What should you do if you run into the issue – Device Manager not responding/opening/working? One of these situations can happen on Windows 11/10. If you are plagued by it now, take it easy and MiniTool goes to any length to help you get rid of trouble. In this post, multiple solutions are introduced.

Device Manager Unresponsive/Stuck/Hangs

Device Manager is an inbuilt component in the Windows operating system and it allows you to view and manage PC hardware including a USB flash drive, hard drive, keyboard, graphics card, mouse, etc. If any device connected to the computer goes wrong or stops working, you can check it in Device Manager.

Device Manager is also an excellent tool that can help you to update, uninstall or roll back device drivers, disable devices, and recognize devices.

Although Device Manager is a necessary and excellent utility in Windows, it may not work perfectly. According to users, sometimes Device Manager can’t open, stops working, won’t load, gets stuck, or hangs. Sometimes an error message appears to block you from using this tool and the common situations are - Device Manager has been blocked for your protection & can’t open Device Manager this operation has been canceled.

If you experience the issue of Device Manager not responding out of the blue, it is extremely annoying. What should you do if you are blocked from opening or using Device Manager by something in Windows 11/10? It is not hard to fix the unresponsive issue and just go to the next part to find some efficient methods.

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How to Fix Device Manager Not Responding/Opening/Working Windows 11/10

Run Device Manager with Administrative Permissions

If you run into the situation - Device Manager blocked by administrator with the error “this app has been blocked for your protection. An administrator has blocked you from running this app. For more information, contact the administrator”, you can choose to run Device Manager with admin privileges, one of the best ways to fix the Device Manager unresponsive issue.

Step 1: In Windows 11/10, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc at the same time to open Task Manager .

Step 2: Go to the top-left corner, click File > Run new task .

Step 3: Type devmgmt.msc into the text box, check the option of Create this task with administrative privileges and click OK .

run Device Manager with admin rights

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Try Alternative Methods to Open Device Manager

When Device Manager not opening/working/responding happens on Windows 11/10 due to restrictions, permissions, or other reasons, you can try some alternative methods to launch this tool. Just see several ways below to open Device Manager.

#1. Access Device Manager via Disk Management

1. Press Win and X to open the Quick Access menu and tap on Computer Management .

2. Click Device Manager under System Tools . Then, you can view your devices and update/uninstall/roll back drivers, and more.

access Device Manager via Computer Management

#2. Open Device Manager via CMD/PowerShell

1. In the search box of Windows 11/10, type in cmd or powershell and right-click on Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell to choose Run as administrator .

2. In the CMD or PowerShell window, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter . Then, Device Manager could open its main interface.

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#3. Use Windows Settings to Open Device Manager.

If you can’t open Device Manager in Windows 11/10, you can try this way:

1. Open the Windows Settings app.

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2. In the new window, type device manager into the search field and then choose the best match to open this tool.

open Device Manager via Settings

In addition to these alternative methods, you can try some other ways to open Device Manager, and here is a useful related post for you - [9 Ways] How to Open Windows 11 Device Manager Quickly .

Run Windows Troubleshooters

In Windows, you can find some inbuilt troubleshooters that can be used to simply fix some basic issues related to system and security, programs, hardware and sound, as well as network and internet. Since Device Manager not responding could be a system problem, you can try the Windows System Maintenance troubleshooter to perform a scan.

See how to fix Device Manager not opening/unresponsive in Windows 11/10 via a troubleshooter:

Step 1: Open the search box, type in control panel , and click the result to open this app.

Step 2: View all the items by Large icons and click Troubleshooting .

Step 3: Under the System and Security section, click the Run maintenance tasks link.

run Windows System Maintenance troubleshooter

Step 4: Click Next and the troubleshooter starts detecting the system. Then, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the troubleshooting process.

Alternatively, you can press Win + R , type msdt.exe -id MaintenanceDiagnostic into the text, and click OK to open the System Maintenance window for issue troubleshooting.

If you still can’t open Device Manager in Windows 11/10, the chances are that you are dealing with a hardware-related problem and you can solve the issue by running Windows Hardware and Devices troubleshooter.

If you are using Windows 10, you may go to Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot and click Additional troubleshooters . But you cannot find the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter here after Windows 10 version 1809. This doesn’t mean this tool is removed because you can find it via another method.

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Just open the Run dialog, type msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic into the text, and click OK to open the troubleshooter for an issue fix.

After that, try to run Device Manager. If Device Manager not responding still appears, continue the fix in the following ways.

Run an SFC Scan

Sometimes corrupted system files could be responsible for Device Manager not working/opening/responding. To solve your issue, you can try to perform an SFC scan. System File Checker (SFC) is the inbuilt utility that can help scan your device for detecting corrupted or missing system files and repair them. See how to run an SFC scan in Windows:

Step 1: Open Command Prompt with admin rights in Windows 11/10 by typing cmd into the search box and clicking Run as administrator in the popup.

Step 2: In the Command Prompt window, input sfc /scannow and press Enter . Then, this tool starts the system scan.

Windows 10 sfc scan

Sometimes when beginning the system scan with SFC, you may encounter a stuck issue. To get rid of the situation, refer to our related post to find solutions - Windows 10 SFC /Scannow Stuck at 4/5/30/40/73, etc.? Try 7 Ways .