What to Do When Windows 10 Action Center Won't Open

A failure of the Action Center in Windows 10 to load suggests a non-trivial system glitch that requires immediate treatment to avoid risking Windows destabilizing completely.

How to Fix It When Windows 10 Action Center Won't Open

1. Restart Windows Explorer. Launch Task Manager, right-click the Windows Explorer process, then select Restart.

2. Reboot your computer. Sometimes a simple reboot is all that's needed to get things working again.

3. Perform a Disk Cleanup. This process will not only free up space on your hard drive, but it can also remove a temporary file that might be causing the problem. When Windows 10 runs low on both memory and disk space, the operating system can slow significantly as critical processes try, and fail, to complete.

   The window will close automatically after the system clean up is done, but the files won't be completely removed from your device until the next restart.

4. Disable and re-enable Action Center. Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Turn system icons on or off, then select the Action Center toggle to turn it off and on.

5. Scan the drive. Launch Command Prompt as an administrator and run the Check Disk, as well as the System File Checker and the Deployment Image Servicing and Management command to scan your hard disk for errors.

   Each command will take some time to run, depending on the size of your hard drive and the resources from your computer. Wait for each command to finish before running the next command.

6. Rename the Usrclass File.

   1. Launch File Explorer and open either of the following paths: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows or C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows
   2. Locate the Usrclass.dat file and rename it to UsrClass.old.dat.
   3. Restart your PC.

   If you are unable to locate this file, verify you have the show hidden files option enabled. Additionally, this solution removes all tiles from the Start Menu and changes your theme to the High Contrast theme, so you’ll have to revert it later.

7. Re-register the Action Center. Press Win+S and search for Windows PowerShell. Launch PowerShell as an administrator and execute the following command:

   Get-AppxPackage | % { Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppxManifest.xml" -verbose }
   
   

   
   

   The command takes several minutes to complete. Don't exit while it's processing, which means don't move on to the next step to reboot to Safe Mode. Wait until PowerShell quits updating with information; it'll show something like what it did before you executed the command, like PS C:\Users\Jon>.
   

8. Restart Windows in Safe Mode. To access Safe Mode, access the Startup Settings menu, which can be accessed through the Advanced Startup Options.

9. Try a System Restore. If none of the previous steps work, perform a System Restore. Before you proceed, record a Restore Point.

   Collect a backup of your data prior to doing a system restore. Additionally, the restore point must be created prior to when Action Center stopped working. Otherwise, this will not address the problem.

10. Reset your PC. You'll wipe the whole device. Windows 10 resets in three ways — keep your files, remove everything, or do a Factory Reset.