Used IconPacker a few times without issue. Sometimes some icons randomly revert to Windows Default, but usually rebuilding the icon cache fixes that. So anyway, I think I'll just try a different icon set. One that I had applied before, without issue, when I was first checking out IconPackager trying out a few different packages.

This time, when I applied the IconPackage, IconPackager shows the semi-transparent Splash Screen overlay like usual. But then several minutes go by (normally this only takes maybe 10 seconds tops).

After five minutes (at this point I'm sure something is stuck), I hit ctrl+alt+del, and got the normal windows ctrl+alt+del overlay where I selected Task Manager, but the windows overlay just closes and Task Manager never appears. The IconPackager splash screen is still covering the whole display. I left it for a while. Didn't interfere for about 15 minutes, before trying everything mentioned below.

Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager directly wouldn't work. Win+D to switch to different desktop wouldn't work. Alt+F4 to close the app wouldn't work. Win+R to open the Run dialogue wouldn't work. Couldn't access task bar at all... 

This seems like a major oversight in how this application operates. Surely it is not good practice to lock down the PC with a splash screen that will not allow Task Manager to intercede. The splash screen really should not interfere with alt+tab, or win+tab, or win+d (switch desktop), but most important of all, it should not block ctr+shift+esc (task manager).

Using other PC to search for fixes online... an old google result from stardock support forum suggested turning off the option to show the splash screen when applying icons. Okay, noted. Not going to help me unfreeze my system right now though.

So after trying everything I could think of, gave up and forced my PC to shut down with the power button. Not an ideal solution.

After rebooting my PC, it seems that the icon package was applied. Okay, so disable the splash screen... oops. I don't see that option. I guess that was an older version of the IconPackager app that had an option to disable the splash screen when applying an icon package. If that option still exists, please point it out for me, because I'm not seeing it.

Can I go back to an older version of IconPackager, that still has that option? Because now I'm afraid to apply any icon package. Of course I don't like forcing my PC to power off like that. If I could disable the splash screen, all would be well, because I'm pretty sure that would unlock multiple recovery options in case of software problems, plus, I'm pretty sure the problem was literally just the splash screen failing to close.

I'm using Windows 10, fully updated.