How to Restore a Missing Settings Icon in Windows 10 & 11’s Start Menu
The Windows Start menu is like a roadmap to the operating system, providing you with information about all the apps, programs, and files in the system. While the Start menu typically works well silently in the background, there are times when it can act up, causing some features to disappear.
One of the most common bugs with Windows 10 and 11’s Start menu is the Settings icon mysteriously disappearing. This can be caused due to a variety of reasons such as an outdated system, a corruption error within the system, and incorrect Start menu settings. The following are four troubleshooting methods you can try if you run into this issue.
1. Uninstall the Latest Update
If the Settings icon has disappeared from your Start menu, then the first thing that should do is to check if that happened after installing a system update. There are times when a system update causes Windows to lose some functionality or cause issues within the system.
The easiest way to fix the issue is to uninstall the latest installed update and then keep it from installing again. Below, we have listed the steps of uninstalling updates via the Control Panel. If you are not comfortable using the Control Panel, you can alsouninstall updates via Windows Settings app.
Once the update is complete, it’s possible to hide it to prevent it from installing using the Show or hide updates tool.
You can now restart your PC and check if the Settings icon is back in the Start menu.
2. Modify the Start Menu Settings
Another fix that you can try is modifying the settings of the Start menu and enabling the Settings icon from there. This fix helped quite a few users fix the issue, which is why we recommend you give it a shot.
Here is what you need to do:
3. Pin Settings to the Start Menu
Another way to get the Settings icon back on the Start menu is to pin it manually. you could pin the Settings icon on both the Start menu and taskbar for easy access.
That’s it! Hopefully, you will now be able to see the Settings icon in the Start menu like before.
4. Restore a Previous Windows State
If the steps mentioned above have not worked for you, then you can try using the System Restore utility to restore Windows to a previous working state.
The System Restore utility works by creating restore points in Windows at different times. These points are typically created before you attempt to perform a critical operation such as installing system updates or making changes within the Registry Editor. You have the option tocreate restore points manuallyas well.
This is done so that users can go back to a previous working state to restore the system’s functionality if anything goes wrong during the process.
The restore points are stored in the Restore utility and in this method, we will be using the most recent restore point to go back to a Windows state where the settings icon issue was not present.
Here is how it’s possible to proceed:
If your system does not have any restore points, then you can tryswitching to a different user profileand check if the issue is there as well. If not, you can continue using the second profile till Microsoft releases an official fix.
Get the Settings Icon Back
Hopefully, one of the methods above will help you get the Settings icon back successfully. If all fails, you can try resetting the Start menu to its default state and check if doing so helps you with the problem.
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