Microsoft Finally Admits Almost All Major Windows 11 Core Features Are Broken 103
Microsoft has acknowledged in a support article that major Windows 11 core features including the Start Menu, Taskbar, File Explorer and System Settings break after applying monthly cumulative updates released on or after July 2025.
The problems stem from XAML component issues that affect updates beginning with July's Patch Tuesday release (KB5062553). The failures occur during first-time user logins after cumulative updates are applied and on non-persistent OS installations like virtual desktop infrastructure setups. Microsoft lists Explorer.exe crashes, shellhost.exe crashes, StartMenuExperienceHost failures and System Settings that silently refuse to launch among the symptoms. The company provided PowerShell commands and batch scripts as temporary workarounds that re-register the affected packages. Both Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 share the same codebase and are affected. Microsoft said it is working on a fix but did not provide a timeline.
The problems stem from XAML component issues that affect updates beginning with July's Patch Tuesday release (KB5062553). The failures occur during first-time user logins after cumulative updates are applied and on non-persistent OS installations like virtual desktop infrastructure setups. Microsoft lists Explorer.exe crashes, shellhost.exe crashes, StartMenuExperienceHost failures and System Settings that silently refuse to launch among the symptoms. The company provided PowerShell commands and batch scripts as temporary workarounds that re-register the affected packages. Both Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 share the same codebase and are affected. Microsoft said it is working on a fix but did not provide a timeline.
AI (Score:5, Insightful)
How much of their coding is done by AI?
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/2... [cnbc.com]
Re: AI (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does it matter? Microsoftâ(TM)s code was buggy garbage long before they implemented vibe coding. If the entire OS was rewritten by a buggy AI nobody would be able to tell the difference.
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Indeed. Windows and MS Office are a disgrace to the whole human race. No product on that level should ever have long-term economic success.
Re: AI (Score:2)
Why conflate economic and engineering efficiency? Do economists exploit the homonym to imply that economic efficiency is equivalent to engineering efficiency, hoping that no one notices the glaringly obvious divergence?
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How do you define economic efficiency and engineering efficiency? I'm genuinely curious. Is financial success automatically economic efficiency? Maybe in Micro-Economics it would be, but it seems to me a 'successful' but poorly performing product would not be efficient for a Maco-Economy.
I'm not an economist so yeah, enlighten me if I'm wrong.
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Outlook is such an insult to humanity.
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I'd argue they prove marketing is more important than results. They've got a very good marketing team. They also have a monopoly, so the two together work wonders as most people don't get to see alternatives.
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If you have a working market, product quality matters. The while disaster that is Microsoft is also a good example for a market failure. At fault is the US that never managed to do any meaningful anti-trust action against MS when it would still have accomplished something.
Re: AI (Score:2)
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Even regular, European-style anti-trust action done half would have nicely worked. The problem is not the methods. The problem is nothing was done when the need for action was absolutely obvious.
Re: AI (Score:1)
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Keep projecting. I am sure it will help.
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I'd argue they prove marketing is more important than results. They've got a very good marketing team. They also have a monopoly, so the two together work wonders as most people don't get to see alternatives.
This has always been the case. Look at how people buy cars. They'll buy the one with the shiniest paintwork, wheels and shiny new Chinese ditchfinder tyres over the slightly less visually appealling but much better maintained car right next to it.
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True. But cars are strongly regulated, even if often reactively, see, for example, the Tesla "autopilot" kills. A new car has to be fit for use by design or else the maker will get problems. There is no such requirement for Operating Systems and office software and I would argue that Microsoft has stopped being "fit for use" a while ago at least for non-experts.
Re: AI (Score:2)
Re:AI (Score:5, Interesting)
A decent amount. Here's a pull request for the dotnet library where they were having copilot do work.
It did not go well. The comments are gold.
https://github.com/dotnet/runt... [github.com]
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Re: AI (Score:2)
I know Donald Trump has made you feel emboldened to express outright racism, but it is important for you to know that you are still racist garbage that nobody will ever like, let alone love. Projecting that self-hate on others only makes you uglier and more pathetic.
(Also sad is thar even with the US president at your back, youâ(TM)re still too cowardly to post this on your main).
XAML and TSWIPM (Score:1)
The problems stem from XAML issues produced by TSWIPM (Totally Shoddy Work by Incompetent Programmers and Management).
Re:XAML and TSWIPM (Score:5, Interesting)
The problems stem from XAML issues produced by TSWIPM (Totally Shoddy Work by Incompetent Programmers and Management).
Haha, only serious.
At it's root, it's a fundamentally stupid design choice. The Start Menu, Explorer, Settings and a few other critical parts of the OS have been written so they're basically Microsoft Store apps. They're modular, and they're therefore much more susceptible to being damaged.
The number of times I've had a customer who's got a Start Menu that just doesn't open, or Settings won't open, or similar behavior should be zero, but isn't. These high-visibility, high-criticality parts of the OS should be rock solid but aren't.
I'm sure it's the same clowns that signed off on the decision that UI elements are allowed to move after a window starts drawing. It's moronic. I see what I'm looking for in a menu or something, and I start to click on it but poof... five more things get delay-added to the view and I click on the wrong thing because what I wanted moved. No. Not okay.
Finally, performance. Whoever signed off on the Start Menu not being utterly instant needs to be fired. It is almost always faster for me to press WinKey+R, type "cmd", hit Enter, type "notepad", and hit Enter than to get the Start Menu to find and display it. Note: I only add a command prompt in there so I can keep it open for launching other stuff. The Start Menu is BAD at being the place where you start. Too many useful things are hidden, and too much cluttered shovelware hides what users need.
The XAML side of things is only part of the problem. The shoddy programming, logic, and management who allow this are the others.
You are right.
Re: XAML and TSWIPM (Score:1)
What if the engineers who implemented the flawed design said "take this job and shove it", knowing they had a strong inflation-proofed basic income to fall back on and program better things they actually wanted to use?
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What if the engineers who implemented the flawed design said "take this job and shove it", knowing they had a strong inflation-proofed basic income to fall back on and program better things they actually wanted to use?
Or, what if the engineers who implemented the flawed design all contacted recruiters, got similar-or-better-paying jobs elsewhere, then say "take this job and shove it."*
* I assume being a Windows programmer at Microsoft still has enough cachet that you won't have any problems finding work elsewhere as long as you do it before you resign.
Re: XAML and TSWIPM (Score:2)
Any MS UI designers and devs who gave a damn about efficient human interfaces left during the development of Win8 IMO. Things got slightly better with Win10 but It's been mainly downhill since then. The kind of UI fuckups and fundamental design flaws MS keep making would get any college CS student an F grade.
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Windows is NOT a professional operating system. (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Windows is a joke operating system for some weird end-game.
2. Microsoft's tools aren't meant for professional use.
3. Microsoft doesn't care, and isn't accountable to anyone.
I don't think Windows 11 has ever worked, I've faced unusual problems with it since the release, continuously. Add on to that constant reports of major degradation / feature breaks, and what are we left to assume? If something in Windows breaks, Microsoft will rarely admit it, throw blame like it's a contest, and then blame the user base, and everyone else. I've made this claim before, in multi-forms, and here again, the issue started in July, and it's November before they take any accountability?
When I say (paraphrased): “Professionals don't use Windows.”, this is why, you can't use it. It's either broken, breaking, frozen, stalled, disabled, unusable, or moving between one of those states. When you run into an issue, have you tried to get support? The support is so poor, that it's again some weird end-game to prove something, but what? The support isn't less than ideal, it's almost inspiring in its incompetence.
What was point 2? Have you tried using MS Office? I have a constant problem where my key buffer is delayed by seconds. This means I press “A”, it will take 1+ seconds to show up. I have demoed this issue to our CSM, and “support” only to be told it's my system. When I pushed back, and they asked for reports about my internet stability, front door server locations, and other points. I ran their support tooling, all the reports came back with I green star? They were excellent, and what did Microsoft do? Blame my system. In that email thread, on that message, they said (paraphrased): “Just use LibreOffice.”, what? Microsoft can't even keep up the lies, they admit their offerings are sub-par.
I'll wrap it up, I could go on about other tools, other platforms, portals, management, support, it's all crap.
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Quite true. Unfortunately, MS crap is also a really good example for a market failure.
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Invisible Hand Man has had his eyes closed for 35 years.
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Indeed.
They always try to shift blame (Score:1)
When you contact MS support, they always say they can't reproduce the problem and it must be some third party software, so you need to reinstall Windows and start from scratch with no add-on software to maybe get rid of the problem. What do they think an OS is for if you can't run additional software on it?
At least this time they're admitting fault... but I don't have high hopes that they can fix anything. They always seem to start rebuilding significant portions of the OS with every new version. I don't th
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I have the issue where not every mouse click is recognized. On anything. Web page, form, MS Office software, third-party software, Windows itself, text field, you name it. I'll click somewhere, the mouse directly on what needs selected, and nothing happens. I have to click again to do what I want.
I first noticed it in W10 and it has continued to W11.
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How do you know your mouse isn't faulty?
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Replacing the mouse has no effect. And this has happened over years.
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i understand the point you are trying to make but when you say things like
When I say (paraphrased): “Professionals don't use Windows.”, this is why, you can't use it. It's either broken, breaking, frozen, stalled, disabled, unusable, or moving between one of those states.
despite 95% of the world running on Windows, it really invalidates your argument. Yes Windows has lots of issues and I'm not defending Microsoft, but 100% absolute fact that professionals use Windows and many of the worlds largest and most successful businesses are run on Windows.
please just be honest.
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Have you ever read why Peter Thiel resigned from PayPal, then was brought back and Elon Musk got fired?
Guess why. Just guess why.
please just get educated.
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Time and time again, three things keep constantly get proven: [...] 2. Microsoft's tools aren't meant for professional use. [...]
Microsoft frequency sucks ass -- and lately, is sucking both cheeks -- but this is nonsensical gibberish.
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> from a security, stability or usable prospective
You and me both but most people only score feature count. If they've grown accustomed to some oddball feature for a few months they feel they can never use anything else.
That they went their entire lives without it before isn't relevant.
From a market perspective, rushing more features to market makes more people with money happy than getting a good product to market.
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Now convince the beancounters who only ever learned Excel and Access that their legacy analytics plugins can be replaced.
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First note that I mention Linux because this is Slashdot with the recurrent meme about the year of Linux on the desktop. For plenty of things other OSes like the BSDs could also replace Windows.
Anywa
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I don't think Windows 11 has ever worked, I've faced unusual problems with it since the release, continuously.
First of all I'll just let you know that "I run Arch BTW" as my main OS. Been using Windows 11 since launch as I do sim racing. Other than the early days you expect there to be issues I've not really had any problems. If there are any I can't recall being aware of them.
Thanks for the push to Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
It's stuff like this that really should be pushing users to use Linux as a desktop. Since much of the choice is made by businesses who are sort of held hostage by legacy installs/infrastructure, I don't expect to see as large of an uptick as we really should, but I do hope some will kick Windows out and go for Linux ... or even Mac. The point is to get away from the dumpster fire like the problem described here.
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MacOS has its own barriers to calling itself a professional operating system. A good part of my job is forcing it to conform to basic enterprise system management practices.
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Re: Thanks for the push to Linux (Score:2)
Microsoft designs it's products for enterprise management while Apple occasionally pays lip service to the idea. It's not expecting MS to confirm to your own personal expectations, it's expecting Apple to conform to business expectations.
Re:Thanks for the push to Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
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For home users, you're generally correct. There are a few who switch at home, but it won't be many.
My biggest surprise is how few businesses switch and I know the IT people have to have heard of Linux since there's a good chance they have Linux servers (minus the MS only shops). I've always heard it's the lack of a good substitute for Active Directory and IT's general lack of experience with Linux as a desktop that keeps them hostage. Then there is the C-Suite who only knows MS-Office and think nothing else
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Near as I can tell (I'm a Mac user), MS keeps business people on it by integrating their apps together. This is a godsend to the C-Suite who have other things to dork around with than their computer. Office contains just about anything they want to use. They do not know anything else and they do not want to know anything else.
I periodically have runins with Office on a Mac because the management really likes bullet points and needs to lift them from our docs lest they be forced to think for themselves. Thei
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Good points on MS-Office and the thinking there. It does have things (Onenote & Teams & Outlook) that LibreOffice doesn't have. I happen to like Thunderbird better than Outlook and most chat programs are better than Teams (Zoom is pretty equivalent even if it is a paid service or Jabber if only chat); but there is no equivalent of Onenote in the Linux world yet (a few projects try but no one gets there last I looked and I check about once a year).
I've done some simple LaTeX stuff and was very thankf
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Disclaimer: 25 years ago, doing technical support to my family (about 10PCs), I got pissed at them for having to clean viruses over and over week after week, so I gave them an ultimatum: I install Linux and provide full support, or you get a Mac and are on your own, or I categorically refuse to
Re:Thanks for the push to Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Thanks for the push to Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
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Unless you have very specific software requirements likely for engineers and the like. Most white collar workers these days can probably do almost all their work on any device with a web browser.
Many college students can do everything they need on a phone.
In fact, there are many things that only exist as apps on a phone.
Most of use can still choose iPhone or Android.
Linux has really become the way for servers. Many Linux devs use Mac & homebrew instead of Linux too.
How many Linux only desktop apps are there (I remember ones for all the Unixen with CAD, FPGA, etc)
What is keeping the apps on Windows or Mac? And driving them to iPhone/Android instead of Web?
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Sure, if every software they want/need to use isn't Windows (or MacOS) only, or has one that can be 100% drop-in replacement-ready.
Yes, I know about OpenOffice/LibreOffice/whatever-it's-called-this-week... I also know that it barfs on any DOCX file with not-normal formatting.... I shouldn't open a DOCX in Libre and have pages that should be portrait in landscape.
So, while a FOSS conversion sounds like a good idea on paper, it's not a 100% drop-in replacement.
(Also... I'm still in the Win10 crowd, so are my
Bollycode (Score:1, Funny)
Wonder if this has anything to do with recent Microsoft press releases looking like the cast-list of a Bollywood movie [wikipedia.org]
Shouldn't these things be relatively stable? (Score:3)
Why are they constantly updating the taskbar, file manager, start menu, etc. What features were they trying to even add?
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Agentic clippy needs to be able to be able to use all features of your PC not just access all data.
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They need to be able to push Advertisements to each of them. plus they need to enable all the things we turn off to maintain privacy and control bloat.
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Re: Shouldn't these things be relatively stable? (Score:2)
Are you kidding? It's because retarded customers will bitch if they upgrade and it doesn't look different while acting completely the same. To these mental midges, the change to the Start menu IS the upgrade.
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Focus on designing an OS ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Focus on designing an OS ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft stopped caring about it's OS as an OS a loooooooooong time ago. Now it just looks at it as a means to squeeze as much money (either directly or indirectly) out of its users. Problem is, they can't immediately start charging people for the more obvious stuff - they need to put little things in there for which they can charge, such as... oh, say, access to your own data stored in the *cough* safety *cough* of the cloud. Those handy AI features, will of course eventually get integrated in *cough* helpful *cough* features in the cloud, which will, again, cost money.
Microsoft is dumping each and every single of its users om a ever so slightly, but oh, so slippery slope of dependence, data extraction, and subscription. It won't happen now, maybe not with Windows 12, but sooner or later it will come from Microsoft and every step on the way is meant to ease you right into it.
Re: Focus on designing an OS ... (Score:1)
As a vegetarian constantly subjected to endless meat ads, do I feel your pain?
Windows 11 is the most user hostile software (Score:3)
Like llms and AI in general it's not for you. It's designed to benefit Microsoft and specifically a handful of the billionaire shareholders at the expense of literally everyone else that ever comes in contact with it.
I have set up before but I really wish Linux would just pick a distro and a package manager to make the standard.
It's too much for users and managerial types to wrap their heads around. As stupid as it sounds you can't just move icons around and not cause major support headaches. It's why Apple traditionally goes out of its way to keep icons and even windows exactly where the user left them.
Re:Windows 11 is the most user hostile software (Score:4, Interesting)
The funny thing is, when some entity (Redhat maybe?) does start to create a one true version of Linux, the sharks move in and start subverting it.
I'm beginning to think that Linus Torvalds greatest contribution isn't creating Linux, but in defending it and fending off those who would distort and corrupt it.
Richard Stallman deserves credit too, for creating the GPL which Torvalds uses. A lot of people don't like the GPL, and I can understand how it sometimes gets in the way, but we need it.
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Slackware is the one true version of Linux. :)
Re: Windows 11 is the most user hostile software (Score:2)
We don't need the GPL. We just need coreutils. There are MIT versions of those tools.
Re: Windows 11 is the most user hostile software (Score:1)
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I have set up before but I really wish Linux would just pick a distro and a package manager to make the standard.
I agree, but as soon as they pick a distro then the flame wars start about how "I don't like that one" ... sigh. We really need a BDfL in charge of the whole thing, but that's not going to happen at this late in time (it would have had to have happened back in the 90's).
At the very least, we do need to pick 1 package manager format and everyone move to that. To make everyone happy, probably best to make something new [insert xkcd link about standards here]. But it seems we can't even agree on a standard pac
And yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
...the advertising and telemetry/data-slurping functions continue to work perfectly.
Are we still talking about Microsoft Windows? (Score:2)
That company's been talked about for years. Are people still talking about Windows? That POS? That is unbelievable.
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C'mon, Microsoft -- you had ONE JOB!
Words fail me here. A company whose core business is an operating system for a single user personal computer, and has had 30 years to perfect it, can't update it without significantly breaking it?
Maybe they should explore other occupations...
Features? How about losing the bottom bar? (Score:2)
A Windows 11 VM that I manage went through an update cycle and, when it was finally finished, the bottom bar was missing.
Like just about all Windows issues, I had to spend a long time googling solutions and trying them, before I eventually landed on the correct solution. I tend to avoid those tiresome Youtube videos that take 10 minutes to tell you that: 1. Their solution is simple and will work, 2, don't forget to subscribe, while failing to acknowledge that there might be other causes for the failure that
Re: Features? How about losing the bottom bar? (Score:2)
Video is the absolute worst way to describe how to fix a software issue.
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It's a feature, not a bug (Score:2)
It's broken by design. This was intentional. Misguided, but intentional.
Clickbait Headline... (Score:2)
While it is easy to hop on the bandwagon, this isn't an issue that strikes at the heart of the shell. It was a set of app packages that didn't get setup in time. There's already a workaround (run a script to register the packages). A notable mistake, but not a fundamental flaw.
Microsoft management buying into way too much AI hype; that will ruin Windows and Office. They have to hope there are enough developers to keep the AI rot at arms length so they can just remove it and you know, just make things work b
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"Microsoft management buying into way too much AI hype;"
It's not just them, Apple has been sucked into the whirlpool too.
Is it Marketing playing follow the buzzwords or the opportunity to drive a whole new hardware replacement cycle? Or is it Advertising all the way down?
this is not really a microsoft problem (Score:1)
Its CI/CD, VIBE, JIRA(JIRA were software goes to die), AI non sense that has afflicted the entire industry. I use windows and unix/kinux oses interchangeably on a daily basis. The latest version of linux are no better. Every upgrade the UI/UX just gets worse.
Its not the FIOS communities fault its not Microsofts fault. After about 2010 there was just nothing else left to add. And to keep there customers(WALLSTREET on comerical side and the few that donate on the FIOS side) they just started adding non sense,
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Its CI/CD, VIBE, JIRA(JIRA were software goes to die), AI non sense that has afflicted the entire industry.
It is exactly a Microsoft problem. An OS that fails after updates has nothing to do with your textwall. While very interesting to get an expert outlook, here is what people want. They want their gaddpammed computer to work after Microsoft updates it. My Mac machines work after updates, My Linux machines work after updates. My shiny new Windows laptop has had two failures already, and I've only had it a month. I have a post below about classes I teach, once upon a time everyone was working after two sessions
Huge regression (Score:1)
MS insider said cheap H1B visa coders are why (Score:1)
Training (Score:3)
For my own part, I switched to Mac based system of the same software. It runs at 100 percent uptime.
Another good option is Linux. I've put together a number of Linux setups which run great. Software syncs with the hardware, and once you get it running, it stays running
The problem isn't that the system cannot run well - the problem is with the number of people who have Windows computers and expect them to work, when the problem is that Microsoft 11 is a disaster. I'm going to have my Cassandra moment, telling some folks where the problem lies. You can't decide where emergencies are going to occur, so they might happen right after an update. And if you update in downtime, you have to set up the system again. Go through it to find what changed, change it back to what it was, and test.
Not ready for primetime. Or any time. MacOS and Linux work, and stay working. Windows 11? No.
moral (Score:2)
The moral of this story is you should only upgrade to Windows version X until after version X+1 has been announced, and shortly before support ends for version X. That is the only way to get a maximally stable version.
But, but, it's FOSS!!! (Score:2)
...and it doesn't really have bugs [linuxiac.com]...
Actually, it's an Office sort-of-clone, so OF COURSE it has bugs. It's Office (inspired).
Because, and read carefully, we all know only Microsoft and its lackey sycophants deliver buggy software.
Not an excuse, just a reality check. Once you get past Hello World, software gets, well, difficult. Film at 11.
Well... (Score:2)
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That's what you get. (Score:2)