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description=Learn the basics of Windows 11 troubleshooting and what steps IT administrators should take to fix an unknown issue with a desktop.;

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ws 11 techtarget search enterprise desktop search the techtarget network login register informa techtarget explore the network virtual desktop mobile computing cio security information week an informa techtarget publication explore our brands search enterprise desktop alternative oses application management desktop management unified endpoint management windows os management other content news features tips webinars sponsored sites more answers conference guides definitions opinions podcasts quizzes tech accelerators tutorials videos follow home windows os and management getty images istockphoto tip article 1 of 5 part of troubleshooting common windows 11 issues troubleshooting the most common issues with windows 11 when windows 11 administrators encounter an issue with a desktop without a clear fix they should perform general troubleshooting steps in a specific order to minimize risk share this item with your network by brien posey published 25 apr 2025 when users experience problems with windows 11 administrators must quickly and effectively troubleshoot the issues so productivity isn t hindered but what should they do if their organization recently migrated to windows 11 and there isn t sufficient internal knowledge on troubleshooting the specific issue in this situation the best option for windows 11 troubleshooting is to take a problem agnostic approach there are sequential troubleshooting steps that you can use as a desktop administrator for nearly any windows 11 problem while these steps are not guaranteed to solve every possible problem they tend to resolve many of the most common windows 11 issues step 1 run windows update your first step is to run windows update in recent years windows update has gained a reputation as a tool for applying security patches to windows systems while windows update addresses security problems that isn t its only purpose microsoft frequently releases bug fixes that can be applied using this utility it s entirely possible that applying all the available updates resolves the problem figure 1 the windows update tab shows a complete up to date windows 11 system to check for available updates click on settings and select the windows update tab figure 1 then click the check for updates button step 2 make sure that the pc has sufficient storage space if running windows update fails to correct the problem your next step should be to verify that the pc has sufficient disk space in the past windows couldn t install updates if the machine ran low on disk space more recently however microsoft began reserving disk space specifically for use by windows update therefore a windows 11 pc could theoretically be low on disk space even if it allows you to install updates without issue fortunately it s easy to see how much disk space is available by opening file explorer and clicking on this pc windows shows you how much disk space is available on the system s c drive and other drives figure 2 figure 2 the disk storage available on the c drive of this windows 11 desktop is 1 37 tb there is no hard rule regarding how much free disk space you must have for windows 11 to function properly but as a rule of thumb you need to have at least a few gigabytes free if the pc doesn t have at least 10 gb free it may be worthwhile to free up additional disk space or upgrade to a larger hard disk at one time microsoft provided a disk cleanup tool that was accessible through file explorer although this tool still exists microsoft has moved it to the legacy control panel you can access the disk cleanup tool by right clicking the start button and clicking run when prompted enter the word control at the run prompt to open control panel click on system and security and then free up disk space in the windows tools section once you select a hard disk you are taken to a screen showing you how much space you can reclaim by removing unnecessary files figure 3 the interface also enables you to delete these files with a single click rather than requiring you to remove each file and folder manually figure 3 the disk cleanup utility for the c drive can identify potentially useless files and folders on windows 11 to free up disk storage you can also find a detailed description of how your system s storage space is used by opening file explorer and clicking this pc next right click on your hard disk and select the properties command from the shortcut menu when the disk s properties sheet is displayed select the general tab finally click the details button to see a breakdown of how your disk space is being used figure 4 figure 4 sorted into categories the details tab displays how much space is in use on the selected disk step 3 run system file checker the next thing to do if the problem persists is to run system file checker this command line tool verifies the integrity of all the windows system files if one or more system files have become corrupted or if some of the files are from the wrong version of windows then it can cause many problems to run system file checker click the start button and then the all button next click on windows tools when the windows tools screen opens right click the command prompt icon and select the run as administrator option from the shortcut menu this opens an elevated command prompt window you can run system file checker by entering the following command sfc scannow if problems are found system file checker shows you the compromised files and corrects them figure 5 figure 5 system file checker shows a perfect result with no critical files missing from the windows 11 desktop step 4 verify network functionality because windows 11 is designed to be connected to the internet various problems can occur without network connectivity you can usually tell if windows 11 has an internet connection by looking at the network icon in the taskbar if you suspect windows 11 may have lost its internet connectivity start troubleshooting by verifying that physical connectivity exists if you are using a wired connection then make sure that the network cable is securely attached to the pc if the pc uses a wi fi connection then take a moment to verify that it is connected to the correct access point the next step in troubleshooting network issues is to open a command prompt window and use some command line tools to validate the machine s network connection to get started right click on the start button and then click run when you arrive at the windows run prompt enter cmd this opens a windows command prompt window now enter the ping command followed by a favorite website this confirms whether the pc can communicate with the site it s worth noting that some websites block ping traffic but google com and espn com are known to allow ping tests if the ping test fails enter the following command ipconfig all this command shows you the machine s ip address configuration check that the ip address is not missing and does not fall into an unexpected subnet range these could be indications that the pc is failing to connect to a dynamic host configuration protocol server it is connecting to the wrong dhcp server or the dhcp server has run out of ip addresses to lease while you are at it check to make sure that the dns server configuration is correct if the ip address configuration is correct but connectivity is still not working you might try resetting the network connection to do so enter these commands ipconfig release ipconfig renew the first command releases the current ip address lease while the second command attempts to lease an address the same address is often used step 5 run a troubleshooter if nothing done so far has corrected the problem you should try running a troubleshooter windows 11 contains numerous built in troubleshooters that can automatically correct various system problems while it s true that these troubleshooters have a reputation for being ineffective they can still often detect and fix various issues to access the windows troubleshooters click on the settings icon when the settings page opens select the system tab then scroll through the list of options until you locate the troubleshoot option click on troubleshoot to open the troubleshoot page ignore the options presented on this page and instead click on other troubleshooters this takes you to a screen containing a long list of automated troubleshooters figure 6 figure 6 this is the list of native automatic troubleshooters that can look for specific issues within windows 11 now you need to scroll through the list of troubleshooters to locate the one that most closely matches the problem the pc is experiencing once you find a troubleshooter that seems like a good fit click the corresponding run button to launch the troubleshooter each troubleshooter works slightly differently but typically the troubleshooters use a wizard style interface to guide you through a mostly automated diagnostic and repair process at the end of this the troubleshooter usually gives you a diagnosis and tells you how it fixed the problem step 6 roll back the system if the windows troubleshooters do not correct the problem another possible option is to roll the entire system back to a previous point in time while this option does work well you can only use it if system protection is already enabled to determine if system protection is turned on right click the start button and click system when the system window appears click on advanced system settings this opens the system properties sheet select the system protection tab and ensure system protection is set to on figure 7 it s turned off by default so someone would have had to enable it it s also worth noting that system protection is enabled or disabled for each drive individually however rolling back the system to an earlier time usually only involves the c drive figure 7 the system protection feature shows that the rollback feature is available because it is turned on for the c drive the system protection tab has a system restore button near the top of the window this button is grayed out if system protection is currently disabled however if system protection is enabled and at least one restore point exists you can use the system restore button to revert your system to an earlier point in time of course you need this restore point to be at a time when the pc was working properly the system restore feature is not intended to act as a true backup substitute but it enables you to perform point in time recovery for windows 11 if you have both a point in time backup and a system restore point it s usually better to restore the backup rather than rely on system restore if the problems you are having are related to malware restoring a backup has a better chance of fixing the problem assuming that the backup was created before the infection step 7 fully reset or reinstall windows one final option to fix the problem is to reset the pc although this option is almost always successful it should be used as a last resort because it is destructive when you reset your pc the pc reinstalls windows from scratch at a minimum this means reinstalling all the applications this action can also erase data from the pc so you should back up your data first to reset windows 11 click settings and select the system tab now click the recovery option and the reset pc button figure 8 figure 8 the reset pc button lets you keep or remove your personal files but you should create a backup just in case upon clicking the reset pc button you see a screen asking if you want to keep your files but lose everything else or if you want to remove absolutely everything from the pc if you prefer not to perform a destructive update click the reinstall now button while the reinstall option might not fix every problem it is designed to preserve your apps files and settings rather than forcing you to reinstall everything from scratch even though the reinstall option is meant to be nondestructive it s always a good idea to make a backup first editor s note this article was originally published on jan 20 2023 and has been updated to include details on network functionality and ensure the information is up to date brien posey is a former 22 time microsoft mvp and a commercial astronaut candidate in his more than 30 years in it he has served as a lead network engineer for the u s department of defense and a network administrator for some of the largest insurance companies in america related resources decoupling application management from windows os video dig deeper on windows os and management how to open and manage windows disk management by helen searle jones how to repair windows 11 with an iso file by brien posey 7 steps to fix a black screen in windows 11 by robert sheldon how to access windows 11 bios configuration with hotkeys by robert sheldon part of troubleshooting common windows 11 issues article 1 of 5 up next troubleshooting the most common issues with windows 11 when windows 11 administrators encounter an issue with a desktop without a clear fix they should perform general troubleshooting steps in a specific order to minimize risk 5 steps to identify and fix windows 11 performance issues windows 11 administrators may encounter numerous desktops with varying performance issues follow these steps to identify the root cause of the performance issues and fix them how to fix windows 11 when secure boot and tpm don t work when organizations consider upgrading to windows 11 they ll encounter several unique requirements including tpm 2 0 uefi and secure boot learn how to handle these requirements 4 steps to troubleshoot windows 11 network issues when it administrators encounter problems with a windows 11 network connection they have plenty of options to fix the issue learn the steps to troubleshoot these issues how windows 11 print management can fix printer issues it admins can use print management in windows 11 to manage all printers connected to a device troubleshoot problems and restart devices and servers sponsored news can backups scale the vanishing backup window exagrid backup performance solved exagrid scale out vs scale up why backup storage architecture matters exagrid see more related content how to perform a windows 11 iso file install search enterprise desktop 10 troubleshooting steps for when windows update is search enterprise desktop 5 ways to speed up windows 10 performance search enterprise desktop latest techtarget resources virtual desktop mobile computing cio security search virtual desktop how to fix keyboard connection issues on a remote desktop when a remote desktop keyboard stops responding it admins should check local hardware client settings keyboard layout 6 steps for when remote desktop credentials are not working when remote desktop credentials fail admins should verify account format cached credentials lockout status access permissions what to do when a pc can t run windows 11 on hyper v windows 11 vms can fail to install in hyper v u...