Fix Settings app crashes in Windows 10 and Windows 11

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Surender Kumar

Surender Kumar has more than twelve years of experience in server and network administration. His fields of interest are Windows Servers, Active Directory, PowerShell, web servers, networking, Linux, virtualization, and penetration testing. He loves writing for his blog.

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The Settings app has been around since Windows 8, but it has evolved significantly in Windows 10 and 11. Microsoft keeps improving and adding new features to the Settings app, while the traditional Control Panel doesn't get much attention any longer. Microsoft is now pushing users to use the Settings app, but what if it keeps crashing or won't even open in your system? If you are facing this issue with the Settings app in Windows 10 or 11, you are not alone.

Settings app replaces Control Panel

Whenever you want to make any change in Windows, the Settings app will start instead of the Control Panel. The Settings app is basically a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app installed inside %windir%\ImmersiveControlPanel directory, and it is called by the Windows.ImmersiveControlPanel package name. You can use the following PowerShell command to get information about the Settings app:

Get-AppxPackage Windows.ImmersiveControlPanel

Getting information about the Settings app using PowerShell

Before we jump into fixing the Settings app problem, one more thing worth mentioning is that a Group Policy setting could prohibit you from using the Settings app. If the Settings app in your computer starts and then closes immediately, check and make sure this Group Policy setting isn't enabled. The setting is available under:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Prohibit access to Control Panel and PC settings

Understanding the Prohibit access to Control Panel and PC settings group policy

Reset the Settings app

The easiest way to fix any problem with the Settings app (or any other app, for that matter) is to reset it. Resetting the app will reinstall it with its default settings. You can do this using either a PowerShell command or the GUI option.

Reset the Settings app using PowerShell

If you are running Windows 11, you can use Reset-AppxPackage, as shown below, to reset the Settings app with PowerShell:

Get-AppxPackage Windows.ImmersiveControlPanel | Reset-AppxPackage

Reset the Settings app using PowerShell in Windows 11

Unfortunately, the Reset-AppxPackage command is not yet available in Windows 10. It is only available with Windows 11 or Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20215. Thus, if you try to run this command in Windows 10 running a build number lower than 20215, you will get an error message:

The term 'Reset-AppxPackage' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

Reset AppxPackage is unavailable in Windows 10

If the above command isn't available in your version of Windows, you can use the following command instead:

$Manifest = (Get-AppxPackage *ImmersiveControlPanel*).InstallLocation + '\appxmanifest.xml'; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Manifest

Reinstall and register the Settings app in Windows 10 using PowerShell

This command reinstalls and reregisters the Settings app package in Windows 10. Restart your computer after running this command, and the problem should now go away.

Reset the Settings app using GUI

If you're not a fan of PowerShell and prefer doing things using the GUI, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button and type Settings.
2. In the search results, click the App Settings option, as shown in the screenshot:
   

   Opening the app settings for the Settings app

Opening the app settings for the Settings app

1. Scroll down to the Reset section, and click the Repair button. Windows repairs the app while leaving the app data intact.
   

   Repairing and resetting the Settings app

2. If the repair option doesn't help, click the Reset button to reset the Settings app to the default.

Now restart your computer and see if the issue with the Settings app is fixed.

If the problem persists, something is wrong with your Windows installation. In this case, I recommend running the following command:

sfc /scannow

Running sfc scannow command to repair system files in Windows

This command scans the Windows installation for system file problems and repairs the corrupted files using the Windows component store (%windir%\WinSxS directory). After running this command, restart your computer, and check whether the problem is gone.

If a problem persists, run the following command:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Running DISM to repair the Windows component store

This command scans and repairs the Windows component store itself, which is used by the sfc /scannow command. Remember, this command will contact Windows Update for any files that are needed that might require an active internet connection.

These commands will recreate the %windir%\ImmersiveControlPanel directory using the Windows component store, which is likely to fix most of the Windows problems (including the Settings app crash). Both of these commands take a long time, so you have to be patient while the system is repaired.

I hope this post helped fix Settings app crashes. If not, or if you know other ways of dealing with Setting app issues, please post a comment below.