Add device not working on PC

Question

Hello,

I cannot add a device to my computer.
If I press "Add a device" from the bluetooth screen, it closes the window.
If I go to devices and printers and try to press add a device, it tries to open a window that immediately crashes.
If I type devicepairingwizard in the start search bar, it tries to open a window that immediately crashes.

In particular, I'm trying to pair a device over bluetooth.
I've downloaded and updated drivers twice, restarting PC both times.
I've uninstalled the bluetooth device, restarted, same thing.
I've tried NOT using the manufacturer drivers, just using default ones from windows, same issue.
I've checked windows update, nothing.
I've checked event logs for system, and it just shows 10016 which is a "normal" code according to my search.
I've even used a completely different dongle (5.0 vs 5.4) and both did the same thing, using OEM and Windows drivers on both after restarts.

Whenever I run troubleshooter, it just says "Check Bluetooth Radio Status: Fixed" and asks me to try again, still having the same issue.
I've tried opening the "Add device" menu WITHOUT the bluetooth dongle even plugged in, same issue.

Other people a couple years ago were talking about windows updates causing this but I don't know about nowadays?
Seems to be a software issue of some flavor.
I checked through systems and made sure all 3 bluetooth processes were running, still same issue.
Google and forum crawling has been less than useful.

EDIT: checked it on another PC (my brother's, running identical specs except his has a 4070 Ti and mine has a 4080 SUPER, also we run different monitors) and it worked COMPLETELY FINE with the SAME DONGLE. Not a hardware issue.

Answer 1

Hello, if this is the situation, we can try other options -

1. Click Windows + R key, type services.msc and click ok.
2. Locate Device Association Service > make sure the service is running and set the startup type to Automatic.
3. If the service is already running, restart the service.

If the issue persists, open a PowerShell (Administrator) Window and execute the command below.

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppxManifest.xml"}

This command can help repair the Windows Shell Experience Host by re-registering all built-in Windows apps, including ShellExperienceHost.exe, which I believe is corrupted. This command might take a few minutes, depending on the system performance and apps installed.

Let me know how it goes.

Answer 2

Hello,

Could you please try booting your PC in a clean boot environment and see if it helps?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

If the same problem appears there, I think the next step would be reinstalling Windows 11 through a USB bootable installation media.

Let me know how it goes.

Answer 3

Hi,

Important Note - Reinstalling Windows 11 through the USB installation media will wipe all of your files and apps.

I think mounting the Windows 11 ISO again will have the same results as we already tried mounting the Windows 10 ISO before, and it didn't work.

I would like you to back up all of your files and documents to an external hard drive and then do a clean installation of Windows 11 using the USB installation media drive.

Reference:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsinsider/cleaninstall

Please take your time for backup and do the clean installation.

Let me know how it goes.