to OP Microsoft Toolkit could be removed by Windows Defender. Ensure that it you disabled it before unpacking.
Hey lobo11, I just want to sincerely thank you for this answer. While it was short and sweet, you pointed me towards a repair install which I honestly wasn't even aware of. I did what you suggested and everything has been solved. I will be extremely careful going forward with messing around with registry and "cleaning" in general. Thanks to all that responded.