Unable to use the calculator in Windows? Getting “calculator not working” error?

If yes, this post is for you.

Here we have provided 8 easy to follow solutions that could fix the issue. Of course, there’s you don’t have to try all the solutions. Start with the first one, and if that doesn’t work, move to the next one, and so on.

Let’s look at the solutions now.

Solution One – Reset Calculator app

If the calculator is not working in Windows 10, you can try resetting the calculator app which will fix the issue. Here are the steps to follow.

• Click the Start button
• Click Settings(gear icon)
• In the Settings window, go to the apps section
• You will see a list of all applications, locate the calculator app in the list
• Select calculator and click Advanced options
• Click on Reset button
• Click on Reset button again for confirmation

Solution Two – Get the updated version of the calculator from the Microsoft App store

There is a possibility the current version of calculator installed on your system is plagued with problems and there is an updated version of calculator available in Microsoft store. All you need to do is get the updated version of calculator which will replace the older version and also resolve the issues you are currently facing with the calculator. Here are the steps to follow.

• Click Start
• Look for Windows Store icon. See the reference image below
• Click the Windows Store app icon
• In the next window, type calculator in the search box. Wait for the results to populate
• Click Windows calculator from the list of results
• If you see there is updated version of calculator available, click the Update button to get updated calculator version
• Check if the calculator is working now.

Solution Three- Create a new user account

Many users were able to resolve the issue by creating a new user account. Here are the steps to follow.

• Click the Start button
• Type add user in Cortana search
• Click User Accounts from the list of results
• In the user accounts window, click Manage another account
• In the Manage accounts window, click Add a new user in PC settings
• In the Settings window, click Add someone else to this PC
• In the next window, click I don’t have this person’s sign-in information
• Now, click Add a user without a Microsoft account
• After the new user account is created, click Next
• You will now see a new user account has been added in the window.
• Click the Start button
• Now click the new user account button to log into the account
• Now check whether the calculator is working

Solution Four – Reinstall Calculator

You cannot ignore the possibility of some problem with calculator system files. Since Calculator is part of Windows core (in-built application), you cannot uninstall it from Add/Remove programs.

You can remove calculator from Powershell cmdlet. Here are the steps to follow

• Click the Start button
• Type PowerShell in the Cortana search box
• Right-click Windows PowerShell from the list of results and select Run as administrator
• Copy and paste the following line in the Powershell windows and press enter on the keyboard
• Get-AppxPackage *windows calculator* | Remove-AppxPackage
• Now we will attempt reinstalling the calculator by the command given below. Copy and paste the command in the PowerShell window and hit Enter on the keyboard
• Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

Solution Five – Run SFC and DISM commands

SFC is short for System File Checker. It is s Windows diagnostic and repair tool that checks system files for corruption and replaces any missing or corrupt files with cached versions. SFC does not have a graphical interface and the commands are executed through a command prompt window with admin rights. Here are the steps to follow.

• Press Windows logo key and R simultaneously on the keyboard to invoke Run command dialog
• In the Run command box, type cmd
• Right-click command prompt from the list of results and select Run as administrator
• In the User Account control pop-up, click Yes
• In the command prompt window, type sfc /scannow and hit Enter
• Wait for the command operation to complete.

After you have run the SFC tool, you need to also run DISM commands. DISM stands for Deployment Image Servicing and Management. It is a command-line tool used to service Windows image. Here are the steps to follow.

• Open command prompt with admin rights
• When prompted with UAC, click Yes to continue
• In the command prompt window, type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth. Make sure you do not make any typo error. See the reference image below.
• Wait for the whole process to complete
• Close all windows
• Restart your computer

Solution Six – Install missing updates

According to some users, the calculator not working issue gets resolved by installing missing updates. Here are the steps to follow.

• Press Windows key and I together to open the Settings app
• In the Settings app, go to Update and Security section
• Click Check on updates
• Windows will now check for updates and install any pending updates. Wait for the update process to complete
• Now check whether the calculator is working

Solution Seven- Turn off the firewall

If you are using any 3^rd party firewall, disable it and see if the calculator starts working again. Many users have reported the calculator started working after disabling firewall. It might work for you too. Here are the steps to follow.

• Click the Start button
• Type firewall in the Cortana search box
• Select Windows firewall from the list
• In the Windows firewall dialog, look for Turn Windows Firewall on or off option in the left pane and click on it.

<insert-windows 10 calculator not working-turn windows firewall>

• In the next window, click Turn off Windows Firewall (not recommended) for both Public and Private network settings
• Click OK

Solution Eight- Enable User Account control

The user account control feature in Windows is there to prevent you from performing actions that need administrator privilege. The feature gives out lots of security notifications and hence some users choose to disable it.

Many users reported the calculator app stopped working after the user account control was disabled. Enabling the feature again brought things back to normal and calculator app started working. Here are the steps to follow.

• Press Windows logo key and S together
• Type user account control in search box
• Select Change User Account Control settings from a list of results
• In the User Account Control settings dialog, move the slider to the default position. Check the reference image below
• Click OK