New Delhi: Microsoft’s first Patch Tuesday cycle of 2026 has landed with damage control already in play. An emergency update is now rolling out after a January
security patch left some Windows users staring at a screen that simply would not shut down. For many, clicking Shut down led to a restart loop instead. Hibernate behaved the same way. The problem hit at a time when people expected stability, not a workaround hunt.
The company has now pushed what it calls an “out-of-band” update to fix the mess. The patch addresses two serious failures that slipped through testing. One blocked proper shutdown on select Windows 11 machines. The other broke remote sign-ins across Windows 10 and Windows 11. For users relying on Remote Desktop for work, that second bug landed like a brick on a Monday morning.
What exactly went wrong after the January update
Microsoft confirmed that the shutdown issue affected Windows 11 systems using Secure Launch. This feature is meant to protect devices from firmware-level attacks during startup. Instead, some PCs refused to power off or hibernate and only restarted when users tried.
On the remote access side, Microsoft explained on its “Known issues page” that login attempts failed due to credential prompt problems. The issue hit both Windows 10 and Windows 11 users trying to connect remotely, including those on Extended Security Updates.
The emergency patches KB5077744 and KB5077797 are now rolling out via Windows Update. Microsoft said once installed, affected PCs should return to normal behaviour.
A familiar pattern for Windows users
Reports from WindowsLatest suggest the January update is still causing trouble for some users. Complaints include blank screens and Outlook Classic crashes. This adds to a growing list of Windows 11 update mishaps over the past year.
Users still remember:
- A Task Manager bug that refused to close and slowly locked system resources
- A File Explorer update that blasted dark mode users with a white screen
- A broken Windows Recovery Environment that made recovery tools useless
