Unable to Access Windows Hardware Developer Center
Dear Microsoft Tech Community, I am reaching out for help figuring out how to access the Windows Hardware Developer Center in 2026. I have been trying to reach out for help from Microsoft through every available channel and have not made any progress towards resolution over the last 3 months (starting October 2025). We have a new hardware device (PCIe card) for which we need to submit drivers for Microsoft certification. We have been enrolled in the program and have successfully submitted drivers and had them approved and signed by Microsoft in the past (most recently in March, 2022). As far as I can tell, the previous entry point or portal for submitting hardware drivers was removed and/or integrated into the Microsoft Partner Center. However, we currently cannot see or access anything related to the Hardware Developer Center within the Partner Center UI. In the Partner Center, we are shown as a "Verified" developer (under Legal Info). If I try to go through the process to enroll in the "Hardware Program", the screen shows that we are already in the program with a message "Our records indicate that you have already enrolled into this program but your program registration is deactivated." Attempts to get support from Microsoft have resulted in deferral to an appeal process for being out of compliance, but at no point have we been out of compliance or ever received a violation ID or any indication that we were not in compliance (or we would have corrected it). This appeal process (with a 60-day response clock) has not gone anywhere and we seem to be stuck in this "loop" without any way to resolve this. I suspect that something happened during the migration from the former hardware developer portal to the current on that resulted in our hardware developer account not being correctly associated with our Entra ID. I think Tier 1 support is misclassifying this as a compliance issue when it is really a backend account issue. I can't find any available tools to attempt to resolve this ourselves. Support channels I have tried so far include multiple tickets with the Partner Center, Microsoft 365, and sending escalation emails to prior partner support channels (that now bounce back). Has anyone in the community experienced anything similar with hardware developer center access and if so, were you able to resolve it? I am running out of ideas for how to get this in front of the right support folks at Microsoft so we can forward and this has already delayed a product launch by ~90 days. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer, Ryan
Windows 11 File Explorer Fails to Auto-Refresh
After adding, deleting, or modifying files in Windows 11 File Explorer, it fails to auto-refresh. Manual refresh via F5 or right-click is required for updates to appear. Various online solutions only work temporarily—the issue recurs after restarting. Seeking a permanent fix.First PC build freezes at boot
Just put together my 1st PC build. Everything works fine 'cept for when I boot up. It freezes at the Motherboard boot screen. Normally, it says press del or esc to enter setup, but it freezes right before that and doesn't continue to load. I gotta hit the reset button in order for it to get it to load past that. When it does, as soon as the windows load screen pops up, it freezes again and just sits there without the dots swirling in a circle, those don't even pop up. I can let both of those screens sit for an hour and nothing happens. I gotta hit the reset button again just to get it to the windows load screen, and it starts loading that second time. I've unplugged everything from the motherboard and plugged everything back in. I've unplugged everything from it a second time, and then also taking out the motherboard battery and waited half an hour before reassembling. This seemed to work when I first started it up after that, nothing froze; it just started up and loaded everything fine. This morning when I turned on the PC, I had to restart it twice at both of those screens again. Anyone kno what the problem could be?Old to New PC Transfer
I have a question for you since I've decided to move to AMD and change all my PC. How can I transfer my Windows 11 disk system with my files and programs (200Gb on classic Sata SSD) to a fresh new PC (new motherboard, new AMD processor, new M2 Nvme disk which is totally blank)? Should I install Windows 11 on the new PC first and restore via Windows tool? Or is there a simpler way?
Windows 11 account issues: lock screen skipped, device not showing in Microsoft account
Hi everyone, I’m facing a few strange issues on Windows 11 that seem to be limited only to my main user profile, and I’m hoping to fix them without creating a new profile and migrating all my data. Settings > Apps > Advanced app settings: I see a sign-in-related issue & an error code 0x80860010. The lock screen is skipped when the PC starts. On power-on or restart, the lock screen flashes for a split second, and then Windows directly goes to the PIN entry screen. This happens only on my main user account. If I create a new local or Microsoft account, the lock screen works perfectly even after a restart or cold boot. My Windows PC does not appear under Devices on my Microsoft account page, even though the PC is signed in with my Microsoft account locally. I’ve already tried restarting, signing out and back into my Microsoft account, checking sign-in options, and testing Fast Startup on and off. Since everything works fine on newly created accounts, I believe my existing user profile or account state may be corrupted. I’m trying to avoid creating a new profile and manually migrating data if possible. Any guidance on repairing the current user profile, re-linking the device to my Microsoft account, or restoring normal lock screen behavior would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help. ~Gourav
