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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2026 4:17 pm
by PCUser92
Can confirm. Yeah, a restart is a good first step—if that didn't work, have you tried opening the Settings menu by right-clicking the Start button?
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2026 3:02 pm
by ql85695
This. If that didn't work either, are you able to open the Task Manager to see if the Settings process is getting stuck? Let me know if that works.
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2026 3:48 pm
by 253r14l
This. Yeah, agreed. If you spot it stuck there, try ending the task and reopening Settings. A quick restart of Windows Explorer in Task Manager can sometimes help too.
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2026 6:49 pm
by 3352ycv
Agreed. Yeah, and if that doesn't work, running the Windows troubleshooter for audio might sort the volume issue at the same time.
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2026 12:41 am
by he748643398
Can confirm. This happened to me last month. I fixed it by running the System File Checker tool from an admin command prompt.
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2026 12:56 am
by uali6358338
I had the same problem. Running SFC didn't work for me, but a quick system restore to before the restart did the trick.
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2026 4:38 pm
by 28wbiurx
This happened to me too. I ended up having to re-register the Windows Store apps using PowerShell, which got everything working again. Good luck!
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2026 1:46 pm
by NLGfkeaVtU
Before you try that, have you checked if Windows Update is currently running in the background? Good luck!
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2026 4:44 pm
by btLrvWB
I had the same problem. For me, running the Windows troubleshooter for audio actually got the volume working again, which then let me into settings. Hope that helps.
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2026 8:02 pm
by 87pbjcayc
If the troubleshooter didn't work, have you tried restarting the Windows Explorer process in Task Manager? Let me know if that works.