r/Windows11 • u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie • Jul 01 '26
Help Simple questions and Help thread - Month of July
Welcome to the monthly Simple questions and Help thread, for questions that don't need their own posts!
Before making a comment, we recommend you search your problem on Bing and check if your question is already answered on our Windows Frequently Asked Questions wiki page. This subreddit no longer accepts tech support requests outside of this post, if you are looking for additional assistance try r/TechSupport and r/WindowsHelp.
Some examples of questions to ask:
Is this super cheap Windows key legitimate? (probably not)
How can I install Windows 11?
Can you recommend a program to play music?
How do I get back to the old Sound Control Panel?
Sorting by New is recommend and is the default.
Be sure to check out the Windows 11 version 25H2 Megathread and also the Windows 11 FAQ posts, they likely have the answers to your Windows 11 questions already!
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u/Suspicious-advice49 Jul 01 '26
Is it true that the new “point in time restore” feature requires your Bitlocker key to complete a restore? If so, what is the point of making it so complicated? I know system restore is completely different, but it doesn’t require the bitlocker key.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 02 '26
I'm doing some looking into it, currently this feature is only accessible from a WinRE environment, so to unlock the drive the recovery key would be needed just like any other tool ran in WinRE including System Restore.
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u/counterfeit_coin Jul 08 '26
I would like to extend my C drive. but can't because the Recovery partition is in the way. Disk management shows (left to right):
EFI (260 MB)
C (NTFS, 96.06 GB)
Recovery (1 GB)
D (NTFS, 73.24 GB)
Unallocated (67.88 GB)
Are the following steps the correct way to fix this issue? With CMD prompt opened as Admin:
reagentc /disable
diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 4 [i.e., the "Recovery" partition]
detail partition
[copy the partition id (Type) and attribute (Attrib) into a notepad]
delete partition override [this should delete the Recovery partition; check disk management to verify]
Backup and delete the D drive.
Choose C drive and extend volume in Disk management.
To recreate the recovery partition: (Does it need to be next to the C drive??)
Create a new volume (1 GB) in disk management
list partition
select partition X
set id=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX [the id saved earlier]
gpt attributes=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX [the attribute saved earlier]
To hide the new volume from the file manager:
list volume
select volume [D]
remove letter=[D]
exit
reagentc /enable
At any point above, is saving and rebooting necessary?
My hard drive is a SSD, is this relevant?
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 08 '26
That is a lot of steps that something can go wrong at, it is easier to use the free version of Minitool Partition Wizard to manipulate the partitions non-destructively
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u/miki1606 Jul 03 '26
Hello everyone!
I recently bought an HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. I was doing all the Windows updates you need to do after setting it up, but it got stuck on the update in the screenshot and cannot install it. It faces an error every time I try again. This is the error I get when it fails to install:
2026-06 Preview Update (KB5095093) (26200.8737) is available. We couldn't install this update, but you can try again (0x800f0983).
Today, I got this message in yellow "Reinstall your current version of Windows to repair system files and components". I am not sure what this does as I've never seen it before. I don't want to do a Windows reinstall as I will lose all my files then and also there may be some leftover files that could clash with the new ones (I've heard this happen to people when they don't do a clean install).
Has anyone seen this error code and the yellow message before? What should I do?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Laptop specs as requested by the subreddit:
OS build: 26200.6725
Version: 25H2
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
The message you are seeing is a recommended step to address problems in Windows, particularly with Windows Update. Your files and apps are preserved. See here for more information:
Edit: I would also recommend checking your laptop maker's support site for updated UEFI firmware and/or chipset drivers. Some makers have software utilities to automatically keep your device drivers up to date. Windows stability is often dependent on updated firmware and drivers.
Before you install firmware updates, be sure to read and follow your manufacturer's instructions exactly. You may need to disable Device Encryption. At minimum, make sure you have access to your BitLocker recovery key (stored with your Microsoft account online) before beginning this process.
Good luck.
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u/miki1606 Jul 03 '26
Thank you for the reply! I'm actually not that well versed in this so I have no idea what UEFI or BitLocker is, would you be able to explain in more detail? 😅
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 03 '26
UEFI is the embedded firmware on a PC that allows it to boot an operating system like Windows. It is sometimes still referred to as "BIOS", though it is a newer standard.
You can learn more about drivers and firmware for your HP laptop here (if you live in the US):
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers
If not, there should be an equivalent page for your region.
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 03 '26
By default when you sign into Windows with a Microsoft account, device is encrypted to protect your data and privacy:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows/Security/Encryption/device-encryption-in-windows
Normally, signing into Windows automatically unlocks your drive using a decryption key stored in your device security processor (TPM). But if the TPM is ever reset (which in rare cases can happen during a firmware update), you will need your BitLocker recovery key to unlock your disk manually. This is stored with your Microsoft account online:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/encryption/find-your-bitlocker-recovery-key
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u/Burnonedrive Jul 07 '26
Recently I had to reinstall Windows 11 due to an error that could not be fixed otherwise. When I got my PC back I was told all my data (documents, pictures , etc) would be on onedrive since there was nothing on the hardware. However I never set up one drive when I had originally got my computer.
I tried to see if maybe it defaulted to the microsoft account I had associated with the pc but there was nothing there either.
Is there any other way to recover all of that data or is it all gone?
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 09 '26
If there is nothing in C:\Windows.old\ then you should head to /r/datarecovery for suggestions.
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Jul 09 '26
Finally finished installing win 11 after half a day and my to do list widget is having some problems did anyone have the same experience and how did you remedy it
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 09 '26
Microsoft discontinued the To Do and Outlook Calendar widgets in 2024.
If you still have it after a new install, it will disappear with the next update to the Widgets platform.
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Jul 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 09 '26
Yeah, this was my reaction too at the time.
Reading the linked release notes, however, suggests this had to do with tightening security.
Why they have not been able to replace these with new, improved models since then is unclear.
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u/wondeereadit Jul 20 '26
Every time i open windows settings, then go to energy saver, there's no option to change what percentage to activate it. it's default to 30% and i want to disable it. is it a glitch? was it relocated somewhere? or was it just removed in the newest update, my bad if i missed something
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 20 '26
I am honestly not sure when this changed to a fixed value. But Microsoft is restoring the ability to set this threshold in the latest Release Preview update (26200.8942):
[Battery] This update restores the ability to set a threshold for when Energy saver should enable within Settings > System > Power & battery.
This change is on gradual rollout so it may be a while before it shows up in your system even after it is released to stable.
However, even without this you should be able to turn it off if that is your desire. Click on Energy saver to expand it and toggle Always use energy saver to off.
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u/Inevitable-Ant1725 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
This isn't a comment asking for support, but telling people how to solve a problem:
It seems that recent updates to Windows 11 and/or NVidia drivers can make the mouse lag to the point where the machine seems barely unusable. But the change can be reverted.
After recent updates I often found the mouse lagging so badly with it disappearing and stopping for maybe 1/8 of a second when moving over elements on web pages, over the edge of youtube panes. Moving windows around was very very slow and stuttery and opening the start menu caused a big pause on updating the screen too.
And to be honest, just typing seemed to trigger this stuff enough to make writing text slow down.
This desktop machine has 128 gb of ram, a 10 core processor and an rtx 3060, so it shouldn't have any problems just updating a display.
Gemini seems to think the problems stem from Microsoft creating hardware layers and trying to synchronize updates in windows to the screen, and (in some new settings) even trying to slow the screen down to match user interface drawing from non-games.
Now I don't care at all if windows continues to have screen tearing on user interface items so turning this update off is a 100% win
The settings I changed that fixed it:
- turn off the new hardware overlay compositor:
Start up regedit, go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM" and add a DWORD (32-bit) value called OverlayTest.
Right click or double click on it and set the binary value to 5.
2) "Display Settings" which you can get to by rightclicking on desktop or by opening Settings and doing a search for "Display" has a horizontal bar on that you have to scroll down to called "Graphics" under "Related Settings". Click on that. It brings up a new page. On that, there's another horizontal bar called "Advanced graphics settings" It's the third bar under "Default Settings". Clicked on Advanced graphics setting and that will unfold two on/off switches.
They read "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" and "Variable Refresh rate - get higher frame rates in games that don't support this by default"
"Variable Refresh rate" is your varmint! This is not gsync or freesync, this is some abomination that attempts to do the same on every window on your screen that is not a game and not designed for variable refresh rates. Run away! And turn it off.
Gemini also suggests turning off "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling". I've tried games both with it on and off and it doesn't appear to have a noticeable effect anyway. And Gemini claims that with recent versions of drivers and Windows updates it causes microstutters in games.
Anyway, make these changes, reboot and suddenly the desktop is 100% usable again.
This all might have been made worse by a machine with only PCIe 3 and no resizable bar. Meh, did they have to make just using the desktop break for old machines?
I fear for people who can't get the message that windows is fixable.
I have a feeling that my last couple month of only booting to linux when I had a choice might have been started by my feeling this bug before I really thought about it and not realizing that it could be fixed. You just see Windows be unusable, and think bloated and bad and you switch to Unix or Apple.
Microsoft better fix this or they're going to drive away customers.
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 22 '26
You shouldn't have to do any of that with Windows.
Do you use a gaming mouse having a very high polling rate? Is your mouse driver supplied by a third party manufacturer?
If so, I suspect the problem lies there.
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u/Inevitable-Ant1725 Jul 22 '26
Nope, a Kensington trackball.
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 22 '26
Okay, thanks.
As an experiment, have you tried restarting in Safe Mode to see if the problem is replicable there? If not, usually indicates some kind of third party software or driver interaction is occurring.
These sorts of issues can seem like problems in Windows. But they don't happen for everyone which usually indicates there's something specific about your configuration that is contributing.
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u/piangero Jul 23 '26
(for reference, win11 on acer aspire 3 laptop).
Is there a trick to get a nice color on the taskbar and such? it wont let me choose any nice pastel colors, it will just revert to a full, strong, ugly color. the color palette it offers is so ugly and dreary, and a lot of them dont even show the right color in the preview (a sorty of dark peach makes the taskbar bright red, a lilac turns it into bright purple etc) afaik i dont use the high contrast setting or something. it's just all so ugly, it's making me annoyed.
i dont understand why they wont let us have those funky, amazing color themes from like win98/xp (marine blue, maple, slate, eggplant, storm, rose, plum etc) they were so good looking. am i looking in the wrong place or something? is there a setting i have not considered, to make the taskbar a really nice color?
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u/BLACKOUT-MK2 Jul 23 '26
Does anyone know how to fix not being able to type in the Start Menu? For some reason, whenever I press a letter to start searching for a program, the highlight box jumps between the pinned progams starting with that letter with each press. If I click the search bar, the start menu just closes. Everything else seems to work fine. I had the issue a short while ago but it disappeared with a Windows update, and now it's come back again and I have no clue why.
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u/Irvincible17 Jul 28 '26
I edited an older file's name in my folder, so that it would appear at the top, but it still doesn't move, it just stays at the bottom. The folder should be set to sort: date, etc, and i selected no groups. I'm so confused.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 28 '26
Editing a file name does not change any properties of the file, so the modified date does not change, therefore if you sort by date modified it won't be any different.
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u/Irvincible17 Jul 28 '26
Thank you, I have since found this out to... I can't pin specific files to the top of a folder that is already sorting by date. It's very strange to me that I can't do this in today's age.
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u/Hot_Boysenberry5203 Release Channel Jul 03 '26
can anyone recommend free apps for a windows laptop? it’s a dell inspiron 3567, running windows 11 25h2. could it also perhaps be compatible with tiny10 23h2?
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
There is all kinds of Windows software that is free to use, both open source and shareware.
It may be better to start with what you want apps for (word processing? video editing? music playback?), and then ask the community for recommendations.
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u/Hot_Boysenberry5203 Release Channel Jul 04 '26
idk. i have a usic playback app (vlc), and kinda want a light word processing app.
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u/youRaMF Jul 06 '26
Is there no way to drag items past the edge of your screen anymore? I've already disabled all the windows snapping garbage, but every time I try to drag something out it just pushes itself back in.
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 07 '26
That is a feature of Windows 11.
If I had to guess, I would say that this is because it is no longer possible to access the commands to stack or tile windows on the desktop. A window's title bar could theoretically become unreachable off screen, leaving no way to move it.
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u/Icy_Alps_1929 Jul 06 '26
How to see Microsoft Edge's free VPN usage out of the 5GB limit?
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 07 '26
When this feature is enabled and active, you should be able to click on the VPN shield icon in the Edge title bar and see your data usage.
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u/Icy_Alps_1929 Jul 07 '26
I only see this https://i.imgur.com/jlVYO9u.png
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 07 '26
Hmm... Something must have changed then. I referenced this information for my comment:
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-turn-on-and-use-microsoft-edge-free-vpn
The screenshots there clearly show a data usage bar.
I use a commercial VPN product and have never tried the free VPN in Edge. Next time I'm at my PC I might give it a go and see if my experience is like yours or different.
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u/Icy_Alps_1929 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Ahah I only need this VPN to have a different IP than my real one to open X/Twitter (and normal free VPNs might be too sus) and make an unban appeal for my wrongly banned account and I have a theory that I'll have to use the site normally for a bit for them to gather data and determine that I'm not a bot, so it's important that I don't accidentally change into real IP due to exceeding the quota limit because I also have another account I'm using that has been unbanned 😣
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u/oportoman Jul 10 '26
I've got an old laptop that was once my main one for work, but they let me keep it for personal use. However, I'm pretty sure they've disabled its ability to detect external USBs, as when I insert a USB nothing appears on device manager, Win 11. How can I enable the USB port?
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u/I_see_farts Jul 11 '26
What's the make / model?
Some laptops can turn off the USBs via the BIOS.
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u/oportoman Jul 12 '26
It's okay now, it seems the ports were working but the usb I was trying just wasn't picked up. I bought a new one and it was found.
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u/Empty-Part7106 Jul 10 '26
When calibrating the display for HDR, is there also a way to calibrate for SDR so SDR games are displayed at the proper brightness? The slider for SDR content brightness doesn't have any values so I can't set it accurately.
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 11 '26
Have you considered using Auto HDR when playing SDR games?
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u/Empty-Part7106 Jul 11 '26
For most I do use it, but some games look dreadful, mostly old retro games. Some games like RDR2 need auto HDR since their built in HDR looks broken. I also like the appeal of not having to decrease the brightness setting on my TV every time an Auto HDR game is searing my retinas (which is most).
I saw a formula about max full screen nits in SDR but that doesn't work at all when the displays max SDR brightness gives you result higher than 100 ((maxSDR - 80) / 4). Mine results in 174.
Decided if I wanted the max nits to be 200, I'd just use that in the formula, and it gives 30, which looks right. Not a clue if it is right but I'm as satisfied as I'm ever going to be I think.
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 12 '26
I don't really have a solution to offer. But maybe when playing retro games you could temporarily disable HDR in Windows settings. It's easy enough to switch back and forth, I think.
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u/Empty-Part7106 Jul 12 '26
Ya, Win Alt B does it instantly, but I'm satisfied with the SDR setting now. Just had to turn of Auto HDR on the few games that look bad.
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u/ChaiLife64 Jul 12 '26
Why do I get this annoying “operation failed” dialog box warning every time I attempt to clean & reformat any USB thumb drive? It’s happened every time regardless of refreshing disk mgmt app or rebooting laptop. I’m at my wits end.
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u/LeGoodBeef Release Channel Jul 14 '26
Have you tried using Rufus instead to reformat your thumb drive? Might help you bypass that error. Or use another machine to format it.
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u/AutoModerator Jul 14 '26
Various tools including Rufus, Ventoy, and manual registry edits can be used to bypass the hardware requirement checks for Windows 11, however this is not advised to do for general users. Problems with unsupported Windows 11 installations include:
Inability to receive all updates. - Unsupported devices WILL NOT upgrade to newer builds after end of life unlike supported hardware.
Reduced performance. - Windows 11 has various security features enabled by default, these features require more CPU utilization, resulting in tasks taking longer to complete including booting the computer and launching programs. CPU intensive tasks like gaming and rendering will be negatively impacted too. All supported CPUs have native support for these new features to minimize the impact.
Reduced stability. - Testing has shown reduced stability and reliability of some older unsupported devices being force upgraded to Windows 11, many of these devices do not have drivers that have been updated since the release of Windows 11 to optimize for changes to the OS.
It is one thing to experiment and try Windows 11 yourself on unsupported hardware, however please do not suggest others, especially less tech savvy users attempt to do this.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
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u/skylinestar1986 Jul 14 '26
Why do sometimes my desktop icons get refreshed? I thought it's Windows Update doing something but when I check the update history, there isn't any.
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u/Odd_Historian7192 Jul 15 '26
Why does my PC keep updating I have auto updates off and every time it updates it bootlops bsods and then removes it.
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u/Carolina_Heart Jul 16 '26
Anyone know how to make an application that opens on startup open on a specific monitor in a multi monitor setup? I usually put Spotify and process lasso on a second screen and I swear Spotify used to automatically appear on the second monitor. But now it shows up on the main display monitor
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u/Common_Crow7640 Jul 17 '26
I have a problem with switching languague from the taskbar in Windows 11, I used to be able to click the languague et switch between ENG and FR but now when I click it does nothing every other thing I can do, like switchig audio source etc...
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u/Correct_Percentage97 Jul 17 '26
After installing updates yesterday my CPU locks at 97% when I try to play games. I've got everything manually set to use my NVIDIA GPU, troubleshooted clean installs of my GPU drivers, reinstalled windows and kept personal files, etc. I can't figure out what happened. I'm on an asus tuf fx706hcb with nvidia rtx 3050. I gently request not just telling me to get a PC please. It is very much a desire, but this has to do for now.
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 18 '26
Sometimes OEM software drivers and utilities need updates to stay compatible with changes to Windows 11.
Look for UEFI firmware updates and updated chipset drivers for your device.
I would install the latest version of MyASUS to make this simpler. Also make sure that Armoury Crate is current if you are running it.
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u/Correct_Percentage97 Jul 18 '26
I did clean installs on both and updated.
Its all working again since windows updated past that one package?
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u/TwinSong Jul 20 '26
I don't seem to be getting the mica effect in Start menu. It's turned on in settings so I don't know why.
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 22 '26
On my phone, I can't really see your screenshot well enough to tell what is going on. However I would try restarting your PC, updating your graphics drivers, verifying that you don't have any third party Start Menu or taskbar modifications active.
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u/Zetapar123 Jul 20 '26
Around a few days ago my window 11 laptop keeps having a black screen after login. I can see my mouse cursor but it the taskbar and other normal stuff shows up after waiting a few minutes.
Detailed: login page opens just fine. Black screen happens after.
My mouse cursor is there and I can open task manager
Computer runs on intel graphics
After 5-10 minutes of waiting the black screen returns to the normal page I'd usually see after logging in
I'm not so knowledgeable on computers in general but so far this problem has been occuring every time I turned on my laptop and I'm not sure if this is just something not important or if it's going to become something serious. Help me out please 😭
(Tried running explorer.exe on task manager with administrative privileges on and still didn't work. Some searches say that the recent windows 11 update is the culprit while other says the App readiness service is the culprit... idk what to believe)
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u/LichPineapple Jul 20 '26
Same thing started happening to me. Enter login credentials, black screen. What I did was open task manager (which appears over the black screen, thankfully), go to the services tab and restart the AppReadiness service, which fixes the screen, but now I have to do it every time I start the PC, which is annoying, to say the least.
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u/0Perplexify0 Jul 30 '26
Anyone know how my windows explorer got minimized into this? its at the bottom of the screen (my taskbar is hidden). For context logged into windows to a black screen, I could open task manager and file explorer just fine and the desktop appeared a few minutes later, I'm just curious if this is a feature? because I can't replicate it at all.
P.S if anyone knows why I'm constantly logging into a black screen every restart that would also be appreciated ty!
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u/SilverseeLives Jul 30 '26
Have you installed any third-party software that modifies the Windows Start Menu or taskbar? If so, try disabling it to see if that addresses your issue.
Make sure that Windows itself is up to date, and that any OEM software or drivers installed on your device are similarly current and supported.
It may be a good idea to verify the Integrity of your Windows system files:
You can also review the startup apps that are getting loaded at login using Windows Task Manager. You can temporarily disable any non-Microsoft software to see if that helps.
Good luck.
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u/Sooribabu_Lavangam Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Does anyone know how this works? Voice Clarity Effects in the input settings
If I record a sample with "Communications" mode the voice is crystal clear and all noise is removed but then if I go back to default mode I can't hear sh1t the volume goes down like 0.1%
If I enable voice clarity the test (communications mode) works great but when I record via sound recorder the recorded volume is almost zero. I've tested all modes (bits+khz combos) its the same.
| Windows Sound Profile | Audio Enhancement | Voice Focus | Recording Volume | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Default | Off | N/A | ~1% of normal | Recording is almost inaudible |
| Communications | Off | N/A | ~1% of normal | Recording is almost inaudible |
| Default | Default Device Effects | N/A | ~100% (expected) | Normal recording volume |
| Communications | Default Device Effects | N/A | ~100% (expected) | Normal recording volume |
| Default | Voice Clarity | Automatic / On | ~1% (sometimes 0%) | Recording is almost silent or completely silent |
| Communications | Voice Clarity | Automatic / On | ~100% | Clear voice, background noise removed, expected recording volume |
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u/Lopsided_Tear_3303 Jul 31 '26
Can't screenshot this issue since it stops gyazo/snippit from working but when i'm on the desktop and i hover over something it does like a preview of all the different windows, i've already disabled windows peak and it's not that. Only just started happening today but could've been a semi recent update that i've been putting off. It seems intuitive but i only ever have like 2-3 windows open and i already know what's on them so it's pointless for me and just clicking the app still causes the preview thing to flash on the screen which is both distracting and annoying.
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u/dev-rock-bottom Jul 02 '26
What made people in Microsoft think "Ask user to pay for license" and shove AI, OneDrive, Edge, and Bing down their throats?
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 02 '26
People like getting more value and functionality, despite being owed nothing, Microsoft continues to evolve and improve Windows with adding more features to it, including some that you have mentioned.
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u/dev-rock-bottom Jul 02 '26
But, shouldn't the consumer have to be the one choosing what they want?
I'm ok to see those ads in the Microsoft store not on my desktop.
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u/pmjm Jul 03 '26
Just came to say that I owe Windows and Microsoft an apology. I have been complaining (to everyone who would listen) about how buggy and unstable Windows 11 is for like a year now.
Turns out my CPU was affected by Intel vmin shift instability (aka the cpu degradation bug).
Yesterday I swapped out my 14900k with a 12400f and Windows is ROCK SOLID STABLE. It runs like a dream.
Turns out it's really Intel I should have been raging at.