Black screen overlay of an error message

[loninappleton]

What could mess up an error message displayed at bootup in Win7 which overlays with black what used to be able to be read?

What happens with this now is the error message is delayed by almost five minutes. I thought
that clicking the mouse around on the black area was somehow triggering the screen option which asks about a "to do later" selection but now I think it is something in screen handling.

The other odd element was with Aero loaded two Start buttons one overlayed with another would appear
lower screen left.

I have no accounting for this odd behavior but would avoid reinstall since the repair functions
in Win7 never work right. In XP the repair routine always would reinstall the OS satisfactorily.

 

[loninappleton]

The two start buttons image stopped when I changed to a different theme.

In Personalize there are too many options. How can I get back Windows Classic which
I think worked better. I'll take the loss of any font changes if that happens.

Not ready to mark solved yet, but progress