Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/microsoft-january-2026-patch-tuesday-fixes-3-zero-days-114-flaws/

   bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/windows-11-kb5074109-and-kb5073455-cumulative-updates-released/

   bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/microsoft-releases-windows-10-kb5073724-extended-security-update/

   While Microsoft is starting their slow rollout to implement or activate the newer secure boot certificate, from what I can tell the groundwork was already laid by October last year, so chances are [IMHO] nothing out of the ordinary to cause problems. And I haven't experienced or read of any, though there were a couple of bugs mainly targeting corporate IT, which Microsoft quickly issued fixes for [because it was corp. IT].

   bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/microsoft-releases-oob-windows-updates-to-fix-shutdown-cloud-pc-bugs/

   "... January 2026 Patch Tuesday with security updates for 114 flaws, including one actively exploited and two publicly disclosed zero-day vulnerabilities.

   This Patch Tuesday also addresses eight "Critical" vulnerabilities, 6 of which are remote code execution flaws and 2 are elevation-of-privilege flaws.

   The number of bugs in each vulnerability category is listed below:

   57 Elevation of Privilege vulnerabilities
   3 Security Feature Bypass vulnerabilities
   22 Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities
   22 Information Disclosure vulnerabilities
   2 Denial of Service vulnerabilities
   5 Spoofing vulnerabilities

   Posted 3 weeks ago #
2. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   I guess I spoke too soon when I said I hadn't seen or read of any big problems. Microsoft has not acknowledged them [yet?], but some folks are saying that the January update breaks S3 sleep on some, mainly older PCs. One user posted than unplugging a USB webcam fixed the problem for them. Windows Central reported that some users were posting: "The error code 0x803f8001 is appearing for many when trying to open apps on their PC. File system error (-2143322111) also appears on affected systems." That article has a note that the fixes Microsoft released [link in 1st post] fixed that.

   One problem that Microsoft has confirmed, that IMHO probably effects no one here, is that using Classic Outlook [the old version mail app that comes with Office] with POP email accounts [most everyone moved to IMAP ages ago], that have Outlook's PST files [that file stores everything, from accounts to messages] stored on OneDrive, won't work after installing January's patch. Microsoft goes on to say that if you cannot use Web Mail, and cannot move the PST file somewhere besides OneDrive, you can uninstall the January update [if you want] if you can't wait for a fix. Microsoft notes that other apps that open files stored in the cloud, or that store files there, may also have problems.

   support.microsoft[.]com/en-us/office/classic-outlook-profiles-with-pop-accounts-and-psts-hang-after-windows-updates-on-january-13-2026-590fe356-ecc2-49f4-b9e3-bd39fafa58f6#wl

   Unfortunately that 3rd option has been turned into clickbait by several sites -- if I'm being generous one site came up with the clickbait and others followed suit without actually researching anything. The bottom line, NO, Microsoft is NOT telling everyone to uninstall the January update.

   Posted 3 weeks ago #
3. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/microsoft-releases-emergency-oob-update-to-fix-outlook-freezes/

   support.microsoft[.]com/en-us/topic/january-24-2026-kb5078127-os-builds-26200-7628-and-26100-7628-out-of-band-cf5777f6-bb4e-4adb-b9cd-2b64df577491

   support.microsoft[.]com/en-us/topic/january-24-2026-kb5078129-os-builds-19045-6812-and-19044-6812-out-of-band-cfbdbb30-81eb-49ff-ada2-c2af09aa7c1e

   Microsoft is rolling out an out-of-band update to fix the problem with files stored in the cloud, e.g., with Classic Outlook. It's cumulative, with everything released so far, including the earlier out-of-band update this January. I've seen it in one copy of Win11, but it's not been available yet checking for updates in a copy Win10, so it's apparently one of their staggered rollouts, where it's a lottery.

   In a purely FWIW note, I've seen a LOT of reports this week that January's update caused several different problems, but a quick bit of research into each one has failed to back up those claims. Some of them may be legit, but apparently few people reported them -- too few to hint at a real trend.

   One example concerns Win11's Sandbox. One article pointed to a thread on Reddit claiming December's patch broke it, December's optional patch fixed it, & January's patch broke it again. A Google search shows a fair number of problems with the sandbox, but spread over the last year, at least, without the expected December or January spikes. In my experience Win11's Sandbox sorta sucks [I don't have it enabled or use it], so the assorted problem reports are just what I'd expect. And after Googling I'm more inclined to believe that yeah, people had problems with Win11's sandbox, but no more so than previous months. I could be proven wrong, but so far I don't see any reason to warn folks about it.

   Posted 3 weeks ago #
4. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/microsoft-investigates-windows-11-boot-failures-after-january-updates/

   From what I've been able to find, one site posted that [very?] few people were reporting that, after installing January's update, their PC would not boot [start], with the error message "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME". Microsoft allegedly is asking anyone effected to post to the Feedback Hub so they can start to get a handle on how many and the specifics. I performed several Google searches using different wording and could find nothing other than several sites parroting the original post. Without any further info it's pretty much impossible to do more than guess at possible causes, much less possible cures. Windows Central posted a how-to on uninstalling the update after booting to the Recovery Environment or booting to a Windows installation USB stick, which is again a guess that may or may not help. If it's related to the rolling out of the newer secure boot certificate, from what I can tell the new related files were added to Windows & Windows boot loader last fall, and so wouldn't cause a problem now. That would hint that it's possibly the [attempted] addition of the certificate to the BIOS, and that those effected might need to turn off secure boot, &/or that the BIOS itself was effected [broken?].

   windowscentral[.]com/microsoft/windows-11/how-to-fix-boot-issues-after-installing-the-january-2026-update-for-windows-11

   Posted 3 weeks ago #
5. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   neowin[.]net/news/microsoft-confirms-some-pcs-cannot-boot-after-recent-update-explains-what-happened/

   theverge[.]com/news/869199/microsoft-windows-11-unmountable-boot-volume-issue-january-2026-update

   I've run a few Google searches every day to see if Microsoft published anything related to the failure to boot, and so far nothing. The Verge post, which is a copy of a post on X [Twitter], says Microsoft had released a message for corp. IT -- they're the Only ones effected. Many IT dept.s don't use Windows Update the way that individual users like us use. What Microsoft says happened is that some PCs &/or laptops under their administration failed to install December's security update, and used the Windows Roll Back feature to revert back to their state before attempting the update. Only they didn't completely roll back to that earlier state, but were left somewhere in between -- Microsoft called it an improper state. Attempting to install January's up date while in that improper state resulted in the PCs/laptops not booting.

   Recent investigations have determined this issue can occur on devices that failed to install the December 2025 security update and were left in an improper state after rolling back the update. Attempting to install Windows updates while in this improper state could result in the device being unable to boot. We are working on a partial resolution that will prevent additional devices from resulting in a no-boot scenario if they try to install an update while in this improper state. However, this partial resolution will not prevent devices from getting into the improper state in the first place, nor will it repair devices that are already unable to boot. We continue to investigate why these devices are failing to install Windows updates or
   potentially getting into this improper state.

   Posted 2 weeks ago #
6. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   windowscentral[.]com/microsoft/windows-11/windows-11-update-kb5074109-breaks-modems-for-some-users-but-it-is-not-a-bug

   I expect that this will effect no one reading this, but I'm posting it just in case. January's update removed some old modem drivers that were considered insecure, which of course broke some modems.

   Posted 2 weeks ago #
7. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   neowin[.]net/news/nvidia-blames-recent-windows-11-updates-for-gaming-issues-on-your-pc/

   January's 2nd, optional Windows update is out, we're 5 days away from February's update, and here I'm still posting about reported issues from January's Update Tuesday. Now NVIDIA's blaming the update for lowering gaming performance using their graphics cards. They don't yet know why, just that removing the update restores performance.

   Posted 1 week ago #

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