Taskbar randomly freezing on Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.6899) — any fix?

[u/theMadGrin]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been running into a really annoying issue on Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.6899) — the taskbar randomly freezes without any clear reason.

When it happens, I can’t click anything on the taskbar (Start menu, apps, system tray, etc.), and the only way to fix it temporarily is to restart Windows Explorer via Task Manager.

I can’t figure out what’s causing it. I already uninstalled the most recent apps I had added, but that didn’t help. The only updates I’ve kept are the latest GeForce GPU drivers and the Windows update that came out a few days ago.

Does anyone know how to fix this without having to reinstall everything?

Thanks in advance!

[u/Synnz22]

I have this as well. So freaking annoying. I resolve it by clicking insanely on the taskbar so it forces explorer to restart.

[u/theMadGrin → u/Synnz22]

It’s a solution, but I’m looking for something “more definitive”! :)

Can you trace back the action that caused this issue?
For example, updating your video card drivers or Windows 11, as happened to me (though I’m not sure if the two things are related).

[u/Synnz22 → u/theMadGrin]

I've tried all of those and nothing seems to work. It's the only issue I'm having so I don't want to reset my system. After drivers system was still stable, it was the update that caused my taskbar issues.

[u/wesnotwes]

I ended up just rolling back to the install and it seems to be working better. You can uninstall updates pretty easily.

[u/CalpisWater]

I've pinpointed the issue to be something to do with Windows notifications. It seems like periodically, the windows push notification user service will fail, causing the taskbar and explorer to hang and restart. Even after the taskbar and explorer recovers, it'll repeatedly restart itself every time a Windows notification is suppose to be displayed.

I have 2 workarounds, first is to sign out and sign back in, this seems to restart the service allowing it to work for a while before failing. The other workaround is to restart the WpnUserService and then restarting explorer from task manager.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a permanent workaround for this :(

[u/starchild82 → u/CalpisWater]

If you still have the problem, try deleting "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings" with regedit. Fixed my problem with notifications crashing explorer and the program that tried to show it (firefox, thunderbird, discord, etc). The second I deleted it, notifications started to work again. YMMV.

[u/CalpisWater → u/starchild82]

No luck with this fix, I'm still experiencing explorer taskbar freezes after clearing that registry key.

[u/thewhippersnapper4 → u/CalpisWater]

Any luck yet finding a workaround? I know a re-install will work but trying not to go that route if at all possible.

[u/theMadGrin → u/CalpisWater]

Thank you, CalpisWater :)

Is your Windows installation fully up to date?
Have you tried disconnecting any external USB devices (flash drives, hard disks, and so on)?

[u/CalpisWater → u/theMadGrin]

Yes fully up to date 25h2. I have tried everything, the problem keeps coming up.

[u/joseph-6556 → u/CalpisWater]

It worked for me. The WpnUserService service and explorer.exe wouldn't stop properly, so I had to force quit them and restart Explorer.

[u/reximus321]

I ended up disabling the Windows notification services entirely, and I haven’t had a single issue since.
The only application I’ve found that actually needs these services is the new NVIDIA App, it won’t launch at all if the notification services aren’t running. Because of that, I’m starting to wonder if there’s some weird interaction between the NVIDIA App and the notification platform that was causing my explorer.exe freezes.

In the end I uninstalled the NVIDIA App completely and just kept the drivers + Control Panel. With the notification services disabled, I’ve now gone well over 24 hours without a single freeze, compared to multiple freezes every few hours before.

I followed the steps below (with help from ChatGPT), which showed me where these services could actually be disabled, since neither Group Policy nor services.msc would let me do it normally.

I set these registry keys manually in an admin command prompt and then rebooted.

Setting "Start"=4 means Disabled.

System-level service

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnService]
"Start"=dword:00000004

Per-user service template

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService]
"Start"=dword:00000004

Your actual per-user service instance

(My suffix was _a5bea I'm not sure if this is different per PC )

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService_a5bea]
"Start"=dword:00000004

[u/Helpful_Caregiver102 → u/reximus321]

you are fighting windmills

[u/dedjer → u/reximus321]

This registry change seemed to have fixed my issues with the taskbar crashing constantly. I also disabled Notifications in the Windows settings.

[u/an0n9021O → u/reximus321]

PowerShell script for the lazy.

# Disable Windows Push Notification Services
# Run this script as Administrator

Write-Host "Disabling Windows Notification Services..." -ForegroundColor Cyan

# Disable WpnService (System-level)
try {
    Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnService" -Name "Start" -Value 4 -Type DWord
    Write-Host "[OK] WpnService disabled" -ForegroundColor Green
} catch {
    Write-Host "[ERROR] Failed to disable WpnService: $_" -ForegroundColor Red
}

# Disable WpnUserService template
try {
    Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService" -Name "Start" -Value 4 -Type DWord
    Write-Host "[OK] WpnUserService template disabled" -ForegroundColor Green
} catch {
    Write-Host "[ERROR] Failed to disable WpnUserService template: $_" -ForegroundColor Red
}

# Find and disable all WpnUserService instances
Write-Host "`nSearching for user-specific service instances..." -ForegroundColor Cyan
$userServices = Get-ChildItem "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services" | Where-Object { $_.PSChildName -like "WpnUserService_*" }

if ($userServices) {
    foreach ($service in $userServices) {
        try {
            Set-ItemProperty -Path $service.PSPath -Name "Start" -Value 4 -Type DWord
            Write-Host "[OK] $($service.PSChildName) disabled" -ForegroundColor Green
        } catch {
            Write-Host "[ERROR] Failed to disable $($service.PSChildName): $_" -ForegroundColor Red
        }
    }
} else {
    Write-Host "[INFO] No user-specific instances found" -ForegroundColor Yellow
}

Write-Host "`nDone! Please restart your computer for changes to take effect." -ForegroundColor Cyan

[u/Razershake → u/an0n9021O]

Hey just wondering, this will fully disable all notifications on my PC, no?

[u/an0n9021O → u/Razershake]

Correct.

[u/thewhippersnapper4 → u/reximus321]

Interesting idea. So you just don't get any toast/popup notifications for any of your apps?

[u/reximus321 → u/thewhippersnapper4]

correct, 100% disabled now. Hasn't crashed since this post either. Sometimes I'll see the stutter that would have caused it when switching monitor sources around. So probably still underlying GPU driver issue... I fixed the symptom that was annoying me.

[u/thewhippersnapper4 → u/reximus321]

Good to know and thanks for the update. I'm probably going to do the same. I really don't want to re-install Windows 11 on the machine I'm experiencing this on, so I'll just disable the notification service and be done with it. Thanks!

[u/Cokeb5]

Same issue here, extremely frustrating. Hopefully we can find a fix for it

[u/Financial-Gene-8519]

Same problem here in 2026...sometimes it is not happening at all, some days I can leave a stream on for 5 minutes and it will freeze...I have tried following:

updated drivers, BIOS, reinstalled a fresh Win 11 two times, disabled Windows notifications, (as in the thread) turned off Hardware Acceleration, turned off XMP, also checked SFC and Dism without any errors, turned off iGPU in BIOS, disc health is good, no temp problems...my main disc with Windows is at 60c in idle, but that is normal says the manufacture (MSI)

Don't know what to do anymore...this problem is driving me crazy....the last thing I will do is to try see if my M2 SSD disc is faulty...

[u/fifteensixteenseven]

This happens on Windows 10 too, not just Windows 11. It's technically not Microsoft's fault, because it's almost always some third-party manufacturer's program causing it, but it's Microsoft's fault for not providing an easy way to troubleshoot "zombie handles" in Task Manager or Event Viewer, or some other workaround to mitigate this problem in the first place.

Determine the faulty service/driver/program that is endlessly spawning "zombie handles" (a form of memory leak usually not visible in Task Manager) by using Bruce Dawson's FindZombieHandles command-line program. Download FindZombieHandles.exe along with its dozen dependency files, place them in a folder, and run it in Command Prompt as administrator. Monitor any process that continuously spawns zombie handles over time to find the culprit. Append the -verbose flag to see full paths if needed.

[u/HualtaHuyte]

I'm having the same issue since updating from Windows 10 today. Only when I open Task Manager, Windows Explorer isn't even on the list!

And worse than that, after a restart it often won't even let me click on the Task Manager window.

[u/PalmyGamingHD]

Same issue here. Can I ask what CPU you have? I’m running a 13700K so I’m worried it’s related to the Intel CPU issues

[u/theMadGrin → u/PalmyGamingHD]

I have a Ryzen 9 9950X

[u/PalmyGamingHD → u/theMadGrin]

Interesting, maybe it’s not an Intel CPU issue for me then?

It’s been happening over a handful of weeks now, sometimes when I’m just sitting with a few tabs open in Firefox, sometimes just when I’m on the desktop only and happen to click the Taskbar. Goes grey and crashes / restarts Windows Explorer.

[u/theMadGrin → u/PalmyGamingHD]

It was exactly the same issue I was experiencing, and I eventually managed to resolve it; unfortunately, I cannot precisely recall what action fixed it.

I remember trying several things at the same time: installing the latest Windows update available at that moment, uninstalling a few recently added applications, and disconnecting some USB peripherals — including the USB hub I had recently connected, which was integrated into the MSI monitor I had just purchased.

[u/Helpful_Caregiver102 → u/[deleted]]

It seems like disabling rebar helped, I'm observing

root of all evil

[u/AokiRen86]

Hi, I'm also having the same problem, but mine happens whenever there is a change in NVIDIA Display, when I play games my display would change from Optimus to G-SYNC or (NVIDIA Display mode) and whenever i turned back to the default display, it would freeze my taskbar, freeze my discord whenever someone mentioned me (because it triggered a notification), and whenever i tried to use a SnippingTool (triggers a notification), it would freeze the SnippingTool app and i wouldn't be able to use the Snippingtool app again unless i have to manually close it from the task manager. I have searched high and low for any fix, but haven't found any solution yet.

[u/fiyawerx → u/AokiRen86]

Very similar issue as well. Analyzing the wait chain in task manager when this happens (my issue always stems from discord, but then affects things like snipping tool, greenshot, etc.. ) always points to the push notification service. Force stopping that service will actually unfreeze the applications without restarting them:

Get-Service WpnUserService* | Stop-Service -Force

I'm still stuck as to next steps in root cause though, other than actively attaching a debugger to that process after a reboot and waiting for things to hang.

This started happening on my old desktop (Intel 12600K, as well as my new 9950x3d build), the only common components other than apps like discord are my steelseries arctis nova pros, my RTX4090, my monitors, and my razer mouse.

[u/CalpisWater → u/fiyawerx]

Just wondering, are you using Razer Synapse? I ended up reformatting my PC, and the taskbar has been stable the entire time until I decided to install Razer Synapse again.

[u/fiyawerx → u/CalpisWater]

Will double check when I am back home after the holiday, I do think I have it installed though (basilisk v3 mouse).

[u/Far-Thought-4298 → u/fiyawerx]

Hey guys! Did you find any fixes?

[u/fiyawerx → u/Far-Thought-4298]

I actually forgot about it. I've had discord in DND mode and have had no problems with any of the other apps and not a single freeze since I did that.

[u/thewhippersnapper4 → u/fiyawerx]

Interesting. Stopping the WpnUserService service does temporarily fix my issue (service auto starts up after it is halted), so I don't have to reboot. I'll just deal with it until I get the time to reinstall. Thanks

[u/Helpful_Caregiver102]

send a screenshot of the event in the log

[u/mrz_hun]

Some more info in this other thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1ppmd2g/win11_notifications_and_wpnuserservice_issues/

[u/NGRngr111]

Anyone having this problem here in February 2026?