- More bugs discovered in Windows 11 December Update
- They include some nasty issues with the Start menu crashing.
- There is a workaround for the Start menu issue that most users will probably see, but only tech-savvy people should ask for it.
Microsoft’s December 2024 Update for Windows 11 Reportedly Introduced even more frustrating problems for some users, including a bug that causes the Start menu to stop responding.
These issues, and some other bugs, have been reported for cumulative updates KB5048667 for Windows 11 24H2 and KB5048685 for Windows 11 23H2, according to Windows Latest.
There appear to be a few separate issues related to the Windows 11 Start menu, the first of which is a visual issue where the menu’s search theme incorrectly displays as white when the user has a dark theme on Windows.
As a user of a dark theme, I could see this being very annoying and obviously visually inconsistent, although it’s not certain that it’s a widespread bug by any means.
What’s more worrying is that there are apparently bugs that break the Start menu after applying the mentioned updates.
Windows Latest explains that the Start menu may stop working entirely if Windows 11 detects that your system has an older version of a particular DLL file (MSVCP_140_APP.dll).
The technology site suggests a Possible solution that requires updating this packagebut I would only recommend trying this if you’re really sure you know what you’re doing. Otherwise, if you are affected, the only other way out is to get rid of the December 2024 update or endure a non-working Start menu until Microsoft investigates this (and hopefully implements a fix).
There is another bug in Windows 11 that apparently causes the Start menu to drop in a similar way, but the average user won’t encounter this as it only affects Citrix users (in enterprises) using Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). ). . That will be up to IT administrators to figure out.
More errors in the latest Windows 11 update
There are other issues related to these December Windows 11 patches that have been reported by individual users.
One is the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ icon that constantly remains on the taskbar, and another isolated report claims that the screen looks dull after installing Windows 11 23H2 KB5048685. That could be involved in the HDR-related issues that Microsoft recently confirmedmaybe.
It’s the Start menu issues that are especially concerning here, as it’s a crucial part of Windows 11 that’s hard to avoid completely. With many bug reports in recent times, particularly with Windows 11 24H2It seems like Microsoft needs to up its game and try to make cumulative updates more stable upon release.
Hopefully, the company will be quick and alert in investigating and subsequently fixing this latest batch of reported bugs.
