As useful as it is, sometimes the Action Center can become unresponsive. In fact, this happened to me recently, and no matter how many times I clicked on the notification icon, the Action Center wouldn’t open. If you ever face this kind of situation, here are some simple methods you can try to make the Action Center work again.

1. Restart Windows Explorer

The first and obvious thing you should do when you face any sort of problem on your system is restart it. Restarting your system can solve most of the problems. If you cannot restart your system for whatever reason, you can restart the Windows Explorer process. Most of the time this approach unlocks any locked files and solves the problem. To start, right-click on the taskbar and select the option “Task Manager.” Alternatively, you can press the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + Shift + Escape” to open the Task Manager.

After opening the Task Manager, navigate to the Processes tab, find the “Windows Explorer” process, select it and then click on the “Restart” button.

As soon as you click on the button, Windows Explorer will restart, and the Action Center should be working again.

2. Rename UsrClass.dat File

If the above method didn’t resolve the problem, you can try renaming or deleting the “UsrClass.dat” file. This is the file where Windows stores all the user profile information. Press “Win + R,” type %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows and press the Enter button.

By default, the file we are looking for is hidden. To make it visible, click on the View tab and select the checkbox “Hidden Items.”

Once the file is visible, select it, press “F2” on your keyboard and rename it. In my case, I renamed the file as “UsrClass.dat.bak.” Like me, if you are trying to change the file extension, you might receive a warning message. Just click on the “Yes” button to continue.

Sometimes the file might be in use, and you will not be able to rename or delete it.

To deal with that you need a separate user account. If you already have a second user account, then log into that account and navigate to the following location in the File Explorer. Don’t forget to replace “” with the username of your original account. Note: if you don’t have another user account, then you can easily create it using the Settings app. Just press “Win + I” and navigate to “Accounts > Family and Other People.” Now, click on the option “Add someone else to this PC” and follow the wizard.

Try to rename the file again. Since the file is no longer in use by that user account, you should be able to rename it without any difficulty.

After renaming, restart your system.

3. Re-register Action Center via PowerShell

If renaming “UsrClass.dat” didn’t work, you can try re-registering the Action Center as a last resort. To get started, press “Win + X” and click on the option “Windows PowerShell (Admin).”

After opening the PowerShell, copy the below command and execute it.

The execution process may take some time to complete, so sit back and wait until Windows is done with the changes. Restart the system, and the Action Center should be working as it should. Do comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences about using the above methods to solve the Action Center not working in Windows 10.