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Windows 11’s big new update (known as “Moment 2”) has been released as a preview, but it has a dangerous side effect for some people who have modified the operating system’s interface – a bug that prevents the PC from works boot.
Of course that’s a big, big problem and Microsoft has marked it as a known issue (spotted by Bleeping Computer (opens in new tab)) in the support document (opens in new tab) for the cumulative preview update (KB5022913).
Microsoft notes that some third-party UI customization apps may cause errors with Explorer.exe that may repeat in a loop. That’s File Explorer for the uninitiated, and it’s the central pillar of the Windows 11 interface (the folders and files you work with on the desktop).
The company lists ExplorerPatcher and StartAllBack as the well-known apps that delve into the wonderful world of affected Windows customizations. Though it notes that StartAllBack users running version 3.5.6 (or newer) can avoid the bug.
Microsoft warns: “These types of apps often use unsupported methods to modify them and can therefore produce unintended results on your Windows device.”
Analysis: not so magical moments for some
In other words, it’s not our fault, and in this case we can give Microsoft some leeway. The whole series of gremlins could well be wrapped up in how said customization apps work, and since they are niche cases, they could have slipped through the testnet until now.
Of course, we should also remember that this cumulative update is still in preview, which means it’s optional and as with anything that’s still in the testing phase, unexpected issues may arise.
Basically, you’d love to have the Bing AI on your taskbar, or Phone Link for iOS, or any of the other key features Moment 2 introduces, but be aware that you may run into issues here and there.
We don’t know if other customization apps might experience similar launch issues, though there’s no evidence yet that this is the case. That said, Stardock, which makes the popular Start11, has taken notice Twitter (opens in new tab) that KB5022913 can cause strange behavior with taskbar colors, but only on secondary monitors, so that’s a very minor issue compared to boot failure. Start11 is also getting an update to fix this.
For now, for anyone using a third-party custom UI, it’s best to avoid the new Windows 11 update until it leaves preview, just to be on the safe side.
