Latest Windows 11 update restores your taskbar control, patches 995 security flaws

Microsoft's recent security updates have caused disruptions to Remote Desktop Services, USB audio devices, and paste functionality in Excel. September's patches have raised concerns about the company's commitment to quality, as the list of known issues suggests further work is required. Reports of problems with Remote Desktop Services (RDS) started appearing on social media shortly after the update, and Microsoft has now confirmed that RDS has been broken for some users across various Windows versions, including Windows 11 26H1 and Windows Server 2012. The issue causes connections to fail after a few minutes and servers to hang indefinitely.

The updates have also impacted virtual machines connected via RDP, which might become inaccessible and require stopping and restarting to regain connectivity temporarily. Microsoft is actively working on a fix for this issue. Another problem concerns some USB Audio Class 1.0 devices on Windows 11 26H1, 25H2, and 24H2. Users of these devices may encounter issues such as no audio, broken sound settings, or problems with multichannel audio.

Switching to two-channel mode has reportedly restored audio for some users, but Microsoft is working on a fix.

Perhaps most concerning for Microsoft productivity users is a fix for Excel that breaks a fundamental spreadsheet function. The paste operation may fail silently, leaving users unaware of the issue with no indication of failure, such as a beep or error message. The affected versions of Excel include 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024. Microsoft acknowledges that users with automatic updating enabled may have automatically downloaded and installed the problematic update.

No workaround has been published, though some users reported resolving the issue by uninstalling and reinstalling Office or using commands to remove the security update. However, removing the update also removes its security fixes, leaving users in a precarious position.