Q. The “notifications” icon in the Windows 10 taskbar tells me I have new notifications, but when I click on it, I cannot access them. And when I right-click, I also cannot access the “action center”.

Answer.

This issue might be due to corrupted or missing System files.

I suggest you to perform the below troubleshooting steps and check.

Method 1: Run the SFC.

System File Checker is a utility in Windows that allows users to scan for corruptions in Windows system files and restore corrupted files.

Follow the below steps:

1. Right-click on the Start button, click on Command Prompt (Admin).
2. Type “SFC /scan now” without quotes and hit Enter.

1. After the scan, restart the computer.
2. Now check for the issue.

Method 2: Run the DISM Tool.

If the issue persists, I would have you run the DISM tool to check the system health and will try to restore the files. 

1. Right-click on the Start button, click on Command Prompt (Admin).
2. In the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type the following commands. Press the Enter key after each command:
   • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth 
   • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
3. To close the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type Exit, and then press Enter.

Note: The tool might take 15-20 minutes to finish running, so please do not cancel it.