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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The new year has brought new bugs to Windows.
- Many of the latest bugs were caused by the January update.
- Some bugs have been fixed, but others remain unresolved.
A new year, a new round of bugs to frustrate Windows users. The major culprit so far? Microsoft’s own January Patch Tuesday update.
Released on Jan. 13, the first major Windows update of the year had a clear mission — to resolve the 114 security vulnerabilities putting Windows users at risk. Several of these were rated critical, while one had already been exploited in the wild. Plus, the January update fixed a few outstanding issues in Windows itself.
Also: Microsoft issues emergency patch for latest Windows bugs – grab it ASAP
Okay, that’s the good news. Now for the bad. This new update has also triggered several bugs of its own. Some have been resolved, but others continue on their merry way. Let’s take a look.
Remote Desktop bug
In one glitch, some people bumped into sign-in problems trying to remotely connect to a Cloud PC via Microsoft’s Remote Desktop. Specifically, the issue affected the authentication required for various Remote Desktop apps, including the Windows app. This one affected Windows 11 25H2, Windows 10 22H2 ESU, and Windows Server 2025.
To resolve this bug, Microsoft rolled out an out-of-band patch on Jan. 17. That patch will appear in Windows Update but only if your version of Windows qualifies and is affected by the specific issue.
Secure Launch bug
In another glitch, some systems with Secure Launch enabled would restart instead of shutting down or going into hibernation mode. Similar to Secure Boot, Secure Launch protects your PC from bootkit malware that tries to infect your system before Windows loads. But whereas Secure Boot is intended for personal and work computers, Secure Launch is designed for managed PCs in an organization. This one impacted only Windows 11 23H2.
Also: How to get free Windows 10 security patches on your PC – from now to October 2026
The Jan. 17 patch also squashed this bug. Again, the fix will appear in Windows Update only if your Windows version qualifies and your computer is affected.
Classic Outlook freeze
Also caused by the Jan. 13 update, the third bug clobbers the classic flavor of Microsoft Outlook. Trying to open Outlook triggers a “Not Responding” message. You can’t even attempt to open or reopen Outlook without ending its process in Task Manager or restarting the PC. If you can get into the program, emails don’t appear in the Sent Items folder even though they’ve been sent. Plus, Outlook keeps redownloading the same emails.
This bug seems to affect Outlook users with PST files stored on OneDrive. The issue also impacts a wide variety of Windows versions, including Windows 11 25H2, Windows 11 24H2, Windows 11 23H2, Windows 10 22H2, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019, Windows Server 2025;, Windows Server 23H2, Windows Server 2022, and Windows Server 2019.
So far, Microsoft has no fix for this one but does suggest a few temporary workarounds. You can use the web version of Outlook instead of the desktop client. You can move your PSTs out of OneDrive and save them in a different spot. That’s a tricky maneuver, so you should consult this support document on How to remove an Outlook .pst data file from OneDrive. Lastly, you might just want to get rid of the problematic Windows Update. For that, check out the support document on How to uninstall a Windows Update.
Apps can’t handle data in the cloud
Here’s another bug related to the Outlook glitch. Also triggered by the Jan. 13 update, this issue may cause some apps to freeze or trigger an error when you try to open files from or save them to cloud-based storage such as OneDrive or Dropbox.
This one affects the same versions of Windows as the Outlook problem. Microsoft said that it’s working on releasing a fix as soon as possible.
Windows apps won’t open
Here’s another inconsistent but annoying bug as described by Sean Endicott at Windows Central. Try to open certain apps, including Notepad, the Snipping Tool, the Armoury Crate software on ASUS computers, or the Alienware Command Center, and you may receive an error code dubbed 0x803f8001.
Based on a response from an independent advisor named Harold Milan to a forum post from an affected user, this error typically pops up when the Microsoft Store can’t validate a license. This could be due to a corrupted Store cache, a temporary Microsoft account sync issue, or a Store registration glitch, Milan explained.
Also: How to upgrade your ‘incompatible’ Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 – for free
Microsoft hasn’t chimed in on this problem. But Windows Central senior editor Ben Wilson said that the Jan. 13 patch actually fixed this on his Windows 11 computer, allowing him to launch his apps normally.
The road ahead
Windows 11 has faced a rough road, especially with the release of 24H2 in October 2024. Throughout the first half of 2025, Microsoft and Windows users had to grapple with a host of bugs, almost one after the other. Even worse, many of the glitches were caused by Microsoft’s own Windows updates. By trying to fix one set of bugs, these updates created new ones.
With the release of 25H2 in October 2025, Microsoft seemed to have fixed most of the outstanding issues. That was especially important as that month marked the official end of support for Windows 10. With only one supported client version of Windows, the onus has been on the company to make sure the OS is as stable and reliable as possible. But clearly that’s not happening, not when regular Windows updates that are supposed to fix problems end up causing new ones.
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