Hello again. I found a solution for myself! I will explain what I discovered. Hopefully it will fix particles for you as well.
All the difference came down to whether or not the project was created while Game Maker was run in administrator mode. If I made a new project, imported a project, or created a project from a different project using "Save As" in administrator mode, the particles worked. If I created a new project while not running in administrator mode, the particles did not work (regardless of whether I entered the project in administrator mode in the future). When I switched over to my new PC, my files synced from my old computer to my new computer, and all of the particles stopped working. However, I realized that I can open GMS2 in administrator mode, launch my projects, select "Save As" to create new projects, and the particles worked again. The particles will continue to work whether or not I run in administrator mode from that point forward.
Try it. Hopefully that will resolve your issue like it did for me.