mr. ed wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks, but I can't get into task mgr using any method at all. I'd like to reset/recover the OS but see no viable way to do it since it's impossible to reach "settings". My other thought is to perform a new W10 installation. Either that, or get a new PC.
Reboot and then force it to turn off while it's loading windows. Do this once or twice and you'll be dumped into windows repair.
From there you can choose to reset windows, or boot safe mode and try creating a new profile.