ZDNET's key takeaways The January Windows update introduced a couple of new bugs.The glitches affect Windows 11 and 10 and Windows Server.Microsoft has issued emergency patches to resolve the problems.

If you weren't able to shut down your Windows 11 device recently, Microsoft has rolled out an emergency fix addressing a couple of critical bugs that popped up with its latest January 2026 Windows security update.

Microsoft's January 2026 security update for Windows 11 has triggered some highly disruptive system issues, users report. As a result, Microsoft rushed this weekend to release emergency updates that fix some problems, but not others.

That surprising revelation came from Windows Latest, which spotted Chrome pinned to the Windows 11 taskbar in one of Microsoft’s own ads, published on its own YouTube channel. With the furor now past, Microsoft has now fixed the mistake.

Windows 11 had a rough 2025. We tracked the top 20 Windows 11 issues reported by Windows Latest, from failed updates to broken features.

Microsoft has issued an urgent fix for Windows 11 after a recent security update caused several major issues with the operating system. One of the bugs prevented some systems from shutting down or hibernating properly,

Microsoft confirmed that the KB5074109 January Windows 11 security update causes the classic Outlook desktop client to freeze and hang for users with POP email accounts.

Microsoft is also thought to be testing video backgrounds, but that's still missing from the latest preview build.

Microsoft is preparing to ship a new version of Windows 11 that will be available exclusively on new PCs that ship with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 SoC.