Microsoft’s first big Windows 11 refresh of the year is going so badly that the company is telling people to pull the update before it wrecks their systems. Instead of quietly fixing bugs in the background, the January patches are freezing Classic Outlook, breaking shutdown, tanking game performance, and in some cases leaving PCs stuck on black screens. For once, the safest move for many users is not to install the latest code, but to rip it back out.
At the center of the mess is security and quality update KB5074109 for Windows 11, which was supposed to be a routine Patch Tuesday release and has instead turned into a rolling crisis. Microsoft is now openly recommending that some customers uninstall the update, while racing out emergency fixes and promising more detailed guidance as engineers work through the fallout.
How a routine Patch Tuesday spiraled into a crisis
The trouble started with what should have been a standard Patch Tuesday rollout for Windows 11, including KB5074109 for the 24H2 and 25H2 releases. That package was billed as a regular security and reliability refresh, the kind of thing most people let install automatically overnight, yet reports quickly stacked up of systems slowing down, apps crashing, and features misbehaving after the Windows update landed. According to one detailed breakdown, KB5074109 was meant to deliver security fixes plus a few non security quality and stability tweaks, but instead it has been linked to performance drops and broken features across multiple configurations.
Microsoft has acknowledged that the January 2026 Update is problematic, confirming that the first wave of patches for the year introduced issues on both client and server platforms. The company has already documented problems affecting Windows 11 and Windows Server, and has started shipping targeted fixes for at least two bugs tied to the January Update. In parallel, Microsoft has warned that it will update its public guidance as more information becomes available and has even pointed millions of PC owners to instructions on how to uninstall a Windows Update if they are hit.
Outlook failures, black screens, and shutdown bugs
The most visible damage is hitting email. Classic Outlook profiles that use POP accounts and PST files are hanging or repeatedly redownloading messages after the January patches, leaving office workers staring at frozen inboxes instead of getting through their day. Microsoft’s own support documentation confirms that Classic Outlook profiles with POP accounts and PSTs can hang after Windows updates on January 13, with some users seeing Outlook redownloading emails from scratch. The company has gone so far as to say that uninstalling Windows 11 KB5074109 is the recommended way to fix Outlook POP and PST hangs, and has warned that some apps might show error messages such as 0x803F8001 until a more permanent Microsoft fix is available.
Beyond email, users are reporting black screens, application crashes, and even PCs that refuse to shut down properly after installing the January 2026 update for Windows 11. One roundup of Issues spotted in Windows 11 Jan 2026 update lists freezing in Outlook, black screens, and application crashes as common symptoms, while another community thread describes how the Windows 11 January 2026 Update Triggers Black Screens, Update Triggers Black, Outlook Failures, and Emergency Patches after Microsoft’s first Patch Tuesday of the year. On top of that, Microsoft’s first Windows 11 update of 2026 has been linked to a shutdown bug that prevents some systems from turning off correctly, prompting the company to issue an emergency fix once it became clear that the Microsoft rollout was causing PCs to hang on power off attempts.
Microsoft’s rare rollback warning and emergency patches
What makes this episode stand out is not just the number of bugs, but the way Microsoft is responding. Instead of quietly listing known issues and waiting for the next monthly cycle, the company is actively urging Windows 11 users to uninstall KB5074109 after widespread bug reports, saying that from performance drops to broken features, the patch is causing enough trouble that a rollback is the safest path. One widely shared advisory notes that Microsoft is urging Windows 11 users to uninstall update KB5074109 after widespread bug reports, and that the company is recommending a rollback rather than asking people to wait for a fix. A separate guide walks through how Windows 11 users are dealing with yet another update headache and explains that Microsoft is openly telling people to uninstall the update after error messages such as 0x803F8001.
At the same time, the company is racing out out-of-band patches to contain the damage. Microsoft Offers Windows 11 Emergency Fixes Following Buggy January Update, with one set of patches resolving two major issues and a third still under investigation, including problems tied to Windows 365 and Virtual Desktop, according to Microsoft Offers Windows Emergency Fixes Following Buggy January Update. Another emergency patch targets only Windows 11 23H2, after Microsoft confirmed that After installing the January 13 Windows security update for Windows 11, version 23H2, some users saw new issues that required a special After patch. The company has also shipped KB5077744 and KB5077797 as out-of-band updates that fix shutdown and sign in bugs on Windows 11 25H2, 24H2, and 23H2, with KB5077744 and KB5077797 specifically called out as the fixes for those power and sign in problems.
Gamers, enterprises, and Outlook users all feel the hit
The fallout from KB5074109 and its siblings is not limited to office workers. PC gamers are reporting sudden frame rate drops on NVIDIA GPUs after installing the Windows January 2026 update, with some titles stuttering or dipping well below their usual performance. One troubleshooting guide notes that this update, dubbed KB5074109, is the routine security and quality release for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, and explains how Microsoft users can try to fix NVIDIA GPU FPS drops due to the Windows January 2026 update. Meanwhile, enterprise admins are grappling with broken sign in flows and lock screen password option bugs, which have forced Microsoft to release out-of-band emergency updates to restore affected functionality, as described in a note that Microsoft released out-of-band emergency updates to restore affected functionality.
For Outlook users, the guidance is unusually blunt. The January 2026 update for Windows has been causing a lot of errors, including a new issue that is breaking the classic Outlook app, and Microsoft is telling users to uninstall the Windows 11 January 2026 update to fix the Outlook app or use Outlook web instead, according to a report that notes The January 2026 update for Windows has been causing a lot of errors. Another analysis points out that according to said reports, Windows 11 PCs that installed the KB5074109 update on Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday for January 2026 are experiencing a wide range of issues, and that the KB5074109 update is a mandatory update that addresses security but is also linked to Outlook not yet being fully According solved. In the background, Microsoft is also juggling other security obligations, such as an advisory where Microsoft has released an advisory along with fixes for an HTTP MS ASX File Format issue, which underscores how many moving parts the company is trying to secure while its flagship desktop update misfires.
More from Morning Overview