That black screen with the image of your kobo, laptop and connecting cable together with the Connected and charging and reminder to eject your eReader before unplugging the USB cable is what you will see when your Kobo is connected.
Currently 4.35.20400 is the latest for devices other than the Elipsa 2E and the Mini.
There are multiple factory resets. The one from the Device information menu is a limited variant of the old factory reset. If you type devmodeon in the search box and then search, it will enable Developer mode. You will then see a Developer options item at the end of the Device information options. The factory reset from Developer options will do the full factory reset where your eReader is wiped back to factory firmware version and all your books, accounts, etc. will be removed. Pretty much exactly the same as the manual factory reset when you power off your Aura One, hold the power button for 30 seconds until the Restore screen appears and release the power button.
NickelMenu has an automated install but will require creating and editing a config file to do anything. There is a sample config file but all the options are commented out and it may be replaced by an update so create your own config file. You can check the
Best of NickelMenu? thread for samples of what other people have put in their config files.