Reset Quick Settings in Windows 11

What is Quick Settings?

Quick Settings is the menu in the bottom-right corner of the taskbar 🖥️. It holds toggles for Wi-Fi 📶, Bluetooth 🔷, volume, and screen brightness. To open it, click the network, sound, or battery icons next to the clock, or press Win+A.

Windows 11 22H2 and later split this corner into two panels:

• Notification Center (open it by pressing Win + N)
• Quick Settings (open it by pressing Win + A)

Quick Settings is where the common toggles for hardware and network controls live, such as:

• Volume
• Screen Brightness
• Wi-Fi 📶
• Bluetooth 🔷
• Focus Assist (to reduce distractions)

A desktop PC with no Bluetooth 🔷 adapter, for example, won’t list Bluetooth, and brightness usually appears only on laptops and some monitors. Don’t treat a missing button as a fault until you’ve checked that.

Media playing in apps like Spotify or Microsoft Edge appears in controls directly above Quick Settings.

Why Reset Quick Settings?

The reset returns the panel to its default layout. That also means any buttons you added, removed, or rearranged will go back to their default positions.

Example of Quick Settings in 🪟 Windows 11

How to Reset Quick Settings

When icons disappear or stop working, restart the Windows Explorer process from Command Prompt. This clears out glitches and brings back missing buttons like Wi-Fi or volume without restarting your whole computer. The steps work the same on Windows 11 Home and Pro.

1. Press Windows key + R on your keyboard. The Run box opens in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
2. Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter. This opens Command Prompt as an administrator. If a permission prompt appears, click Yes. If you are signed in with a standard account, you will need to enter an administrator's password. A black Command Prompt window should now be open.
3. In the Command Prompt window, type or copy and paste the following commands one by one, pressing Enter after each:
   REG DELETE "HKCU\Control Panel\Quick Actions" /F taskkill /f /im explorer.exe start explorer.exe
   
4. Wait a few seconds after the last command. The taskbar and desktop icons will vanish and then come back. This is normal, because Explorer is restarting.
5. Click the network, sound, or battery icons, or press Windows key + A, to open Quick Settings and check that it works.

These commands perform specific system actions:

• Delete the settings that control your Quick Settings layout.
• Close the Windows Explorer (the part of Windows that shows your desktop and taskbar).
• Restart Windows Explorer to apply the changes.

Once these steps finish, Quick Settings comes back with its default layout and should respond normally.

If the taskbar does not come back after a few seconds, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, click Run new task, and run the last command from the list above, the one that restarts Explorer. A lighter alternative for a simple freeze is to open Task Manager, find Windows Explorer on the Processes tab, right-click it, and choose Restart.

To undo the reset, there is nothing to restore. The deleted settings are recreated with defaults. To rebuild your own layout, open Quick Settings, click the pencil (Edit quick settings) icon, and add, remove, or reorder buttons as you like. If the problem comes back, restart the PC once, then run Windows Update, since Quick Settings glitches are often fixed in cumulative updates.

Need More Help?

You can find more Windows 11 tutorials and documentation on the official Microsoft support page: Microsoft Windows Support