I want to preface this by saying I have 7 years of IT experience. I am a professional.
So yesterday I'm doing some PS2/PS3 emulation, everything's fine. Go to use the Snipping Tool after and the button just... doesn't work. Okay weird. Start menu barely responding. Dropdowns in Settings not working. Multiple apps having click issues.
I do what any reasonable person does. SFC /scannow - found corruption, repaired it. DISM RestoreHealth. Reboot. Still broken. SFC again - clean this time. Tried re-registering shell AppX packages. Dug through Event Viewer and found a bunch of DistributedCOM 10010 errors that I got real excited about (turns out that was SmartScreen noise, not the cause)
At this point I'm convinced something in the emulation session corrupted my Windows shell components. I'm looking at repair installs, reading about DCOM registration failures, the whole nine yards.
Actually started a Windows 11 25H2 repair install. It's at 4% downloading.
I look over at my desk.
My PlayStation controller is mounted on a little stand and it had slowly shifted and was pressing down on the touchpad.
Ghost inputs. For hours. Across my entire Windows UI.
The repair install is probably still worth finishing since SFC did find real corruption. But the Snipping Tool thing? The Start menu? The dropdowns?
Controller.
I am going to go outside.