Ongoing Select and Mask issue.

[GButch]

Looking through archived posts, it appears my inoperative Select and Mask issue has occurred previously.  There are several posts about the problem dating back to 2021.  In the properties panel, Real Time Refinement is grayed out.  Except for View mode, nothing works.

Photoshop 25.12.0 running on a Dell XPS 8910.  64 bit Windows 10 with current updates. Graphics card is Nvidea GeForce GTX 1650. 
I have tried deleting Preferences thinking that might clear the fault.  It did not. I've now posted about the problem several times.  I don't mean to be a pest, but I need a solution to this. 
Thank you.
George Butch
Plantation, FL.

[GButch]

After doing a Google search for this problem, I found a suggestion to try selecting "Window" - "Workspace" - "Reset Select and Mask".  Sadly, that did not solve the problem.  This is beyond exasperating. 

[GButch]

Since I complained so loud and often about this, I need to confess that the issue was primarily a misunderstanding on my part. I'll share a bit of the cconfusion with the Adobe tutorial which wasn't clear about what I didn't understand. I finally found a Youtube video that led me out of the weeds.  I need some additional practice, but I'm a good bit less confused.  Thank you all.   G. Butch......