Thursday, February 18, 2016

Logging into Windows 10 with a black screen and a white arrow cursor

I've been using Open Broadcaster Software's OBS Studio to capture the display output, audio output, and audio input on my Windows 10 computer. While experimenting with it, I changed the resolution of my display. After doing that and using my computer for while, I shut down my computer. When I came back to turn on the computer again, I saw a black screen with a white arrow cursor that moved when I moved my mouse. What to do? Fortunately I found this article on Microsoft's site. Just in case this article disappears for some reason, I'll quote the important part here:
At the black screen, press the Ctrl key once on an attached physical keyboard. (You won’t see any visible change, but pressing the Ctrl key will place the cursor in the password box that you’re currently not able to see.) Now type the password of the user that just signed out and press Enter.This will sign you back into Windows and the desktop will appear. If you failed to sign in because you mistyped the password, press Enter once more. Then retype the password and press Enter.
Thankfully the advice above worked for me.