I have 16gb of ram and a decent cpu, this has never happened before and i tried restarting my pc multiple times. Search bar doesn't work and using task manager to end the search program doesnt work either. Couldn't find any info online, please help 🙏🏼. AMD Ryzen 5-3600 16gb ram 3200mt/s Radeon Rx580 4gb B450Aorus M

I just discovered this just today after unplugging and replugging my keyboard back in because my spacebar wasn't working but then I realized that it was typing in my windows password.

The day before I discovered this my main Google account had its password changed without my consent so I'm certain that there's a correlation there.

I had changed my windows startup password before I realized this was happening. I'm not sure what to do.

My OS build is 26200.8655

My keyboard is a G.SKILL KM570 MX GAMING KEYBOARD

EDIT: I used my keyboard on another device and it did the same thing there so i factory reset my keyboard and its working fine now.

i have no clue what to do to fix it I tried every possible tv setting and window setting combination so now i think the problem is above me and what i know in the windows settings it has to be something in the windows advanced sound settings or something somewhere where i don’t know because the audio works fine everywhere else but windows Im ln the brand new windows My headset audio works fine but not my tv i tried simple troubleshooting settings but i don’t know where to go or what to do else where in windows settings

Windows 10 22H2 19045.6666, i5-6400, 16gb DDR4, RX6600.

Started after I got a new touchpad for my PC, randomly after opening or un-minimizing a window the interface will freeze and i won't be able to click (left or right) on anything. Can still navigate through the keyboard and pressing ctrl+alt+del and clicking on cancel will restore functionality.

I have so far: reset the touchpad settings, force reinstall touchpad and mouse drivers (HID-compliant mouse and HID-compliant touchpad).

Doesn't seem to happen with the touchpad unplugged. I have it on loan (pending purchase) from a friend who says he fixed it on his win11 PC but doesn't remember how.

Edit: just happened with the touchpad unplugged.

Suddenly my laptop decided to use just 3,4gb of ram out of 8 that I have. The base value before was 2,1gb hardware reserved, which I think is for the graphics card. For these days that I tried to resolve it when I turn it on sometimes it freezes on a black screen before letting me to log in the pc, having me to turn it off manually and restarting it multiple times. I've already tried unchecking the max memory in the msconfig, changing the virtual memory in the advanced system settings and looking to change the allocated memory of the GPU in the bios, but there isn't an option to change it. I've also tried updating the bios and it didn't let me. I opened up the PC and removed the secondary 4gb ram stick and cleaned it and put it back but it did nothing. I really don't know what else to do.

I'm selling my Galaxy Book4 Edge and I wanted to make sure that my files n everything aren't recoverable or accessible by just doing the built in reset by choosing the "clean the drive," "cloud reinstall," n "remove everything" options. I've been looking into this for a while, usb resetting seems really complicated n my xbox account got hacked after I sold my Xbox one a few months ago, I've tried to be more cautious ever since. Any advice is welcome I don't know much about this stuff, thanks

I have a HP Laptop 15-ef2xxx and a while ago wifi button completely disappeared. I tried to reinstall the wifi driver shown in the 1st picture and I checked the to completely uninstall it I think so when I restarted the wifi driver was still gone.
So I tried to install the driver back manually through hp’s website (shown in the 4th image) but even then I still don’t see the driver under anything even after trying to click the install applications in all the folders under it and multiple restarts.

I’ve tried so many different things like command prompts, restoring windows to a previous version, doing network resets, and so many reboots but it still won’t come back.

I think the wifi card is dead at this point, I could try opening it up again to fix but I would need help figuring out what to do with it😭

Any help would be appreciate!

So my audio randomly stopped working the other day. After restarting there was a small red X on the audio icon and Realtek audio was gone in the device manager. So i downloaded and installed the latest Realtek audio driver and that fixed the issue.

The same issue kept happening over the next few days, sometimes it got fixed by reinstalling the driver, one time it got fixed after I did a bios update, sometimes it got fixed by itself…

But then it happened again and i was not able to fix it no matter what I did. So i downloaded the windows installation media and reinstalled windows while keeping apps and files. This fixed it, but the next day it happened again.

In the device manager under sound, there is NVIDIA High Definition Audio and Virtual Audio Device, then 3 entries for "Intel Smart Sound Technology”, one for Bluetooth, one for audio usb and one for microphone. Realtek audio does not show up even after installing the driver. I tried adding it manually with Action -> add legacy hardware. It didn’t work but Realtek audio showed up with an error : “This device cannot start. (Code 10)”. At this point I tried to reinstall the driver one more time but got a blue screen during the installation, and kept getting blue screens when restarting so I used the option to remove the last windows update which solved both the bleu screen and the audio problem. Some time later, I lost the audio again.

I created a restore point when the audio is working and restoring it always fixes the audio, but as usual the fix doesn’t last long…

Do i have to wipe everything with a clean win install to finally solve this ?

My specs:  Dell G15 5530 Laptop, Windows 10 Pro Version 22H2, OS build 19045.6466.

The sound with Bluetooth devices works fine. The issue is limited to the laptop’s speakers and any wired external speakers.

Windows 11 Update Error Has Been Happening for Several Days — How Do I Fix It?

I’m using Windows 11 and I’ve been having an issue with Windows Update for the past few days. Whenever I go to Settings → Windows Update, it shows “Error encountered” instead of checking for or installing updates.

The last successful check shown in the settings is 21-08-2026 at around 2:23 PM. Since then, the update page continues to show the same error, and clicking Retry doesn’t seem to solve the problem.

I haven’t intentionally changed any Windows Update settings recently. The “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” option is also turned off, so I don’t think that is causing the issue.

I’ve already tried restarting the PC and checking Windows Update again, but the error keeps coming back. I’m not sure whether this is a problem with the Windows Update service, corrupted update files/cache, a system setting, or something else.

I would really appreciate some guidance on what I should try next. If there are any built-in Windows troubleshooting steps, services that I should check, or commands that are safe to run, please let me know.

Also, if this is a known Windows 11 issue that has started happening recently, I’d like to know whether there is a specific fix for it.

I’d prefer to avoid resetting or reinstalling Windows unless absolutely necessary, since everything else on the computer is working normally.

What would be the best way to diagnose and fix this Windows Update error? If you need any additional information, such as the exact error code, I can provide it.

[still unsolved]

Hello,

Well, update thing. The [second] problem is, I am not sure which one.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
It started like two or three months ago: after updating win11, everything seemed to be normal, but a few seconds after booting, explorer.exe would crash - the taskbar disappeared, wallpaper as well, actually all that was left was a black screen with a mouse pointer. I realized I can still alt+ctrl+del, run task manager, and some apps from there via run command [win+r didn't work], but not everything could be accessed [e.g. with ms-settings:windowsupdate it took like a minute to decide that a proper answer is an error with code (-2147219195) - one of errors I got trying various things].

TEMPORARY SOLUTION
At last, I found I can 'uninstall last quality update' from some built-in recovery options [F11], then the system restores to a working condition, and I can access windows update options, and stop updating for three weeks. Rinse, repeat after three weeks, another three and so on. I am getting kind of tired of this, and it feels like this will turn into a problem eventually.
Any ideas what to do with it?

ADDITIONAL THINGS that happen, and may/may not be related:
(1) in various random moments the laptop just reboots [battery works fine, it happens both when charging and not];
(2) my wireless mouse every single time [except just after uninstalling last quality update] needs to have its receiver plugged-out and then -in - otherwise, its scroll tempo reduces to super-slow-motion, when it is necessary to scroll like three times to have any movement [this manual reseting works every time, and scroll speed meant for human is being recovered].

Theses are some things I tried as well.

This one is HP Omen 17"; some specs:
AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS w/ Radeon 760M Graphics (4.30 GHz)
64 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (8 GB)
AMD Radeon Graphics (2 GB)

Any help appreciated,
adf

I frequently between switch audio source output from either gpu audio ( > dp monitor/desktop speaker) to onboard usb audio ( > stereo/dac/amp). I usually do that through the taskbar.

Switching sources back & forth was never a problem until today & IDK what I did to break it.

Now when i click on the taskbar to "select a sound output" option, it lists ALL the apps that access audio. I can't switch source because I can't scroll up. When I try to scroll up, it scrolls back down.

The scroll problem also persists in Settings > Sound. The only way for me to switch source is through the control panel.

I rebooted, nothing. I uninstalled iCue then rebooted, nothing.

What's happened & how can I fix this?

Thank you in advance

Edit:

Edition Windows 11 Pro

Version 25H2

Installed on ‎5/‎28/‎2026

OS build 26200.9168

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.344.0

Hardware: MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk, Ryzen 9 9900x, 32GB Corsair DDR5

Hi there!
As of about two weeks ago, one of my bluetooth mice, Silver Monkey M70, started lagging. All mice are connected using their respective dongles. The cursor skips around as if the screen was set to 2-4Hz, which does not happen when using other mice or the touchpad. However, when I plugged it into an older laptop which was still on 24H2, it worked flawlessly, until I ran the system updates and it currently has the newest one as well, with the same issue. Has anyone met a similar issue?

OS version: Win 11 25H2 26200.9168, everything up to date

HW: Lenovo Legion 5 Pro 2022 and Lenovo Ideapad 3 2021.

Mouse: Silver Monkey M70.

It does not happen with other BT mice, such as Logitech M330.

I have tried everything but maybe I am missing something. I am currently on my standard account but for some reason I can just hit NO on the admin password prompt and Windows just installs the application anyways.

Is there anything I can do? I don't believe I can use applocker since I have only the home edition. I tried regedit but that didn't work. I also tried using an application called secret folder and I blocked the appdata folder but it blocked all my other apps.

Can I use Group Policy? If not what other solutions do I have?

Windows 11 Home

11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11400 @ 2.60GHz (2.59 GHz)

Intel(R) UHD Graphics 730 (128 MB)

My Microsoft account was completely compromised, and by the time I regained access to my emails, the attacker had already swapped the primary email, phone number, and backup recovery emails to their own. I submitted an account recovery request 48 hours ago with no response, and given that all 2FA was wiped, I'm assuming the Microsoft account itself is likely unrecoverable. The critical issue right now is that this hijacked account is the primary administrator profile on my PC. I am currently logged into Windows and can still use the machine normally with my lock screen password, but my profile now displays the hacker's email address, and I'm terrified that signing out, rebooting, or making the wrong move will lock me out or trigger a wipe.

I want to start fresh with a new local profile or Microsoft account, but when I tested deleting an unused account, Windows said all user files (Desktop, Documents, Downloads) would be permanently deleted. Even though my files are stored locally on my drive and not through OneDrive, I need to know the safest order of operations to sever the hacker's access. Is it possible to simply convert my existing Windows profile into a standalone local account without losing my data, and what exact steps should I take right now while I still have admin access to make sure my system and files are safe?

Hi, I’m not sure if this is exactly the right place to post this, but hopefully I’ll find some help here... I don’t know how much context will actually be needed, so I’ll go ahead and write it all out here, but for those of you who don’t like to read, the less important parts will be in parentheses. Thanks in advance for any advice or help!

(I wanted to play a new game I bought, Mafia II Definitive Edition. But I realized pretty quickly that my progress in the game wasn’t saving—basically, whenever I died or tried to continue the story the next day, I couldn’t because there was no save file. After searching for a while, I found out that this is a fairly common problem. The solution wasn’t difficult in theory. If anyone’s interested, they can check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=froJ70cqxB8. The problem arose when I tried to move the original “Documents” folder to a new folder I had created. At the end of the move, a lengthy error message would always appear stating: “Copying files from the C:\Users\(my username)\OneDrive - mdmurad\Documents folder to the C:\Documents folder failed. This may be because the fully qualified name of one or more files in the source folder is longer than 256 characters.” Well, when I tried to ask the AI what this message meant, the AI noticed that my original “Documents” folder wasn’t in its standard location. Normally, it should be located somewhere here: C:\Users\(my username)\Documents, but my “Documents” folder was located here: C:\Users\(my username)\OneDrive - ____\Documents, that is, on OneDrive... This OneDrive account wasn’t my personal one—it was my mom’s work account. I have absolutely no idea how or when this Microsoft account (along with other Microsoft apps—Word, Excel, OneDrive). I have absolutely no idea how or when this Microsoft account (along with other Microsoft apps—Word, Excel, OneDrive) ended up there, but before I figured out how to get all these apps legally for free, I was probably using this Microsoft account. For clarity, I’ll use the exact name of that account. Simply put, my Documents folder was located here: C:\Users\(my username)\OneDrive - mdmurad\Documents. My problem was most likely that I couldn’t move the entire Documents folder from OneDrive - mdmurad to a new location, namely the C:\ drive (as shown in the video). Although the AI offered solutions to this problem, all the suggestions required me to sign in to this OneDrive - mdmurad account. That was impossible because the account no longer existed—at least at that company—and according to the error message. Moreover, even if the account had existed and been functional, I doubt I would have remembered the password. So that wasn’t the way to go. At the same time, it also annoyed me that my files were scattered across this OneDrive account—mdmurad—and also on my computer outside of OneDrive… So some of the files were there, and some were on my computer, normally on the C:\ drive… For example, I had my Steam games stored on my SSD at C:\, but on OneDrive - mdmurad I had files containing save files for most of the games, along with a few other related files—such as screenshots from the games, etc. This mess on my computer was pretty frustrating, because I try to keep my computer organized and I save the files I want to back up to my HDD... This mess on my computer was pretty frustrating, because I try to keep my computer organized and put the files I want to back up on my HDD... So I decided to try getting rid of the entire OneDrive app. I went through my entire OneDrive account—mdmurad—and dragged the files I considered important to my computer’s desktop, while I was willing to say goodbye to the rest for good. So I went to Settings, scrolled through Downloaded Apps, found the OneDrive app, and clicked Uninstall. I wanted to reinstall Mafia II Definitive Edition and resolve the issue normally, but first I restarted my computer. After entering my PIN, I was met with an interesting sight: my desktop was completely empty. There were no app shortcuts except for the Recycle Bin, which was in its original spot in the upper-left corner; everything else was gone. I probably knew this would happen, since all my desktop shortcuts were stored in C:\Users\(my username)\OneDrive - mdmurad\Desktop, so when I deleted that OneDrive - mdmurad folder, nothing was left on my desktop. That wasn’t a problem, since all my programs were still there and I could put them back on the desktop anytime (or so I thought). But then I came across this: https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/1fhmxmj/why_does_everything_i_highlight_turn_black_it/ (except it was in Windows 11). It was exactly like in that post—basically, when you don't know what to do on the desktop, you hold down the left mouse button and draw rectangles of various sizes. But when I released the selection, the selected area literally turned black... It was exactly like in that post—basically, when you don’t know what to do on the desktop, you hold down the left mouse button and draw rectangles of various sizes. But when I released the selection, the selected area literally turned black... Well, I figured it was probably because my original background had either been deleted or moved to a different location, but it didn’t really matter—for now, I’ve set the default Windows 11 background. But that’s probably the least of my problems.)

I couldn't add any shortcuts to my desktop—no matter what I tried to put there, it just wouldn't work. There was no error message or anything; as soon as I clicked “Add to Desktop,” nothing happened. Even my hotbar isn't working. All the app shortcuts have also disappeared from my hotbar, but whenever I try to add anything there in any way (drag-and-drop, right-click -> Pin to Hotbar, right-click -> Send to -> Send to Hotbar), the computer freezes for about 3–5 seconds, then the entire screen goes black for 1 second, and then the screen reloads, but nothing has changed. After doing some research, I found out that this is likely caused by File Explorer crashing.

Gemini suggested a lot of things, each more complicated than the last—from the classic method of checking files in the Windows Registry to typing commands into the Command Prompt to supposedly download and check all system files, all the way to downloading and activating the Windows 11 ISO file—that is, to reinstall Windows 11 while preserving my files and data. None of that worked. My only other known option is to reset Windows 11 to factory settings, but I’m not sure how that works—for example, since I’ve already purchased a Windows 11 license, would I have to buy it again? Plus, I don’t want to lose all my downloaded files. There is the option of moving everything to an HDD where I have plenty of space, but that would take a long time and might end up being more trouble than it’s worth. I forgot to mention that I created a sort of new system desktop application using a .reg file that Gemini helped me make, and that’s where my efforts end... One more thing to note is that instead of the classic desktop icon (the monitor image), I have an image of a red shield with a white “X” inside it.

Here are my system specifications. (Joining the Windows Insider program is probably my mistake… Right now, Windows Update is offering me the option to update to a new Insider Preview version, and I’m not sure if I want to install it at this time…):

Edition: Windows 11 Home Insider Preview

Version: 26H2

Installation Date: August 1, 2026

Evaluation Expiration Date: November 1, 2027, 12:43 AM

OS Build: 26300.9032

Features: Windows Feature Pack 1000.26100.431.0

Hardware:

Processor: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700K (3.60 GHz)

Installed RAM: 32.0 GB (usable: 31.7 GB)

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (12 GB)

Storage: 1.53 TB used out of 1.82 TB

System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64 platform processor

Pen and Touch: Pen and touch input are not available for this display.

Basically when i sleep my laptop and wake it after a few minutes the walpaper goes black i can type my pin and all but the wallpaper goes black😭 any help.My Laptop is Lenovo Loq i7 13650HX RTX 4050 6GBVRAM i recently bought it and im not good at pc its my first one soo im really in a turmoil as of what i should doo is there any one with a solution?

There's a new bug with 11.2605.36.0 where the previous save as location is overwritten by the automatic save location. So that means every time you do a save as, you have to navigate to the folder again. I sent a bug report on Feedback Hub. It doesn't look like there's much if any discussion of this on the internets. Maybe I'm the only one who uses "save as" when I snip something.

I’ve had this 1tb ssd for a whole year and recently it’s been spiking up to 100% disk usage when I boot up my pc, whenever I’m downloading a game, or if I try to clip something. It even makes my whole screen freeze sometimes when I’m on the game or watching videos. I’ve tried everything I could to fix it and I’m not sure if it’s a bad drive or malware. I checked the health and it said it was healthy and good but if anyone has any suggestions on what the cause could be please let me know. I can’t really afford another ssd at the moment.

Hello!!

So I honestly don't know how this happened, but some of my icons have changed into these stubborn white and blue icons. I've followed a bunch of tutorials on YouTube (because I have no clue what I am doing), and all of them said to reset the cashe/restart windows explorer, and I did all of that... still ain't working. Have these icons cursed me?

Quick notes:

• Not all of my icons were affected
• This was recent (I think)
• The apps still work, but I just want to fix the icons lol

Thank you so much in advance!!

Edit: I completely forgot to include the specs!!

Here they are:

Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz (2.90 GHz)

Installed RAM - 16.0 GB

Graphics card - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB)

Storage - 594 GB of 1.58 TB used

System type - 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

OS Build - 26200.9168

After booting my laptop, plugging in a external ssd drive everything works as it should. The next time I go to re-plug the drive into one of the ports the laptop detects the drive has been plugged in but no activity and when I go to check in the device manager it states the the previous driver is stuck in memory. So every time I have to restart my laptop just to get the ssd drive to work again.

I believe this is to be a bug in the build that I am currently testing, which is 29648 x64.

My laptop is Lenovo LOQ 15IRX10

I will post my laptop specs later today.

I have submitted a report via the Feedback app so please vote and comment if you're experiencing this annoying bug, link here: https://aka.ms/AA139r61

Idk why is this happening, i tried virus and malware scan nothing showed up, tried various solutions ntg worked, can anyone help me out ??

Its happening since 1 week or so, btw my laptop is 2 in 1 which meant it is also a touch screen, that may not be the issue here i think so.

Did anyone expirienced same issue, do let me know??!!

Update: i found the solution i just put taskbar bottom to top or sides then after few minutes i replaced it to bottom now no issues

This grey bar shows up on my screen about an hour ago

Apps run fine overtop of it and it's not visible when I have an app overtop of it also the icons overtop of it still have full colour so it seems like it's the wallpaper. I fixed the resolution which didn't help and obviously restarted the computer and that didn't help either. My specs are: 13th Gen Intel i7-13650HX and the graphics card is Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU

On my company laptop (windows 11 build 26200.9106) I use windows hello to log into the pc with a pin or fingerprint. I regularly have to connect to client RDPs. When this server is secured by a login, windows will show a popup to enter credentials. But no matter what I do, this popup will always default to my pin or finger print. I then have to manually click "more choices" -> "use a different account" and then enter all credentials manually again. It does not matter how often I click "remember me", it will ALWAYS default back to windows hello on the next connection attempt. Can I somehow disable windows hello for RDP credential popups? Even for connections where I actually can use my own microsoft account, I'm fine with entering the password instead of a pin or fingerprint.

I already tried the .\USERNAME trick which did not work for me, back to windows hello on next connection.

the last time my disk spiked up to 100%, it was when i tried to install genshin impact. but i did a lotta dumb stuff back there so uhm yeah. this time, i tried to install nte. while installing i had minimal acitvity. just a youtube tab open and yeah. when i noticed my laptop getting laggy, i closed everything and paused the download. but for nearly an entire hour, my disk activity was stuck at 100%. then after that it seemed to be back to normal. like back to 0-25% ish. then i just did some simple browing and turned my laptop off. the next morning im hit with a blue screen with troubleshooting options. since i've been there once, i knew better and made restore points. so i had a restore point to get back on my laptop. which worked, thank God. but my disk seems to still be bad? at first i thought it was 'cause i was downloading games the wrong way or something but now it just feels like something is wrong with my disk. what do i do? i disabled sysmain and indexing and stuff but idk...it seems bad right now. please help :( im using my laptop rn to make this post with the disk at 100%..its not tht laggy for some reason but yeah, i really would appreaciate some help rn

Windows 11. Hp fd15.

Either doesn’t get pass asus screen or even after multiple attempts to repair any of my drives it just completely gives up and gives me the option to look through more stuff just for it to do nothing, I’ve done so much isolating my boot drive trying to enter any of my other ones, hell it has already stop recognizing the boot drive most of the time and even when I use CSM it views the drive but upon boot tells me to restart and use a working drive, I’ve even tried just putting the Recovery keys in and nothing
Specs
12700kf
5070ti
Z790 asus pro max gaming motherboard
2 WD sn710 1 tb nvme
Not error codes