Isaac Smith

Windows Troubleshooters: Which Ones Still Exist

Microsoft has been retiring them for three years. Nine moved to Get Help, the rest were removed, and Windows 10 kept all of them.

The beep is documented, the shortcut is armed by default, and turning the feature off is not the same as disarming it.

Microsoft recommends it for advanced users only, and says so on the page. When that applies to you, and when it does not.

One switch is on by default and it sets your default to whatever you printed to last. Plus the case where turning it off is not enough.

Three buttons on one official page, doing three different jobs. Picking the wrong one costs you an evening.

It is off by default on Windows and there is no way to switch it on after the laptop has gone. Two minutes now, on both platforms.

Windows ships a key tester and does not call it one. Two minutes tells you whether the fault is the hardware or something above it.

A typical PC has more audio outputs than its owner thinks. Five showed up on the machine tested here, which is why sound lands in the wrong place.

F1 in a folder sends you to a search engine. The things people press it about are a short list, and one of them changed in October 2025.

Paint does it in one click and Photos does it with a steering wheel. Microsoft states the picture never leaves your device.