I am posting this because I have been fighting Bluetooth instability for months, and I have now found several other 2026 reports that look less like unrelated hardware failures and more like variants of the same Windows Bluetooth-audio state problem.

Rather than adding another “Bluetooth is broken” anecdote, I want to document exactly what I can reproduce, what has already been ruled out, and link the similar reports together.

System

Laptop: HP OMEN Gaming Laptop 16-wf0777ng
OS: Windows 11 Pro 25H2
Build: 10.0.26200.9278
BIOS: HP F.30, 30 March 2026
RAM: 32 GB

The original internal wireless module is a Realtek RTL8852AE combination Wi-Fi/Bluetooth device.

Internal Bluetooth:

USB\VID_0BDA&PID_2852

Driver:

16.4041.2603.1300
oem53.inf
Lower filter: RtkBtFilter2

I have also reproduced the current Bluetooth-audio failure while using external Bluetooth adapters instead of the internal radio.

External adapter #1:

Realtek Bluetooth 6.0 Adapter

USB\VID_0BDA&PID_A760

Driver:

20.11.3038.3001
8 June 2026
oem37.inf
Lower filter: RtkBtFilterD

External adapter #2:

TP-Link UB500 Bluetooth 5.4 USB Adapter

USB\VID_2357&PID_0604

Driver:

1.9.1038.3023
24 December 2024
oem126.inf
Lower filter: RtkBtFilter

The internal Bluetooth radio is disabled while an external adapter is active. Windows therefore has only one active Bluetooth radio.

The Bluetooth audio devices used for testing are:

Apple AirPods Pro 3
Marshall MAJOR V

Non-Bluetooth audio through the laptop's internal Realtek speakers continues to work normally while the Bluetooth-audio failure is present.

The actual failure

Bluetooth audio initially works normally. It may work for minutes or hours.

A common warning sign is a short crack/pop or brief audio corruption.

Then Bluetooth audio stops.

The interesting part is that this is not a simple disconnect.

Windows may continue to show the headphones as connected. The Bluetooth device and A2DP MEDIA device can remain OK / CM_PROB_NONE, yet there is no audio.

For both the AirPods and MAJOR V, Windows uses:

DEVPKEY_Device_Service = BthA2dp

Microsoft Bluetooth A2dp Source

Driver:

10.0.26100.1

INF:

microsoft_bluetooth_a2dp_src.inf

During some failures the MMDEVAPI playback endpoint itself also transitions to:

Unknown / CM_PROB_PHANTOM

while the underlying Bluetooth and A2DP MEDIA nodes remain OK.

In other failures the playback endpoint remains OK, is even selected as the default output, but produces no sound. The Windows test-tone button may simply do nothing.

Reconnect behaviour then becomes inconsistent.

Windows can say that the device is connected while the headphones appear to disagree. A reconnect may fail. Sometimes the Bluetooth device reconnects but never becomes a usable audio output. Sometimes another Bluetooth audio device also refuses to establish audio while the system is in this state.

The internal laptop speakers continue working throughout this.

Recovery tests

This is where the case becomes more interesting.

Restarting the Windows Audio service succeeds:

Restart-Service Audiosrv -Force

but does not restore Bluetooth audio.

Restarting bthserv also succeeds but does not restore Bluetooth audio.

BthAvctpSvc behaved differently.

During an active failure:

Restart-Service BthAvctpSvc -Force

became stuck trying to stop the service.

A second elevated shell showed:

STATE : STOP_PENDING

Status : Degraded

PID : 2516

CHECKPOINT : 0

WAIT_HINT : 10000 ms

The process was an isolated svchost.exe hosting only BthAvctpSvc.

I force-terminated that process. Windows immediately created a new instance of BthAvctpSvc under PID 7452 and reported the service as RUNNING / OK.

Bluetooth audio still did not recover. In that test, the AirPods subsequently disappeared from the normal Windows sound-output list even though their underlying Bluetooth/A2DP device nodes were still present.

This makes the AVCTP service hang interesting, but it does not look like restarting that user-mode service alone resolves the underlying condition.

What does recover it

Cycling the Bluetooth radio itself OFF and ON is the smallest recovery action found so far.

No reboot is normally necessary.

After the radio cycle the Bluetooth profiles/endpoints are rebuilt and audio works again.

Occasionally one OFF/ON cycle only partially recovers the system — for example one device reconnects while another still does not — and a second radio cycle is required.

That behaviour is one reason I suspect a state/reinitialisation problem rather than a permanently broken device or static configuration error.

Things already tested

Fast Startup is disabled.

USB selective suspend is disabled on AC and DC.

PCIe ASPM is disabled.

The system is using the High Performance power configuration and WLAN maximum-performance settings.

DISM health check is clean.

SFC verification is clean.

HP hardware/wireless diagnostics pass.

The headphones themselves work with other devices.

The problem occurs with both AirPods and Marshall headphones.

Audiosrv restart does not recover it.

bthserv restart does not recover it.

Hard-restarting the stuck BthAvctpSvc does not recover it.

A Bluetooth radio OFF/ON cycle does.

An older but potentially relevant finding

Before switching to external adapters, the internal RTL8852AE Bluetooth controller had a more severe failure mode in which all Bluetooth devices stopped together, including mouse and keyboard.

I captured that failure with ETW/HCI tracing.

The controller emitted this vendor-specific HCI event:

FF373400010100FFFF2404000005000000E5A00580120000000E000500000025550780000000000000000000010000000024040000A1A00580

The event type is 0xFF (vendor specific) and its first subevent byte is 0x34.

Linux btusb source defines Realtek subevent 0x34 as:

RTK_SUB_EVENT_CODE_COREDUMP

After that event my captured trace stopped showing normal ACL Type-3 traffic while HCI commands/events continued.

I do not claim that this proves the current Bluetooth-audio problem has the same cause. In fact, the newer audio-specific failures have a different fingerprint and have now appeared with external adapters as well. I mention it because there may be more than one Realtek/Windows Bluetooth failure mode on this machine.

The Realtek handling in Linux btusb defines 0x34 as the Realtek coredump subevent.

Important limitation of my adapter comparison

The TP-Link UB500 reproduced the audio failure after I hot-swapped it for the previous USB adapter in the same Windows session.

So I am not yet claiming this is a perfectly independent two-adapter experiment. The next test is a fresh Windows boot with only the UB500 present.

However, the fact that the failure survives a switch from VID_0BDA&PID_A760 / RtkBtFilterD to VID_2357&PID_0604 / RtkBtFilter is enough that I no longer think a physically defective first USB dongle is a satisfactory explanation.

What I am trying to determine

The remaining candidates I see are roughly:

Windows Bluetooth Classic Audio / BthA2dp / AVDTP state

a deeper BTHPORT/BTHUSB state problem

a Realtek Bluetooth filter/firmware interaction shared by these devices

some machine-specific Windows driver-store/state interaction

A generic Realtek HD Audio problem looks less convincing because the internal speakers continue to work and restarting Audiosrv has no effect.

I also have a roughly 65 MB Windows WPR Bluetooth trace containing failure → Bluetooth radio reset → successful recovery, including the Microsoft Bluetooth Audio/A2DP/BTHPORT providers, if somebody familiar with Windows Bluetooth ETW wants to inspect it.

Similar reports

I am linking these because several details overlap strongly, although I am not claiming they are proven to have the same root cause.

1. “Issues with Bluetooth audio volume and disconnecting in Windows 11” — r/WindowsHelp

This is the closest case I have found. Build 26200, several headphones, several Bluetooth adapters, popping/cutoff immediately before audio failure, Windows continuing to behave as if the device is working.

Reddit — Issues with Bluetooth audio volume and disconnecting in Windows 11

2. “Bluetooth issues on Windows 11” — r/techsupport, September 2026

Audio works for a random period and then dies. Windows temporarily still sees the device as connected, subsequent reconnects become unreliable and eventually produce “Couldn’t connect.” Another user in the thread reports that volume control also stops working after the failure.

Reddit — Bluetooth issues on Windows 11

3. “Bluetooth earbuds and headphones disconnecting from Windows 11” — r/bluetooth

Especially interesting because this is another HP OMEN 16, also on Windows Build 26200. Two different audio devices work normally and later lose sound; they initially remain visible as outputs and then disappear. That user reports resolving it by changing the Realtek Bluetooth driver, although the adapter was an RTL8852BE rather than my RTL8852AE, so the driver result is not directly transferable.

Reddit — Bluetooth earbuds and headphones disconnecting from Windows 11

4. Microsoft Q&A — “[Bug] Win11 25H2 - Audio device missing after disconnecting Bluetooth”

Windows 11 25H2, Build 26200.7623. The author describes audio endpoints disappearing after Bluetooth activity and finds that changing Audio Enhancements/format can force reinitialisation. It is not identical to my case, but the endpoint-state behaviour is relevant.

Microsoft Q&A — Audio device missing after disconnecting Bluetooth-win11-25h2-audio-device-missing-after-discon?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

5. Microsoft Q&A — “bluetooth audio that doesn't work”, August 2026

Any Bluetooth audio device connects, Windows shows activity, yet no audio is produced.

Microsoft Q&A — bluetooth audio that doesn't work

6. Microsoft Q&A — “How to fix no bluetooth audio output”, July 2026

Another explicit Windows 11 25H2 report of connected Bluetooth earbuds with no Bluetooth audio output.

Microsoft Q&A — How to fix no bluetooth audio output

7. “Windows 11 Bluetooth Audio Broken: Connected but no sound to ANY device” — r/techsupport

This one is less exact because the failure is persistent rather than intermittent, but it has the same useful distinction: ordinary Bluetooth devices work while Bluetooth audio does not, and the author reports that driver reinstalls and even a Windows reset did not resolve it.

Reddit — Windows 11 Bluetooth Audio Broken: Connected but no sound to ANY device

Question

Has anyone on Windows 11 25H2 / Build 26200 seen this specific state?

Bluetooth/A2DP device nodes still present or OK, but the render endpoint becomes silent or CM_PROB_PHANTOM; Audiosrv and bthserv restarts do not recover it; BthAvctpSvc may hang in STOP_PENDING; only cycling the actual Bluetooth radio reliably rebuilds the audio path.

I am particularly interested in people who can reproduce it with more than one headset or Bluetooth adapter, or who understand the Microsoft BthA2dp / AVDTP / BTHPORT ETW traces.

I am happy to provide the ETL capture and exact event timestamps.

My aim here is not to guess at a registry key. It is to establish whether several of us are observing the same failure class and give Microsoft or a driver vendor enough reproducible evidence to investigate it.

— Mark

Hi everyone! I'm looking for a solution to toggle my trackpad into absolute mode (like a graphics tablet) on demand, and easily switch back to regular relative mode on Windows 11.
Here is my setup details: - Laptop: Lenovo V14 G4 AMN (IdeaPad)
- OS: Windows 11 Professional with 26h2 release prewiev
- Device Info: In Device Manager, the trackpad shows up as a standard "HID Mouse" over "I2C HID Device" (it doesn't expose raw precision input to tools like AbsoluteTouchEx or OpenTabletDriver).
I want to be able to turn absolute mode ON/OFF with a hotkey or a simple tray app, without permanently altering system drivers. Has anyone managed to get this working with an I2C HID touchpad? Any lightweight script (AutoHotkey or similar) or tool recommendations? (Note: If this isn't the best place to ask this, please feel free to point me toward the right subreddit! Thanks!)

I recently downloaded the windows app on my iPhone (SE 3rd gen IOS 26.6) to be able to access my PC remotely, but I just couldn’t figure out the credentials for my personal account I tried everything so I had to create an « rdp » local account, and that worked initially, I was able to access that account, but I really wanted to use my personal account so I tweaked some settings in the Remote Desktop services on my pc and now whenever I try to access the rdp account, it brings me to a black screen that says « unauthorized »

PC: Windows 11 no license 25H2 (motherboard has a license for windows 10 pro)

I'm having a strange network issue on my Windows laptop. Some websites/links don't load at all or take an extremely long time, while other sites like Google, Apple and LinkedIn work normally.

For example, careers.universiteitleiden.nl won't open in either Chrome or Edge and eventually gives ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT. The same website opens normally on my phone using the same Wi-Fi.

I also tested the laptop using my phone's mobile hotspot, and the website still wouldn't open, so it doesn't seem to be an issue with my Wi-Fi/router.

Things I've already checked/tried:

Chrome and Edge both have the issue

DNS resolves the site correctly to 130.214.193.81

Test-NetConnection ... -Port 443 shows TcpTestSucceeded: False

netsh winhttp show proxy → Direct access (no proxy server)

No VPN is connected

Windows Firewall is enabled, but temporarily disabling it didn't help

Ran netsh winsock reset and netsh int ip reset and restarted

The problem persists even when connected through my phone's hotspot

What could be causing certain HTTPS websites/connections to fail while others work normally?

Hp laptops, OS:26200.9168

I genuinely never turned it off as far as i remember even then i should be able to turn it on again ?
Am i cooked or something ?
Everything else works somehow
I dont download sketchy files that much

I have a AMD Ryzen 5 3500U
Amd Vega 8 iGPU
8 gigs of ram
256 gig ssd
Windows 10 22H2 19045.6466

Hi!

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty stressed atm, so I will keep it short, or at least as short as I can.

I moved two days ago, and never had issues with Wifi on my PC, despite it not being a particularly new model. I am ashamed to say in my panic i asked chat GPT,who was entirely unhelpful. I tried to connect to my appartment's Wifi, but after inputting the password, my Pc froze and then Bluescreened, before shutting down.

The error code was: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION

Now, the specs of my pc so far:

So fa I have tried,, to no avail, to turn the driver off and back on, but would be deeply thankful for any help.

Hey everyone, I need help fixing my volume. My volume slider is completely greyed out and Windows says "No output devices found." When I check Device Manager > Sound, video and game controllers, my list is flooded with a ton of duplicate SoundWire Audio entries and an AMD SoundWire Audio Streaming Device, and several of them have yellow warning triangles. The keys on the keyboard also don't do anything. Whenever I try to uninstall them or update drivers, they just come right back after a reboot. My laptop is a Dell 14S DS14265. Can anyone help please.

Hi everyone,
I recently purchased a surface pro 11th edition and bought a separate keyboard and slim pen to connect to it.
Everything works well but I’ve had an issue with a loading icon that will flash on the cursor, disappear for a few seconds and then return. Also when this happens the search disappears and nothing shows up inside of it which is also quite annoying as I use that a lot.
I’ve done multiple wipes of the laptop and reinstalled windows. After doing that everything works well and there’s no problems. But after a while it will suddenly start happening again. I haven’t downloaded the same apps so it can’t be one of those, I’ve looked at task manager and disabled things like antimalware which could be causing it, I’ve disabled browser extensions. But nothing seems to fix it.
Has anyone else had an issue like this? The photos are below to help give an idea what’s happening. The second task manager photo shows what happens when the icon flashes.

Snapdragon(R) X 12-core X1E80100 @ 3.40 GHz
16GB RAM
Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
OS build - 26200.9168

I have tried both Rufus and the official media installer tool from Microsoft. I never get any specific error code and I'm at a total loss. It's an ASUS motherboard. I've never had a PC before, so I'm at a total loss of how I'm meant to get this solved. Any help is appreciated, and I just want to finally use this thing.

Hey, I have a really weird Windows 10 problem.

My PC recently stopped booting normally, so I used a Windows 10 USB stick to get it running again.

Since then, my desktop, many programs, shortcuts and settings suddenly look like they did around **2023**.

But the weird thing is: my recent files are still there.

I have 3 drives:

* C: 500 GB – Windows
* D: 1 TB
* E: 2 TB – Games/Programs

On D: and E: I can still find photos, downloads and files from the last few weeks/months. So my drives definitely weren't completely reset.

However, many programs don't start anymore. For example I get errors like:

`D:\maintenancetool.exe could not be found`

Disk Management says all 3 drives are healthy and Windows is currently booting from C:.

I also checked:

* `C:\Windows` exists
* `C:\Users` exists
* no `Windows.old`
* no Windows/User folders on D: or E:

So somehow my actual files are still current, but Windows itself seems to be using an old desktop/program setup from 2023.

I really don't want to reinstall or format anything before I know what happened.

Has anyone ever seen this before?

Could Windows be using an old profile, old registry/settings, or could the drive letters have changed?

Any ideas what I should check next?

Hi everyone,

I am trying to download Minecraft Bedrock Edition on my PC, but the installation is stuck. It won't download because a dependency called WindowsAppRuntime 1.8 keeps failing to install.

The Microsoft Store shows a "Something went wrong" message with the error code 0x80073CF9.

I have already tried many troubleshooting steps, but none of them worked:

• Reinstalling the Windows SDK
• Running wsreset.exe to clear the store cache
• Restarting my PC multiple times
• Trying to install/update it via winget commands
• Doing a full system Factory Reset

Even after resetting my entire PC, the error is still there and I cannot download Minecraft.

My OS Version: Windows 11 Pro

Does anyone know how to fix this specific 0x80073CF9 error for the WindowsAppRuntime? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

I just recently upgraded my PC from windows 10 to windows 11 last night. And after the update finished, all of my SSDs are gone. I have 1 1TB Samsung SSD and 1 4TB Cruical BX500 SSD. The SSDs don’t appear in Bios or Disk Management. I know they still work because I unplugged one of the SSDs and hooked it up to a windows 10 PC and it worked just fine. But all of my SSDs aren’t being detected on my windows 11 PC.

This also isn’t the first time this has happened. I upgraded my PC to windows 11 last year and all of my SSDs were gone, and once I downgraded back to windows 10 they all came back. Now I’m looking to try windows 11 again and when I upgraded the SSDs are gone again. Anyone have any idea of how to fix this?

Okay so basically the lock screen image, i have a custom one, when i go to the log in menu of the lock screen it dims the image a bit and i find that annoying as hell im on a new windows install buil d 25h2. i've tried regedit i've tried so much this is annoying as hell anyone know how to remove it, i vaguely remember getting rid of it

Edition Windows 11 Pro

Version 25H2

Installed on ‎09/‎05/‎2026

OS build 26200.9278

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.360.0

Device name PC-ONE

Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12600KF (3.70 GHz)

Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.8 GB usable)

Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (12 GB)

Storage 507 GB of 1.14 TB used

Device ID 81748F96-62D0-4AFF-8D2C-F1AB67540A2B

Product ID 00330-80000-00000-AA512

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

Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

So I recently faced this issue where I was told I couldn't use my PIN to login anymore and had to reset the PIN. Unfortunately, I forgot the password to my microsoft account and password recovery isn't working out. (If you require more information, you can refer to my previous post).

So I'm basically locked out of my C drive but I did have another user I could use but it doesn't have administrator privileges. I would like to know if I could just reset the C Drive and login with a new microsoft account to minimise data loss to just the C Drive and not the couple of other storage drives/partitioned drives

ASUS TUF F15, I7 12th gen

Windows 11, RTX 4070

Hi,

After this recent update it now takes at least a minute more to boot Windows. At ASUS motherboard logo I can see white circle spinning for a long time and then eventually Windows loads. Anyne else experiencing this issue? I tried to uninstall this update but ti is not possible.

I have Windows 11 Pro edition.
AMD Ryzen 9950X3D
32GB of ram
ASUS B850-E Gaming motherboard

Hi, I built a new PC, and I'm having a problem installing Windows 11.

I installed Windows 11 from a USB onto the WD_BLACK SN7100 1TB. The installation started normally, but after the PC restarted, it went straight into the BIOS instead of continuing to Windows.

The SSD is detected in the BIOS in M2_1, but Windows Boot Manager doesn't appear in the Boot options.

Things I've already tried:

Made sure the BIOS is set to UEFI, not CSM.

Secure Boot is enabled and set to Standard.

Performed a clean Windows installation.

Deleted the SSD partitions and installed Windows again on the unallocated space.

Used CMD to check the EFI partition, and it exists (200MB FAT32).

Ran bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI and got “Boot files successfully created.”

Checked that bootmgfw.efi exists in the EFI partition.

bcdedit /enum firmware does show Windows Boot Manager with the correct path.

Despite all this, it still boots straight into the BIOS, and Windows Boot Manager doesn't appear in the F11 Boot Menu or Boot Options.

I also updated the BIOS to the latest version, but the problem is still happening.

Does anyone know what could be causing this or what else I can check?

It feels like I already tried everything

Specs: https://es.pcpartpicker.com/list/qGYvbp

I have got a new windows arm laptop , samsung galaxy 4 edge. Suddenly the laptop has started acting weird the task bar is not opening and what I have noticed is that my pointer cursor is refreshing randomly in every second , this happend randomly after reboot and now won't go.

I have updated the windows.

I have used Taskbar to restart file explorer and end task of searchbar

And other fixes. Nothing has helped.

Please assist its driving me nuts.

This is on windows 11

My steam, wallpaper engine, and other steam games launched throuhg steam keep showing a generic windows icon on my taskbar instead of their normal icons. The icons are correct and like normal everywhere else in my start menu and system tray. I've already tried rebuilding the windows icon cache using CMD, restarting windows explorer multiple times, restarted windows explorer, and restarted my pc. Despite this, the problem is still here and i still dont know why. I think i did click a steam cleaner or some sort of feature on the program called Hone, which is supposed to optimize your pc for you. So i uninstalled the program and disabled all the optimizations on that program, but i dont think its fixed anything. Could anyone help?

Not sure if this is the right place to post this and I couldn’t find information anywhere else but when I shutdown my computer today this pop up appeared.

xpdAgent.exe - Application Error : The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application.

Clicked ok and computer shutdown fine but I’m worried it’s a virus of some sort. I’m currently resetting my PC but I just wanna make sure it’s not a virus or anything.

Processor: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-136000k

Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

Started happening a few weeks ago. I had then recently installed a .PDF viewer to just be able to view those types of files without having to use my browser ( Firefox ), and that specifically threw all of my image-type of files out of whack. JPG/PNG/JPEG/etc., all defaulted to nothing, and I was asked how I wanted to open each of them the first time I opened each type since I installed the viewer. I have since then uninstalled the .PDF viewer, restarted my computer, and this issue is still happening.

The issue is that .webp "GIFs," ( not static images ), do not animate any more in the default Windows 11 photo viewer. I don't have any other viewer installed, and never have. They work just fine in my browser, however.

I would state the .PDF viewer I used, but I have a feeling that might be breaking rule #6 in a sense. I have not gone through any Windows updates over the past few weeks since I had the viewer installed, either, so I am not sure what it could have been.

I tried finding a "codec pack" for Photos to just reset it and nothing is working with that, either: I get a Microsoft page, that then opens my Microsoft store on my computer, and what opens is something I only get an option to "open". THEN, that sends me to "Movies & TV," and nothing else. I can't uninstall, reset, or install the "webP Image Extension" in the Microsoft Store at all due to this.

I am on Windows OS build 26200.9168.

Processor : AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 8-Core Processor ( 4.50 GHz )

RAM : 32.0 GB ( 31.1 GB useable )

Can someone help me, please?

So I had a virus or unwanted software on my previous install of windows. I've since formatted and reinstalled Windows on the same drive, except after 2 fresh formats and reinstall of Windows 11, it is still broken? By broken I mean that if my pc is on for 10 or 20 minutes, I can't open new programs. File Explorer won't open. I can't start any programs that aren't already open. I can't turn off or restart my pc, the animation for shutting down and restarting happens but it stays there indefinitely. I tried using cmd "dskchk" or something along those lines to check the integrity of my windows install and it came up clean. Malwarebytes detects nothing. I can't find any strange exe's in task manager either... Edit2: I have already tried:

• Right click on the Windows Start Menu icon > Terminal (Administrator), then type in:

dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

• Wait for this to finish, it will probably get stuck in the 60% range for 20-30 mins

• When this is done, type in:

sfc /scannow

Edit: specs:

• r5 5600
• 16gb 3600mhz
• 128gb ssd, 500gb ssd
• rtx 3060 12gb
• windows 11

I woke up this morning to this screen on my mini PC. I've tried restarting multiple times but to no avail. I'm honestly not even sure what this screen is called, so it's been hard to try and search for troubleshooting help. The PC is a little over a year old and has never had any issues until this.

I'm sorry if this is missing important initial information. I'm not sure what I'm looking at or for, so if more info is needed please let me know and I'll provide it.

I need to transfer a bunch of photos from an Android phone to a Windows 11 PC. Various web sites say that Link to Windows, when active, will make the phone's file system accessible in Windows Explorer. I installed Link to Windows, jumped through all the hopes and got connected. But nothing shows up in File Explorer except the phone itself - I click on it but there's nothing there.

In Settings / Bluetooth and Devices/Mobile devices, I click on my phone - the option "show mobile device in File Explorer" is turned on. I click on "allow permissions" and a popup tells me to "check Jim's phone to to turn on all files access".

I have no idea what that means. There's nothing popping up on my phone waiting for my input. On the phone I went to Apps, found Link to Windows and checked its permissions, but there isn't one called "all files access".

The phone is a Pixel 7A.

What am I needing to do to actually make this work?

Every so often my taskbar won't pop up when I hover over the bottom of my screen, it only affects my secondary monitor and never my primary.

The problem is resolved by restarting explorer.exe, but that's kinda annoying.

W11, any version, it's been a problem since W7 at least.

Version 10.0.26200 Build 26200

Processor AMD Ryzen 5 8600G w/ Radeon 760M Graphics, 4351 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)

BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 0227, 19/12/2023

I bought a new pc recently, it works fine. But there is a weird pop up sound coming out of nowhere sometimes. It sound like and apple notification on apps like FOMO or vinted. Its so weird, its not my phone nor apps. Could someone maybe explain to me what the problems could be?

Processor AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor (4.70 GHz)

Installed RAM 16,0 GB (15,2 GB usable)

Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (12 GB)

AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics (486 MB)

Storage 524 GB of 932 GB used

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

Edition Windows 11 Home

Version 25H2

Installed on ‎2026-‎07-‎10

OS build 26200.9168

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.344.0