Devices and Printers page is Blank or Not loading on Windows 11/10

Some Windows users are reporting a rather unusual issue where the Devices and Printers page in the Control Panel is showing blank on their Windows 11 or Windows 10 computer. Ideally, even if the printer isn’t connected, some or the other device provided the hardware is properly connected to the system and not faulty, will be listed on that page. This post provides the most adequate solutions to this anomaly.

Devices and Printers page is Blank or Not loading

If the Devices and Printers page is blank on your Windows 11/10 PC, you can try our recommended solutions below in no particular order and see if that helps to resolve the issue.

Run AV scan
Re-register these DLL files
Run SFC & DISM scans
Run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter
Perform System Restore
Perform Reset This PC, Cloud Reset or In-place Upgrade Repair Windows.

Let’s take a look at the description of the process involved concerning each of the listed solutions.

Before you try the solutions below, check for updates and install any available bits on your Windows device and see if the issue is resolved. Also, you can try a quick restart of your computer, as it could be your device didn’t boot properly due to a temporary glitch during startup.

1] Run AV scan

It’s possible this Devices and Printers page is blank issue is caused by a malware or virus infection on your Windows 11/10 system.

You can run a full system antivirus scan with Windows Defender or any reputable third-party AV product.

In severe cases of malware/virus infection, you can run perform Windows Defender Offline Scan at boot time or use bootable AntiVirus Rescue Media to recover your system if somehow your computer is failing to boot.

2] Re-register these DLL files

To fix the problem, re-register the following three dll files and see if it helps.

vbscript.dll
jscript.dll
mshtml.dll

3] Run SFC and DISM scan

Corrupted system files can give rise to the issue at hand. This solution requires you run SFC scan and see if that helps. If not, you can run a DISM scan or try the next solution.

If you prefer, you can run the SFC and DISM scan in tandem using the procedure below.

Press Windows key + R to invoke the Run dialog.
In the Run dialog box, type notepad and hit Enter to open Notepad.
Copy and paste the syntax below into the text editor.

echo off
date /t & time /t
echo Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
echo ...
date /t & time /t
echo Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
echo ...
date /t & time /t
echo SFC /scannow
SFC /scannow
date /t & time /t
pause

Save the file with a name and append the .bat file extension – eg; SFC_DISM_scan.bat and on the Save as type box select All Files.
Repeatedly run the batch file with admin privilege (right-click the saved file and select Run as Administrator from the context menu) until it reports no errors.
Restart your PC.

On boot, check if the issue is resolved. If not, proceed with the next solution.

4] Run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

This solution requires you to run the Hardware Troubleshooter to fix problematic devices. You can also manually check for faulty hardware by removing any recently installed hardware.

Read: How to Print Double-Sided on Windows?

5] Perform System Restore

If you noticed the anomaly recently, maybe after a Windows update is installed on your computer, you can uninstall the update to resolve the issue. it’s also entirely possible that the issue was facilitated by a change that your system has gone through recently that you are unaware of. In this case, you can perform System Restore (any changes like application installs, user preferences, and anything else made after the restore point will be lost) to revert to a date prior to the issue.

6] Perform Reset This PC, Cloud Reset or In-place Upgrade Repair Windows

If the issue is still unresolved, it’s most likely due to some kind of system corruption that cannot be resolved conventionally. In this case, the applicable solution here is that you can try Reset This PC, or Cloud Reset to reset every Windows component. You may also try In-place Upgrade Repair and see if that helps.

Any of these solutions should work for you!

Why can’t I open Devices and Printers Windows 11/10?

If Devices and Printers opens slowly on your Windows PC, you can open the Settings app, and navigate to Devices > Bluetooth and try turning Bluetooth off. If that doesn’t show any improvement, leave Bluetooth off, and then open the Services console and Stop the services for all listed Bluetooth services.

Why won’t Windows detect my printer?

Windows users that might be having the issue of Windows being unable to detect the printer or the printer is not responding even after you’ve plugged it in, can try a few things, including restarting the printer, unplugging the printer from the outlet and plugging it back, check if the printer is properly set up or connected to your Windows 11/10 system.