Microsoft rounded off January by adding more devices to the list of those affected by the hibernation issue it claimed had been fixed by an out-of-band update.

The company [1]acknowledged that problems remained via its Release Health Dashboard on January 30. The company noted that Secure Launch-capable PCs with Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) enabled "are also impacted by this issue."

There's no emergency update this time. Instead, Microsoft wrote: "We plan to resolve this issue in a future Windows update."

[2]

The January 13 security update for Windows 11 23H2 left some PCs with Secure Launch [3]unable to shut down or enter hibernation . Instead, the devices restarted. An emergency fix was released on January 19. However, by January 23, the company reported that it was looking into reports that "some devices are still impacted after installing the out-of-band update."

[4]

[5]

Also affected were supported versions of Windows 10 (including 22H2 devices enrolled in Microsoft's Extended Security Updates program).

If sending out an emergency out-of-band update to fix a newly-introduced bug is bad, admitting that the fix might not have resolved all the problems is even worse. Making users wait until a "future Windows update" is disastrous.

[6]

Part of the problem is that the issue was introduced in the January 13 Security Update. Failing to install this could leave customer devices vulnerable. However, installing them could also leave devices borked. In these cases, devices would continue humming along after customers instructed them to hibernate or shut down.

[7]Microsoft's 'atypical' emergency Windows patches are becoming awfully typical

[8]Sat Nad declares Windows 11 has a billion users – just don't bother asking for details

[9]Old Windows quirks help punch through new admin defenses

[10]Microsoft probes Windows 11 boot failures tied to January security updates

Secure Launch is one of Microsoft's boot hardening features. VSM is a hypervisor facility on which Windows security features, including Device Guard, Credential Guard, virtual TPMs, and shielded VMs, are based. It remains unclear what change Microsoft made that caused the issue, just that the out-of-band update did not resolve the problem for affected devices with VSM enabled.

The day before Microsoft acknowledged the latest problem, Windows boss Pavan Davuluri [11]told The Verge that the company would focus on improving the operating system's reliability.

Two years ago, another Windows manager [12]pledged to "make Start menu great again." The result? [13]A great... big Start Menu .

Hopefully, Davuluri's promises won't simply result in yet more Copilot content being shoved into Windows rather than addressing whatever went wrong in Redmond that led to a start to the year as bad as 2026's. ®

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[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-23H2#some-devices-might-fail-to-shut-down-or-hibernate

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aYDYMwQAU4P7GIN-xSDwtAAAAUU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/16/patch_tuesday_secure_launch_bug_no_shutdown/

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYDYMwQAU4P7GIN-xSDwtAAAAUU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aYDYMwQAU4P7GIN-xSDwtAAAAUU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYDYMwQAU4P7GIN-xSDwtAAAAUU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/02/microsoft_quality_control/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/29/windows_11_billion/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/28/google_windows_admin_exploit/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/26/microsoft_probes_windows_11_boot/

[11] https://www.theverge.com/tech/870045/microsoft-windows-11-issues-rebuilding-trust-notepad

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/03/windows_11_start_great_again/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/10/microsoft_rolls_out_windows_11/

[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/