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Unable to open Control Panel on Windows 11

Anonymous
2024-04-09T03:24:41+00:00

I am unable to open the Control Panel on Windows 11. The conventional "Settings" App works fine, but whenever I try to open the Control Panel, nothing happens -- the mouse cursor simply indicates loading (by the spinning blue circle) and nothing ever opens.

"sfc /scannow" returns no errors;

"DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" changes nothing;

likewise, all suggestions from "control panel won't open in windows 11" failed.

I should also note that the Sensor Service is set to Automatic and Running, as per "Power & battery settings in Windows 11 won't open".

(The end-goal is to "Edit power plan" -- but since this option lives under the Control Panel, and cannot be accessed through the Settings App, I am stuck.)

Any suggestions or solutions short of a clean reinstall?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-04-11T00:31:50+00:00

    Hi, Ramesh. This is just to close the thread: I figured it out! I had an additional application -- that doesn't show up under the Startup section of Task Manager nor as a Service under System Configuration -- that alters the default Windows 11 UI, StartAllBack. Disabling it solved the issue.

    (In defense of my stupidity, I did consider it as a possible culprit when I first encountered this problem and remmeber disabling it at that the time to no avail -- I must have misclicked something. I should have uninstalled it from the get go.)

    Thank you so much for all your help! Hopefully anyone encountering this issue can profit from your troubleshooting. Appreciate it!

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  1. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-04-09T16:51:04+00:00

    Hi ALKochListon,

    Will compare the logs with my Windows 11 system and update this thread.

    Meanwhile, please try booting into Safe mode and see if you can access Control Panel and Powercfg.cpl.

    Start your PC in safe mode in Windows - Microsoft Support

    See also:

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/69762-how-change-default-lid-close-action-windows-10-a.html

    https://superuser.com/questions/874849/change-what-closing-the-lid-does-from-the-commandline

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  1. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-04-09T12:37:38+00:00

    Alternatively, do the following to open the Edit Power Plan dialog directly.

    From Command Prompt, run:

    control.exe PowerCfg.cpl @0,/editplan:

    If that doesn't help, do the following:

    Powercfg /L

    Press Enter.

    Note down the GUID of the power scheme you want to edit. In this case, it's 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

    Image

    Now, run the following command:

    control.exe PowerCfg.cpl @0,/editplan:381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

    (or)

    rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL PowerCfg.cpl @0,/editplan:381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

    This opens the Power Options dialog directly.

    Image

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-04-09T12:17:50+00:00

    Thanks, Ramesh.
    Unfortunately, no -- same behavior as before, no error messages but nothing opens.

    Still, powercfg.cpl is found under System32 as expected:

    Image

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  2. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-04-09T03:44:51+00:00

    Hi there,

    Right-click Start, click Run.

    Type:

    powercfg.cpl

    Press Enter.

    Does Power Options open?

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