Cannot open Windows 10 Settings

[Zourous]

Posting in hope. It seems strange but somehow during a new build of W10 the "PC settings" is refusing to open via all routes. No error message, just no response. From what I can work out it seems corrupted. I have tried everything from the post below that I've found on the internet. It seems there are a few others out there looking for a fix without success. To complicate matters further it seems there was this problem when W10 first came out and that was fixed by a KB that has since been pulled and probably included in a following update. Since then the problem has resurfaced again.

 

 

Issue: Cannot open settings app in Windows 10 - corrupt ImmersiveControlPanel repair/rebuild:

 

What fixed my settings app incase of "TL-DR":

 

Folder Location: C:\Windows\ImmersiveControlPanel\

 

Running cmd as admin:

From C:\

cd Windows

rename ImmersiveControlPanel ImmersiveControlPanel.old

SFC /scannow

 

SFC will rebuild ImmersiveControlPanel.

 

Settings was working immediately after.

 

 

Hello everyone,

My Windows 10 install was suffering from this issue for some time. I finally decided to try and work out a fix since it's a public holiday and I have time. This issue was annoying but since It only really affected the settings app I left it in the "I'll get to it later" basket, A typical self employed tech with no time for their own computers. Other functions like apps, appstore and start menu in Windows were unaffected.

 

Being a computer tech it frustrated me not being able to find any info on what fixed this in the end for me. I am sure this info is out there somewhere but I could not find it. I've decided to post this here so it can benefit someone just like me when trying to find a solution to this obscure problem.

 

The only persistent Windows 10 issue I've come across where I couldn't justify a fresh install was on my own computer. No firm idea on what caused it, But I suspect it likely would have cropped up about the time when I had a few random graphics driver crashes and BSOD (nvidia fixed this in the next driver). That was a few months ago (october-november) and that was when I last remembered my settings app was working fine.

 

My symptoms:

•Cannot open Settings from Start Menu (Will flash on screen then close - No useful info in event manager)

•Cannot open Settings from shortcut (If manually created)

•When opening other functions to do with settings would get errors refering to ms-settings for example on display settings:

 

 

 

"ms-settting:display This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel"

 

 

 

•No issue with start menu or the opening of other apps (not related to settings) including app store

•Could browse and install/open new apps

•While this issue persisted Windows updates were not able to download or install

•Windows was stuck on build 10240 - Could not install 1511 update

 

 

Any other function that relied on the Settings app would not work - for exampleisplay settings

 

 

•Personalisation settings

•Lockscreen settings

•Windows update (for me)

•etc

 

 

Fixes that I have tried:

•CHKDSK /F and /R from within Windows and Live CDs (Only minor issues found)

•SFC /Scannow (Before my fix in the end it did not fix anything)

•System Restore

•Tried the powershell Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"} fix

•Tried the DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth fix

•Create a new user

•Could not upgrade with 1511 Windows disc

 

 

The fixes that did not fix my issue above may still have enabled my fix to be successful later however.

 

Anyway, If anyone has an issue similar hopefully this is helpful for them in some way. Hopefully this issue will become searchable now. I'm sure that I am not the only person to have had this although I have only ever seen this on my own computer. Perhaps I am the only one?

[Zourous]

Well, we just ended up redoing the build from scratch. Since then the build has been fine, so maybe a new update fixed it, an update that I wasn't able to get to before with a broken W10. I may never know.

[NviGate_Systems]

Often when SFC can't repair a file, it is because the underlying Windows image has corrupt files, which is typically within the WinSXS system. (When it does fail)

 

When using DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth without a mounted baseline Windows Image, it relies on WindowsUpdate/Online libraries to repair, which often fail. If you mount a install.wim that matches the build of Windows you want to fix, then you isue a command like thus:

 

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:c:\mount\Windows

 

In this case, you can use existing media to refresh your corrupt files. However, Modern/Metro Apps are probably the most problematic out there and often misbehave more than shoddily coded VisualBasic Apps. I'm doing research right now to try and track down what causes these issues. It's also partially related to my issues with Sysprep in Windows 10 and provisioned apps. There seems to be a bug in Windows 10 that even on a fresh install the apps are not properly provisioned, which causes issues for Sysprep as Sysprep is very picky about modern apps and how they are provisioned.

 

I have a hunch that it may be a permissions issue, as I know certain Windows files don't behave properly if they don't have the correct permissions. But much of this isn't properly documented or at least there isn't an easy to run tool to fix these issues.