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Latest Windows 11 update cripples PCs. What to do if you’re affected

Vaseline August 23, 2024

Last week, Microsoft released the cumulative update KB5041585 for Windows. This update includes a number of improvements and security patches, and also addresses the BitLocker BSOD issue.

But what seems to be a trend this year is that this Windows update brings with it some serious side effects.

According to IT blog Borncity (German), patch KB5041585 can cause Windows 11 PCs to crash due to sky-high CPU usage. And according to Windows Latest, the patch can’t even be installed at all on some PCs. Complaints from affected users can be found on social media, such as in this Reddit thread.

Windows Latest cites several affected users, including these:

“This problem started when the updates were installed this morning. Any light heavy applications, like Adobe Photoshop or Audition, or games like Devil And World of Warcraft keep crashing, and this is the only change this PC has had since last month’s updates. Dialog says ‘XXX program is using too much memory and needs to close’ even though Task Manager says I’m only using 18% and there’s over 900GB of free space on the drive. This has never been a problem until today.”

Windows Latest continues: “KB5041585 has also resulted in high CPU usage, with some users reporting that their CPU is constantly at 100%, causing everything to run slowly and timeouts to occur frequently.”

What to do if you are affected

At this time, the only guaranteed way to resolve these issues is to go to Settings > Windows Update > Update Historythen scroll all the way down and select Remove updatesthen click To delete next to the item list for the KB5041585 update.

A warning: Since this cumulative update fixes multiple security vulnerabilities, uninstalling the update is a breeze. not recommended.

Alternatively, you may find relief by disabling Control Flow Guard. You can do this by Windows Securityselect App and browser management in the left navigation, scroll down to Exploit protectionclick on Exploit security settingsand then the Control Current Protection (CFG) set to Disabled by default.

Another warning: Control Flow Guard is an important Windows security feature that protects you from memory corruption exploits. If you end up disabling it, make sure to re-enable it when a proper fix is released. Otherwise, you’ll leave yourself open to malicious attacks.

There are rumors that Microsoft is aware of the issue and is working on a fix. However, the official support page for this patch still states: “Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.”