Windows 11 system settings only temporarily applies changes - resets upon reboot

antspants · Mar 22, 2025

Sure, but regardless if it was Windhawk or any other modification, I’d still do an In-Place Upgrade in hoping that it would work if performed.

AaronLennon said:
Just an update, it's been at 62.3% for 5 hours now...

And I don’t believe this is normal. I’ve never had this and my PC is 11 years old.

Morph000 · Mar 22, 2025

I’ve never had this and my PC is 11 years old.

Yes but we had Win 7 and decent pc's back then !

Sad - I will probably have to GIVE AWAY my 12 year old Toshiba P870 17.3" laptop. Can't even sell it for $100 these days...

AaronLennon · Mar 23, 2025

dacrone said:
definitely wouldn't have been windhawk. windhawk only injects c++ temporarily while running. it doesn't change any system files. @AaronLennon any other mods been made? reg/gpo/manually replacing dll or other system files?

I havent done any manual mods to my system files as far as I can remember. I did have to disable bitlocker and safe boot to get my Linux Windows dual boot to work, but the issue Im having now didn't start until way after that so I doubt it's directly related. I'm in the process of doing a repair install at the moment so I hope that solves the issue.

AaronLennon · Mar 23, 2025

dacrone said:
definitely wouldn't have been windhawk. windhawk only injects c++ temporarily while running. it doesn't change any system files. @AaronLennon any other mods been made? reg/gpo/manually replacing dll or other system files?

antspants said:
Any mods used can cause adverse issues. Removing Windhawk is one thing, but did it permanently change registry entries or something, is another.

I’d suggest a repair install in-place upgrade:

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

So I've just finished a repair install in-place upgrade, and it hasn't fixed the issue. My settings changes still won't save upon restart.

OAT · Mar 23, 2025

AaronLennon said:
So I've just finished a repair install in-place upgrade, and it hasn't fixed the issue. My settings changes still won't save upon restart.

Have you created a new temporary user and see if the changes made by that user stick?
Problems with the user hive would not be fixed by a repair installation.
It's worth a try, short of a new installation.

AaronLennon · Mar 23, 2025

OAT said:
Have you created a new temporary user and see if the changes made by that user stick?

One of the things I tried before making this thread was creating and logging into a new admin account and making settings changes, but it behaved the same as my actual account.

krism · Mar 23, 2025

if you would, please, rt click on taskbar, choose Task Manager, choose Startup Apps and give me a screenshot of all of them.

AaronLennon · Mar 23, 2025

krism said:
if you would, please, rt click on taskbar, choose Task Manager, choose Startup Apps and give me a screenshot of all of them.

krism · Mar 23, 2025

Okay so start disabling them with logildl, vivaldi, and virtual pet and then test - also CCX(adobe) - then OneDrive.

My guess is that when you used Revo to remove that windhawk thing you didn't , completely.

If nothing helps, do a full CLEAN install from blank disk. don't install windhawk. (probably stuff in registry)

AaronLennon · Mar 23, 2025

krism said:
Okay so start disabling them with logildl, vivaldi, and virtual pet and then test - also CCX(adobe) - then OneDrive.

My guess is that when you used Revo to remove that windhawk thing you didn't , completely.

If nothing helps, do a full CLEAN install from blank disk. don't install windhawk. (probably stuff in registry)

Disabling all of those apps from running on startup didn't fix the issue sadly.

I completely removed windhawk using Revo previously, and then re-installed it after seeing that deleting it didn't solve the issue. Also, according to this:

dacrone said:
definitely wouldn't have been windhawk. windhawk only injects c++ temporarily while running. it doesn't change any system files.

Windhawk shouldn't be able to cause any permanent issues.

I'm not sure I'm willing to do a full clean install from a blank disk. I have a dual os system, so a clean internal SSD isn't an option. Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely doing a full repair install of windows like I previously did would have the same outcome as a clean install, since I've essentially installed a fresh windows 11 already.

dacrone · Mar 23, 2025

if you dont want to reinstall, you could just set a scheduled task to reapply unhiding taskbar at logon

AaronLennon · Mar 23, 2025

dacrone said:
if you dont want to reinstall, you could just set a scheduled task to reapply unhiding taskbar at logon

That would be a good fix for the taskbar specifically, but that still leaves the light on my front panel restoring to its obnoxious default strobe pattern upon restart.

dacrone · Mar 23, 2025

you using windows settings > dynamic lighting? all my lighting has standalone programs (ie - icue)

AaronLennon · Mar 23, 2025

dacrone said:
you using windows settings > dynamic lighting? all my lighting has standalone programs (ie - icue)

No I'm using the dedicated Asus Software 'Armoury Crate'.

dacrone · Mar 23, 2025

if armoury crate is reverting back to defaults after startup, then your issue is not solely with windows. something is causing (what sounds like permissions) issues.

AaronLennon · Mar 23, 2025

dacrone said:
if armoury crate is reverting back to defaults after startup, then your issue is not solely with windows. something is causing (what sounds like permissions) issues.

Must be yeah. I have folder with my old windows install on my internal SSD after the repair install, and it wont let me delete it due to not having the correct permissions, even though I am the admin. Even after going into the properties of the folder and giving all the user options full access, it still wouldn't work. It's just confusing because the permission issue isn't isolated to my account, because it was the same on the new admin account I tried.
Edit: I just rebooted to test the lighting config, and it saved properly?
Edit Edit: Ok I think the light issue is related to my Linux os, because I booted into Linux, then back into Windows, and my light was reset again. But when I simply reboot back into Windows, it stayed. Sorry about that, must be unrelated to the taskbar issue.

krism · Mar 23, 2025

AaronLennon said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely doing a full repair install of windows like I previously did would have the same outcome as a clean install, since I've essentially installed a fresh windows 11 already.

I'm not sure that you will get a clean registry. And if you put windhawk back on I will not suggest further. Good luck with it.

antspants · Mar 23, 2025

AaronLennon said:
So I've just finished a repair install in-place upgrade, and it hasn't fixed the issue. My settings changes still won't save upon restart.

Soory about that, I hope it didn’t take too much time.

screenshot-2025-03-23-193421-webp.129229

Have you tried disabling AsusSmartDisplayControl for the Taskbar issue??

Treat the Taskbar issue as you would a Browser Addon issue. Disable Autorun for all Autostart apps, If unhide Taskbar works, you might find the culprit by re-enabling Autostarts one by one.
A restart or sign out will be needed after each time you enable 1 addon. Time consuming.

It’s one possible avenue.

dacrone · Mar 23, 2025

AaronLennon said:
Must be yeah. I have folder with my old windows install on my internal SSD after the repair install, and it wont let me delete it due to not having the correct permissions, even though I am the admin. Even after going into the properties of the folder and giving all the user options full access, it still wouldn't work. It's just confusing because the permission issue isn't isolated to my account, because it was the same on the new admin account I tried.
Edit: I just rebooted to test the lighting config, and it saved properly?
Edit Edit: Ok I think the light issue is related to my Linux os, because I booted into Linux, then back into Windows, and my light was reset again. But when I simply reboot back into Windows, it stayed. Sorry about that, must be unrelated to the taskbar issue.

This should be the powershell to UNhide the taskbar via reg:

Code:

powershell -command "&{$p='HKCU:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3';$v=(Get-ItemProperty -Path $p).Settings;$v[8]=2;&Set-ItemProperty -Path $p -Name Settings -Value $v;&Stop-Process -f -ProcessName explorer}"

use that as you wish (ps1, batch, scheduled task, etc)

as far as armoury crate, you'll have to find out where the settings are stored and export them once set up as you want. then create a .bat to reimport/reapply them and schedule that for login so that after booting From linux To windows, it will reapply your crate settings

TraderGary · Mar 23, 2025

AaronLennon said:
Must be yeah. I have folder with my old windows install on my internal SSD after the repair install, and it wont let me delete it due to not having the correct permissions, even though I am the admin. Even after going into the properties of the folder and giving all the user options full access, it still wouldn't work. It's just confusing because the permission issue isn't isolated to my account, because it was the same on the new admin account I tried.
Edit: I just rebooted to test the lighting config, and it saved properly?
Edit Edit: Ok I think the light issue is related to my Linux os, because I booted into Linux, then back into Windows, and my light was reset again. But when I simply reboot back into Windows, it stayed. Sorry about that, must be unrelated to the taskbar issue.

To remove old Windows install files, run Microsoft's Disk Cleanup.

Tap the Windows Key and then type Disk Cleanup in the search field. On Disk Cleanup, you will be offered a button labeled Clean up system files.

Windows 11 system settings only temporarily applies changes - resets upon reboot

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