Can only boot Windows 11 Pro in Safe Mode after installing Adobe CS6 and Windows Update ... Auto-Repair, System Restore, etc. all fail

[timoteo]

I recently needed to install CS6 Production Premium on my Windows 11 system. Install went fine for all apps, but I did notice it installing MS Visual C++ 2005 Redistributables, and wondered if that would be an issue. Everything seemed fine, and my system was running perfectly. However, I went to restart it a day or so later and Windows 11 refuses to launch in anything but Safe Mode. There was a system update performed around this time as well I do believe, so I am wondering if the two conflicted somehow.

I have tried all the automatic repair features, booted into Safe Mode and removed CS6 as well as all the Visual C++ runtimes it installed, but nothing works. I have run chkdsk, system repair tools, even restore point … everything fails. I ran sfcscan /scannow and it did find, and repair, corrupt file(s) and I thought maybe that was going to be it, but still no go. I also ran the various DSIM commands (DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth, etc.) and all of those passed without issue. This is a weird one.

As mentioned, I CAN boot into Safe Mode. I tried disabling all startup items and unplugging all peripherals except for mouse and keyboard and monitors of course. I also tried disabling all services except for Microsoft services, and still the same issue. Which leads me to conclude it is indeed some type of MS driver/service conflict issue.

How can I see which driver is causing the hang at boot-up? With the older OS’s you could instruct it to display all the drivers as it loaded Windows and you could see which one was hanging the system. I don’t see a way to do that now. I am really at a loss on how to fix this other than a complete wipe and reinstall. I was REALLY hoping to avoid that though.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[xrobwx71]

Maybe this? Enable verbose startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff status messages in Windows Server 2003 - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

[timoteo]

I read that on Windows 11 (and probably even 10) that it didn’t work unfortunately.

[xrobwx71]

Use Autoruns. Take a look at the drivers tab. You can select and unselect drivers here to test and see which one may be causing you issues.

[xrobwx71]

It has come to my attention that you are obtaining help from at least 2 other forums. We don’t mind users going to other forums but when you try to obtain help from multiple sources, each source often doesn’t know what changes you have made at the others. This can cause confusion, and someone may give you the wrong instruction because of it.
I’m going to close this but if you choose to come back here, please note what you’ve applied at the other sources and cease obtaining help there. Just message any of the Mods or Admins to re-open if needed.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/788632/can-only-boot-windows-11-pro-in-safe-mode-after-installing-adobe-cs6-and-windows/

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/can-only-boot-windows-11-pro-in-safe-mode-after-installing-adobe-cs6-and-windows-update-auto-repair-system-restore-etc-all-fail.3816933/

Thanks @Rustys