Is there anything else to try?

Win 11 Pro 24H2. On Sunday, I updated from Win 10, using in-place upgrade. Afterward, there were a couple of problems, but they were being solved. On late Monday night, I installed the new Preview version of 24H2, and then Tuesday afternoon the regular release, KB5063878. Then things went downhill from there, fast:

1) I could no longer boot straight in, but was getting a bad username or password message on start up, and instead of one Windows user name, it was showing two, one of which booted to a desktop full of black covered icon images; and 2) Memory Integrity and Kernal-mode…Stack Protection were off, and not turning back on.

I started two threads here about them, listed below. I was able to get the number of usernames back to one, the one with a good desktop, but startup was still requiring manual handling, even though the appropriate box to prevent that was unchecked.

In the Memory Integrity thread, one Guru here suggested updating my BIOS version, which was three years past. On restart after doing that, disaster really struck: now I had two identical names on startup and — this is the deadly one — all program icons were black again with *both* IDs. Nothing suggested online for fixing the icons worked. I was ready to go back to Win 10, but tried a few more things:

-In-place repair using a USB flash drive, but it failed at the end, Migration problem, 0xC1800109 and 0x8007042b - 0x2000d, failure to run V2
-Repair using a Win 11 system image: it worked, but didn’t solve the black icon images.

Then I tried reversing the BIOS version, but it wasn’t recognized as valid (so no changes to BIOS). However, the result at startup, after repair messages, was an empty black monitor screen!

Since then,
- Automatic Repair has failed, indicating a log file (but now the USB flash drive with it is no longer recognized by my desktop or laptop)
- System Image Recovery fails right off
- All other methods under Advanced Options fail as well, including Troubleshoot (my bootable WinPE CD is Win 10, it seems — or is just not recognized — as is my Win 10 USB installation stick.
- Now it just boots to repair, which fails

Is there anything else to try, short of a clean install? It would be more than the usual hassle: While I have files backed up - SyncBack Pro was ultimately hanging with Win 11 - there are a couple of invaluable features “grandfathered” in my Opera browser setup that will likely be unretrievable.

Other related Win 11 threads:

I just have one random suggestion. Enter BIOS and temporarily disable Secure Boot.

garlin said:

I just have one random suggestion. Enter BIOS and temporarily disable Secure Boot.

Click to expand...

Thanks. See the attached photo. Which one should I change? The Secure Boot modes are Custom or Standard. Or under Key Mgt there’s a clear secure boot keys. OS type is what shows or Other. Text says MS secure boot can only function properly on Win UEFI mode. I confirmed that. A YT video says to clear secure boot keys, which I just tried. Although BIOS says on exit that there had been no changes, I now get “GPT harder corruption has been detected.”

Should I be using a USB flash drive with Win 11 ISO during these reboots after clearing the secure keys?

BTW, one of the problems in dealing with the BIOS is that even though I’m pressing delete, startup often runs right by it into Win auto repair mode.

I didn't say anything about clearing Secure Boot keys, it can be done by switching from UEFI to Other OS.
How to Enable/Disable Secure Boot | Official Support | ROG USA

My original thought is having Secure Boot might have blocked some of your drivers, since you upgraded from a W10 image. Later W11 releases have driver block lists to prevent users from using older drivers with known security vulnerabilities. So temporarily turning off Secure Boot might help, but wouldn't make your current system any worse.

If a repair upgrade didn't fix your problem, then you should consider a clean install. The key issue isn't whether you can expect a guru to fix one or two problems, but what confidence do you have this Windows image won't cause you future headaches? Sometimes it's better to accept a known good system than trying to recover a known broken one.

garlin said:

I didn't say anything about clearing Secure Boot keys, it can be done by switching from UEFI to Other OS.
How to Enable/Disable Secure Boot | Official Support | ROG USA

My original thought is having Secure Boot might have blocked some of your drivers, since you upgraded from a W10 image. Later W11 releases have driver block lists to prevent users from using older drivers with known security vulnerabilities. So temporarily turning off Secure Boot might help, but wouldn't make your current system any worse.

If a repair upgrade didn't fix your problem, then you should consider a clean install. The key issue isn't whether you can expect a guru to fix one or two problems, but what confidence do you have this Windows image won't cause you future headaches? Sometimes it's better to accept a known good system than trying to recover a known broken one.

Click to expand...

I’ve nevr dealt with Secure Boot before, so that’s why I asked for specific guidance. From what I can tell, the BIOS (or Windows), doesn’t like the “Other” choice, thus the message that I quoted. I tried to post a photo of it but got a “too big” error. I’m using a iPad Mini right now. Thanks.