None of the solutions work for me on Windows11 Home Edition. Ive been trying to fix this for 3 days now without success. I have a MacBook from 2011 that works better than the garbage Windows 11.
WhatsApp not starting or working on Windows 10/11
How to Fix WhatsApp Not Starting on Windows 10/11
If WhatsApp isn't starting on your Windows PC, follow these steps to fix the issue:
- Open Settings Press Windows + I to open the Settings window.
- Open Optional Features In the Settings search bar (at the top), type "Optional Features" and select it.
- Install Media Feature Pack
- Click on "Add a feature".
- In the search box, type "Media Feature Pack".
- Select "Media Feature Pack" from the list and click Install.
- Reinstall WhatsApp
- Open the Microsoft Store.
- Search for WhatsApp and reinstall it.
Restart Your PC After installation is complete, restart your computer to apply all changes.
Windows for home | Windows 10 | Microsoft Store
5 answers
Sort by: Most helpful
-
MarkiSparki 0 Reputation points
2026-06-25T15:31:21.9433333+00:00 I tried everything - install, uninstall, reboot etc, but for me I had to manually run the app with Administrator privileges to get it going. Took a moment. Once I had logged in and all looked good, I opened task manager and killed Whatapp from there. Then I restarted the app WITHOUT admin privileges and it opened and is working fine.
-
Urfe 5 Reputation points
2026-01-11T00:38:44.0866667+00:00 I changed Background Permissions to "Always" and it's working for me now.
-
Diana Mariz 11,025 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-08-03T06:08:05.1933333+00:00 Hi,
Thank you for sharing this information.
Just a heads up as well that if the troubleshooting above is not working, we can isolate the issue by checking on another Windows user profile is to see if the issue is with the Windows profile itself.
-
umar rahim 0 Reputation points
2026-09-21T16:42:30.9+00:00