How to Fix Windows 10 Settings App Not Opening?

In Windows 10, there is a new feature called Settings that is user-friendly and it offers an easy way to control many critical operations like Windows updates, network & Internet, privacy, accounts, etc.

However, the Settings app is not always working properly and according to users, Windows 10 Settings won’t open or the menu freezes/hangs after opening the app. In this case, we cannot do some operations related to Settings.

This issue is triggered by corrupted user account files, update bugs, corrupted system files, and more. Fortunately, we can follow some methods to get rid of the trouble.

Solutions to Windows 10 Settings Not Opening:

Try Other Ways to Open Settings

Most of the time, you click the Start button and choose Settings to open Windows Settings. But if this won’t work, you can try some other ways to open this app:

1. Navigate to Action Center and choose All settings.
2. Type settings to the search bar and click the result.
3. Hold the Win + I keys at the same time to launch the Settings app.
4. Open the Run window, type ms-settings: and click OK.

If none of these ways is working to open Settings, we can try other solutions to fix the issue.

Enable Windows Settings in Registry

If the Windows Settings app is disabled in Windows Registry or Group Policy Editor, it cannot be opened no matter which way we try. Here, we should have a check and see if it is disabled. If yes, enable it.

Register Editor

Step 1: Open Windows Registry Editor by opening Run, inputting regedit, and clicking OK.

Step 2: Go to this path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. If the Explorer folder is not here, right-click Policies and choose New > Key to create it.

Step 3: Right-click the blank place and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value to create a key called NoControlPanel.

Step 4: Change its value data to 0 by double-clicking the key.

Group Policy

Step 1: Open Local Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc to the search box and clicking the result.

Step 2: Navigate to the path: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel.

Step 3: Double-click Prohibit access to Control Panel and PC Settings and change the setting to Disabled. Then, save the change.

If this method is also not working to fix Windows 10 Settings not opening, try another method.

Run the Windows Update Troubleshooter

An update bug can cause Settings not opening in Windows 10. To fix this issue, we can try to use the Windows Update Troubleshooter.

Step 1: We can open Control Panel and go to Troubleshoot.

Step 2: Click Fix problems with Windows Update to start the fix.

Alternatively, we can download the troubleshooter from the Internet and perform the work.

Reinstall the Settings App

If Windows 10 can’t access Settings, we can follow these steps to reinstall the app to fix the issue.

Step 1: Run Command Prompt with admin rights.

Step 2: Copy and paste the command line to the CMD window and press Enter: Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml”}

Run System File Checker

Windows 10 Settings won’t open due to corrupted system files. Thus, we can try to perform an SFC scan with the tool – System File Checker to scan for the system and restore the corruptions in Windows system files.

Step 1: Launch the command-line tool Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2: Type the command: sfc /scannow and press Enter.

Step 3: The tool will start the scan and this will take some time. We should exit the CMD window until the verification finishes 100%.

Then, we can try to open the Settings app and see if the issue of Windows Setting not working is fixed. If not, continue the troubleshooting tips.

Create a New Windows User

This is a solution to fix Windows 10 Settings not opening. But when the issue happens, we cannot create a new account via the app but Command Prompt can be helpful.

Step 1: Also, open Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2: Type the command: net user newusername newpassword /add and press Enter. Replace the newusername and newuserpassword with our user name and password.

Step 3: Type net localgroup administrators newusername /add and press Enter.

Sign out the current account and log in to the new to open Windows Settings.

Reinstall Windows 10

If all of these solutions are not working to fix Windows 10 Settings not opening, the only solution is to reinstall Windows 10. Just prepare an installation disc and perform the installation operation. And we can search for the detailed steps online.

Note: Before the reinstallation, we strongly recommend creating a backup for our important files with professional backup software – MiniTool ShadowMaker since reinstalling the system may cause file loss. After fixing the issue of Setting not opening, we can also create a system image with this software so that we can perform a fast system recovery when the issue happens again.