Microsoft blames 'latent code issue' after Windows 11 upgrades sneak past admin blockades
- Reference: 1744825820
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/16/windows_11_bypasses_admin_polices/
- Source link:
The problem, according to the mega-corp's advisory on the issue, is that "a recent service change uncovered a latent code issue, causing impact." Not all users are affected, but those who are will see an invitation to upgrade to Windows 11 regardless of how their IT admins have configured Intune, Microsoft's own PC management tool. We asked Microsoft for more details, and will update the article should the biz respond.
According to one Register reader: "We have thousands of devices affected. Users are definitely not kicking it off themselves and the affected devices are 100 percent excluded from the policy, but somehow appear not to be."
[1]
Users who received the Windows 11 upgrade will need to be manually rolled back to the correct Windows version. As a workaround, Microsoft recommends administrators in affected orgs pause Windows Feature Updates until the Azure titan can deploy a fix.
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As of Wednesday, Microsoft said: "We've completed the development, testing and validation process for our targeted code fix and are deploying it in an effort to prevent additional impact and resolve the code issue."
Folks might remember the [4]Windows Server 2025 incident from November 2024, when the new operating system was inadvertently published as a security update and was dutifully installed by patch management services before horrified administrators could dive for the off button.
[5]Windows 11 stops freaking out over wallpaper customization
[6]Microsoft total recalls Recall totally to Copilot+ PCs
[7]Microsoft lists seven habits of highly effective Windows 11 users
[8]Windows 11 poised to beat 10, mostly because it has to
This latest SNAFU, which has yet another bit of dodgy code at its root, has taken Windows 11 as a feature update and bypassed Intune policies to prevent installation. Unlike the Windows Server 2025 fiasco, this appears to be going through Microsoft's own management platform.
Imagine the surprise of sitting down in front of your Windows PC and finding a whole new operating system waiting for you. We can only offer our sympathy to affected helpdesks and administrators.
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As for Microsoft, the root cause of "a latent code issue" is troubling. The question must be asked: What other "latent code issues" might still be hiding in its stack, waiting to trigger another outage or quietly push unwanted updates onto customer devices?
Thanks to Register reader Gerry for the tip. Feel free to [10]let us know your Microsoft woes, too, as and when they crop up, in confidence if you wish. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/06/windows_server_2025_surprise/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/14/windows_11_24h2_hold/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/11/microsoft_windows_recall/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/09/microsoft_windows_11_tips/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/windows_11_market_share/
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[10] https://www.theregister.com/Author/Email/Richard-Speed
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Who's the boss?
A fondant fancy? Mmmmm. Yum.
It is almost as though Microsoft will stop at nothing to get people running Windows 11. Good job they are restrained by all these management tools and agreements so that your ownership of the hardware ensures your choice wins
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Upvoted
Upvote again
And a pint for good measure
format C: /fs:FAT32 /q
Amazing how well that works. Follow that up with an EXT4 OS install and life gets so much simpler.
Unless you have to sign documents using a hardware token and then you're SOL.
Huh?
"a recent service change uncovered a latent code issue, causing impact.
Been using this stuff since NT4, wtf does that mean?
Left hand doesn't know what the right foot is kicking?
It really sounds like what you would tell a C or D level when stuff goes sideways...
latent code issue
Just in time for Easter.
Re: latent code issue
Rising from the dead?
Marketing @ work
The propaganda department mission is to give bad things a good voice.
"Surprise neutron surplus" -> Reactor is about to explode. RUN! If you still can.
"Fast metal-flesh integration" -> You've been shot. RUN! If you still can.
...
Comrade, you WILL upgrade to Windows 11
Right?
> Imagine the surprise of sitting down in front of your Windows PC and finding a whole new operating system waiting for you. We can only offer our sympathy to affected helpdesks and administrators.
What about the unsuspecting person actually doing the sitting down and finding a whole new steaming pile waiting for them? Won't someone think of the users?
-A.
The Interns at Microsoft are really getting into their stride this month. Wait! They only have Interns these days, and they seem to be replaced monthly!
Whoops, missed that...
Trivial, banal mistakes of just simply "missing" something have been absolutely *plaguing* Microsoft for the past few years.
I have to think it's their recent attempts at "dogfooding," as one article recently mentioned: They, at MS, use the tech in-house as/before they deploy it to the world at large. (Longhorn was a pain - whether your computer would boot that day, or whether you could develop with it, ... and then it was cancelled.)
Microsoft's biggest, recent thing? AI. They're pushing it in Github, aren't they pushing it in Visual Studio as well? Copilot. So many of these errors look like simple things that are missed simply by not understanding the problem, not thinking through things. So many of these errors look like the result of throwing "AI" at a coding problem, and it *appears* to work, it compiles, but you don't understand it, haven't considered it, aren't aware of the relations between things, and don't even realize that you've not clearly articulated (to a computer! technically!!) what you want. It gives you *something*, and that seems to be good enough.
If AI is capable of "this", then developers will have to learn a new coding language: how to instruct AI to get the desired output, and if there is AI development at Microsoft, then Microsoft hasn't yet been able to retrain their workforce.
Re: Whoops, missed that...
And all these buttons to "focus" things/apps/data. All I've ever seen happen when the "focus" thing gets turned on is that stuff I need to see, be made aware or, refer to etc all gets hidden. If I need to focus on a specific task, then I'm fully capable of managing to ignore all the other shit that MS and others try to fling at me by simply closing the stuff I don't need right now.
Who's the boss?
> Intune policies turn out to be mere suggestions
Just a passing fancy actually. Apparently nothing to be concerned with.