop and taskbar but might at least provide some stability, while you are trying to address the problem further.
You can always launch programs and or browse the computer by using the task manager file menu to Run new task.

 

[kbraut832]

Ok, after one of the desktop screen refreshes that it does on it's own I was able to right click on the start button and shut down as you suggested in your first reply, then sign in under my admin screen. My desktop screen has loaded but I cannot open any icon or antivirus icon. Thank you for your help so far, what do I do now?

 

[kbraut832]

I'm able to open up my Avast antivirus, it needs an update before running a scan or a boot-time scan. Is this safe to do in regular mode, or should I hold off? Everything seems to be on a delay, it's running slowly.