Abstract: A recurring 3–4‑minute black‑screen delay during Windows 11 logon was traced to a security overlay application that injected itself early in the logon sequence. Procmon and network traces revealed that the application repeatedly attempted to contact a backend server for configuration data, blocking Explorer.exe from loading. When the backend was unreachable, long TCP timeout cycles caused the entire logon to stall. By reproducing the issue through hosts‑file redirection, the investigation confirmed the dependency as the root cause. The case underscores the need for fast‑fail logic, offline capability, and non‑blocking initialization for any component operating in the Windows logon path.
Keywords: black‑screen, network traces, hosts‑file redirection, offline capability.
Title: The Curious Case of the Slow Logon with a Black Screen
Author: Junaid Ahmed Jan
International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology Research
ISSN 2348-1196 (print), ISSN 2348-120X (online)
Vol. 14, Issue 3, July 2026 - September 2026
Page No: 77-80
Research Publish Journals
Website: www.researchpublish.com
Published Date: 07-September-2026
