New PC and I have not access to settings icon

Question

Hello,

I'm looking for some help to get access to my settings on my laptop. For some reason I cannot open settings through use of the windows icon or right clicking on the windows icon then selecting settings. HELP

Answer 1

Hi Mary Phillips,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum. I understand that you are unable to open the Settings app on your new Windows 11 PC using the Start menu or the right‑click menu, and that none of the usual access methods are working.

Before proceeding, I need to narrow this down a bit:

1, Are you currently signed in with a local account or a Microsoft account on this PC?

2, Does the Start menu itself open normally, or is it also unresponsive?

In the meantime, you can try these steps:

1, Run System File Checker

• Press Windows key + X and select Terminal (Admin)
• Type sfc /scannow and press Enter
• Wait for the scan to complete, then restart the PC

2, Run DISM repair

• Open Terminal (Admin) again
• Run these commands one by one:
  • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
• Restart the device after completion

3, Check if the Settings app opens in a new user profile

• Press Windows key + R
• Type control userpasswords2 and press Enter
• Create a new local administrator account
• Sign in to the new account and test access to Settings

4, Check Windows Explorer and Start menu services

• Press Windows key + R and type services.msc
• Make sure Windows Explorer and User Manager are running
• If stopped, start them and reboot

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Answer 2

Hi, I'm Bernard, a fellow Windows user. I'm happy to help!

This issue occurs when there is a corrupted system file that is causing the case, and for us to sort out the problem, kindly follow the steps below:

Method 1. Repair built-in apps and Settings:

Open Terminal (Admin) or Windows PowerShell(Admin) (Press Windows key + X then click Terminal(Admin))

Copy, paste, and enter the command below:

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

Then hit Enter, once the process is done, restart the PC and check.

If none of the above solutions work, I suggest doing an in-place upgrade, which will update the device to the latest version and repair all issues without deleting any files.

 

Kindly follow the steps from this link:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/4252110/how-to-run-in-place-upgrade-in-windows-11

Answer 3

I have tried all tips, tricks etc. nothing has worked. Still no access to settings.