Enable and Use Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter in Windows 11

Sadique Hassan•Updated Sep 30, 2021

In this guide, we will show you the steps to enable and use the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter on your Windows 11 PC. An Operating System is never perfect, and the one offered by Microsoft is no different either. Even when this OS reaches the stable stage, there would still be a few rough edges. In other words, you might face a few errors and bugs while using this latest iteration of the OS.

Moreover, these issues could engulf any component of your PC. Be it audio, graphics, network, hardware devices, or even the Windows Store Apps, all are prone to bugs and issues. And while you may be able to identify the issue, manually fixing it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Fortunately, the Silicon Valley giants understand this pretty well and hence have incorporated a few troubleshooter apps. Each of them focuses on a specific domain- Network, Audio, Camera, Folders, Search, and the likes. However, the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter seems to be missing from this list Windows 11 Troubleshooter. And yes that is indeed the case.

For the unaware, all the troubleshooters are located under Settings (Windows+I) > System > Troubleshooter > Other Troubleshooter. However, you wouldn’t find the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter there. So is it even present in Windows 11? Well, the answer is in the affirmative! And this guide shall help you access it. Given hereby are the steps to enable and use the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter on your Windows 11 PC. Follow along.

Where is the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter in Windows 11?

Most of the Windows 11 built-in services and programs have an EXE file through which you could access the associated tool. Keeping a note of the same, I opened File Explorer (Windows+E) and went over to the following location:

C:\Windows\System32

And bingo, I got hold of the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter EXE file, which is named msdt.exe. So all that was needed is to launch this file which in turn should launch the required troubleshooter. Or so I thought. Upon opening this troubleshooter, you will be greeted with a dialog box that will ask you for a passkey provided by the Support Professional.

Well, this seems to have complicated the matter even more. Then I realized that there’s always an alternate route to launch apps- via Command Prompt. So I took this approach, and guess what, the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter was up and running on my Windows 11 PC, no passkey required, no permission, nothing! Here’s how you could do the same:

Head over to the Start menu, search CMD, and launch it as an administrator.
Then execute the below command in the CMD window:
```
msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic
```
It shall now launch the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter on your Windows 11 PC. Hit Next to start the process.
It will now scan for hardware issues and shall bring in the associated fixes as well. Just select the desired fix from the list and restart your PC. That’s it.

So these were the steps to enable and use the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter in Windows 11 PC. It is really quite an interesting move from the OS giants to hide such an important feature from the general users. Anyways, the workaround comes to our rescue, yet again! On that note, we round off this guide. All your queries are welcomed in the comments section below.

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