Illustrator and Photoshop Freeze Upon Launching

Hi @Gallucci Art,

Thanks for reporting this. To help us narrow this down, could you please confirm the exact versions of Illustrator and Photoshop you're running? Please try the suggestion shared by the expert in the thread and let me know if that helps. If the issue persists, try resetting Illustrator's preferences manually by following the steps here:
https://adobe.ly/4jPEV8S. You can also follow this video for the manual reset process: https://adobe.ly/4a8Vt8I

If resetting preferences doesn't resolve it, try isolating the issue by launching Windows in Safe Mode to check if a third-party process or driver is causing the freeze:
https://adobe.ly/3NzNSHs

Additionally, test whether the problem occurs in a new admin user account, which can help rule out profile-specific conflicts:
https://adobe.ly/45U994W

Finally, please try the general Illustrator crash-on-launch suggestions in this Adobe HelpX article and update me on the results:
https://adobe.ly/4bdzoqy

Let me know how it goes after trying these.

Abhishek

@Gallucci Art my first reaction was Windows 11 did recently do an update, but I read your on Windows 10! It appears on Windows website, Windows 10 received a "Quality Update" in January 14, 2026, which included security patches for the GDI (Graphics Device Interface)—Adobe apps rely on the GPU to "draw" their interface, a conflict between this new Windows patch and your Graphics Driver is the most likely culprit.

What can you do? Can you roll back?