When you move your cursor to the Charms bar in Windows 8 or 8.1, you will see a gear icon which represents “Settings“. When you click on that icon, some more options are available for you.
The most important of it is the “Change PC settings” present at the bottom. When you click that icon, you can see the additional features associated with it as below.
As you can see in the above screenshot, several sub-settings are available under this main setting. So you should see a similar screen. You have the option to Personalize i.e you can change the Lock screen, Account picture and Picture password etc. on the right hand side
In addition to that, on the left hand side you can find several sect of options. These include –
- PC and devices
- Accounts
- SkyDrive
- Search and apps
- Privacy
- Network
- Time and language
- Ease of Access
- Update and Recovery
If you are using a desktop or laptop, you can just click on that particular icon. Otherwise for a tablet, smartphone, mobile gadget you can just tap those options which you might be familiar by now.
Problems related to “Change PC Settings” in Windows 8 and 8.1
Some users complained on Microsoft forum about the Metro version of the Control Panel just after updating to 8.1 from the Store app. But personally, I didn’t face any problems, even though I too updated using the Store app.
The Problem – No. 1
Once you click the “Change PC Settings” button, nothing happens and you are taken to the Start Screen. The link is simply broken. The problem persists even after logging with Administrator rights.
The Solution
You just need to open an elevated command prompt and type the following code.
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRootImmersiveControlPanelAppxManifest.xml
No reboot is required and the desired result will be seen after clicking the Windows 8 settings.
The Problem – No. 2
The Store App was missing for an Asus laptop user way back in Dec, 2012. So he was probably using the preview or beta version of Windows 8. The problem could be due to corrupt files.
The Solution
The latest solution to that old problem is to update to Windows 8.1 (somehow). That should get fixed all your Store app problems. But there are alternate ways to this peculiar problem as suggested on the Microsoft forum.
Run a System File Checker scan and check if that helps.
Refer to the following steps to run SFC scan.
- a)Move the mouse pointer to bottom left of the screen where you see preview of start menu and Right-click to bring up a list of Windows settings.
- b)Click on ‘Command Prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated command prompt. Note: Click ‘Yes’ if it prompts for permission.
- c)In the command prompt type in the following command: ‘sfc /scannow’.
This is basically to test if a WRP (Windows Resource Protection) file has gone missing or corrupted. The System File Checker Tool which is SFC.exe scans for the missing or corrupted files and repairs them.
Sometimes a System Restore where only the settings and registry are restored back, keeping your personal files intact, can resolve this kind of problem.
The Problem – No.3
Sometimes it could be a bad short-cut problem. This normally happens when you try to install 3rd party Start Menu and customize the settings.
The Solution
You can just find the correct Change PC Settings shortcut on a working Windows 8 PC. This folder is generally available at the following location.
C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms
You just need to copy that working shortcut and place it in your problematic computer at the same location.
