Okay, it looks like it was my VPN (Express VPN).
I tried turning it off before posting since it has caused issues with multiple things but that didn't work. Then, I did the clean boot as suggested and did my tests. Somehow, that messed up my VPN and forced me to do a repair. Now, if I'm connected to it ME fails, but I can disconnect and it works.
So, I guess I would suggest anyone else with issues who is running a VPN do the following in order, since you probably don't want to do without it:
1. Disconnect from your VPN and test.
2. Power-cycle your PC (to fully restart everything), disconnect and test.
3. Repair or reinstall your VPN, then disconnect and test.
4. Disable it in Task Manager to prevent it from starting on boot, reboot and test to confirm you have the same problem I did.
Hope this helps anyone with the same issue as me. All thanks to
@holger1405 !
