Microsoft suspects some PCs might not boot after Windows 11 January 2026 Update

[jampa]

I am glad that I don't need to use Windows anymore. When I did, the LTSC version (the one made for ATM and Kiosks) was the only one that was productivity-friendly.

Microsoft doesn't want to accept that no one cares about Windows, and the OS is the thing that gets you to the thing you want to do.

I saw 2 instances of people getting "updating windows" in their personal laptops when they tried to present something and lost everyone's time. I imagine this happens a lot of times every day. And now they are just breaking everyone's system by forcing updates as well.

[kyriakos]

If nobody cared about windows there wouldn't be any posts like this one everyday on HN. The problem is people do care and need to use windows which makes all these stupidity by Microsoft the recent years frustrating.

[MegaDeKay]

LTSC is what mainstream Windows should be. It doesn't load up a bunch of apps you don't ask for or throw ads in your face all the time. Solid, dependable, reliable, and stable.

[breakingcups]

Windows IoT (Formerly Windows Embedded) is the version made for ATMs and Kiosks.

Windows LTSC is meant for organisations favoring stability over new features.

Funnily enough, Windows IoT also has an LTSC version.

[Moldoteck]

Msoft understands the position very well, that's precisely why updates are so bad. Windows is just an entrypoint. The actual critical parts are office suite, teams, visual studio & stuff - they are the cash cows and can't be easily replaced, hence windows will be picked even if it's hated

[pinkmuffinere]

> “ Microsoft has received a limited number…”

I always find this wording funny; the “limited” conveys no information but downplays the issue in a non-specific way. I wish we could have standardized writing guidelines for press reports, to call out such weasel words

[Bluescreenbuddy]

I deployed it to a few machines here at my job and thankfully we've had zero issues. The outlook issue is for POP accounts and if you're using outlook, you're probably using Exchange. The RDP issue is for modern RDP clients like the Windows App (we use the the old RDP app since we're mostly on prem) and so far no one has experienced any boot issues. We use one OEM across a few models. I'm hoping it stays this smooth one it's fully deployed.

[__del__]

we'll be working on that very strongly in the next period of time

[quietsegfault]

Imagine if they received an unlimited or infinite number of reports!

[nsoonhui]

Last Thursday windows 11 forced this update on my Acer machine. It caused me BSOD: inaccessible boot device, so I had to reformat my machine to get Windows running again.

So I am now very wary of this Out of Band Update[0], especially when it's not mentioned whether the latest update solve my issue or not. I don't know the same problem is still there, or whether this update makes the problem any better or worse.

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46750358

[heroprotagonist]

Ugh. I wondered what that was. I had to reformat due to inaccessible boot device as well, I thought the SSD had gone bad.

But I left it after the install, annoyed into abandoning the laptop to the shelf at the no-network first-login workaround to avoid a Microsoft account. I hate all the fresh laptop setup that's required afterwards to make Windows tolerable.

[prmoustache]

> so I had to reformat my machine to get Windows running again.

I can hear everyone in choir saying "but why would you do that?"

If Microsoft would ever do that to me in an update, I would install an immutable Linux distro on my machine and run windows as a VM (only if I had a strong requirement for it). That way you can do snapshots you can restore from easily.

[voxadam]

I suppose that's one way to make Windows secure, keep it from running entirely.

[bdcravens]

I switched to Macs almost completely for personal and devlopment use about 13 or 14 years ago. However, last year I started a 3d printing side hustle, and got an HP laptop for running the print studio since the amount of hardware I could get for less than $1000 was hard to ignore. However, things like this, and other weird issues (my fonts have gone all wonky a couple of times after random updates) make me want to switch it over to a Linux distro (even though the software support for what I need is much better in the Windows world, and in some cases, better than even on the Mac)

[ForestCritter]

I have embroidery software and cs3 suite that won't run on linux so I'm planning an offline windows 8.1 just for them on an old computer.

[edg5000]

> the software support for what I need is much better in the Windows world

Please elaborate; can you name a few tools and what you use them for? Just curious.

[calrain]

Just today I dumped Windows 11 and moved to Linux, lots to learn but wow, so nice not to be inside their walls.

[guessmyname]

> Just today I dumped Windows 11 and moved to Linux, lots to learn but wow, so nice not to be inside their walls.

Well, best of luck. I don’t regret switching from Windows to Linux decades ago, I learned a lot, but I can’t say the problems ever stopped. If anything, I ran into more issues than I did on Windows, many of them caused by things I did at the command line, and others due to quirks or bugs in open‑source software. Still, it was a long learning journey that ended up helping my career. I’m not sure you’ll have the same steep learning curve we did back then, but I hope the switch pays off for you.

[tsoukase]

Fact is that the massive number of CPUs worldwide run heavy versions of Windows and consume valuable energy while running Linux they whould be idle.

[anonymars]

Sure. Sleep mode says "hello"

[jackblemming]

How is this not considered destruction of property? How about big tech plays by the same rules as everyone else?

[michaelmrose]

Because destruction of property is when you destroy property and windows can be reinstalled and even preserve the prior installations files.

[ForestCritter]

Fixed my son's computer by shredding all evidence of Microsoft off his computer and installing Linux Devuan OS. Fortunatly his files were all stored on his separate ssd dut to a previous issue.

[pizlonator]

I had to renuke one of my gaming PCs this month so yeah

Except I think the problem happened just before Jan 13

But symptoms were almost exactly what TFA says

[notepad0x90]

This shouldn't have happened, but my advice is to have a backup of your PCs that can be easily restored, regardless of the OS. I've had boot device hardware failures, file systems corrupted,etc.. with Linux and Windows alike (not yet with little mac though, I assume it's just a matter of time).

[leptons]

Simple fix, move to Linux. (unless you're forced to use it like I am at work, for security theater reasons)

[captain_coffee]

"suspects".... they are not 100% sure guys, there is only a vague suspicion that "some" users "might"

Can't believe how low Microsoft have sunk and how fast in the last few years

[bfrog]

Perhaps its because SpywareOS is being written by Copilot with zero supervision by a bunch of monkeys with keyboards bashing away? WorstOS ever.

[kshri24]

Microsoft needs to go back to basics and keep the OS dead simple. No AI cruft. AI is good only for certain categories and specific ways of integration. It falls apart quickly if you do not know how to glue things together properly and just use it in anything and everything (for example: adding AI to Notepad was the stupidest thing Microsoft could do).

[direwolf20]

Why does Microsoft need to do these things to retain shareholder value?

[mrkramer]

Windows is so big and dominant, the only way that they can lose market share is to shoot themselves in the foot. And that's exactly what they are doing every now and then. But the question is, when will real Windows apocalypse begin?

[exploraz]

Related:

Windows 11 update KB5074109 is breaking systems – Microsoft says uninstall it (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46725053)

[JaggerFoo]

You mean the one I just downloaded and updated my laptop with? It installed OK.

I usually use MacOS and Linux, it's just that some software is Windows only, and I run MacOS on Apple Silicon - the windows program I needed only uses x86-64 architecture, so I can't use parallels (AFAIK).

I'm kind of hoping I get an update that bricks my laptop so I can install Debian over this MS Windows hellscape and run windows on a VM when needed. I may do it anyways after I get fed up with nagging MS messages and workarounds.

[stuaxo]

I suspect a company needs to pay some damages.

Now, where's the Louis Rossman video on this?

[NetMageSCW]

He can’t create it because his PC won’t boot.

[RobinHirst11]

waiting for his video too, XD

[RobinHirst11]

man, its safer NOT to update than it is TO update... microslop fell hard

[lofaszvanitt]

And noone asks why Windows looks, feels and operates the way it is. Isn't it strange that a megacorp creates these watermelon headed monstrosities and it gets worse after each iteration?

[commandersaki]

Hasn't the answer always been legacy support.

[ronsor]

I've got to stop doing Windows Updates

[imtringued]

Back when I used Windows, there were plenty of boot looping updates in Windows Vista, 7 and 10. You had three options. Either you disable Windows Updates, reinstall Windows or find a way to delete or prevent the specific patch that breaks your Windows installation.

On Windows 10 I was forced to disable Windows Updates altogether, because the updates never finished even after running overnight. I have stopped using Windows since 2018.

[blibble]

just delete the service entirely, same with defender

it's great

my only remaining windows PC is for games, and it's on its own vlan with its own external IP

if it gets hacked: I simply don't care

[PeterStuer]

It is called Windows 10.

[dboreham]

This is Tay Bridge syndrome: all the people who know how to ship an OS properly have retired.

[quietbritishjim]

What is "Tay Bridge syndrome"? There are no Google hits. If you're going to use an obscure term (or make one up) then please define it.

Is it a reference to the Tay Bridge disaster? Looking at the Wikipedia article [1], it didn't seem to have anything to do with losing organisational knowledge due to retirement.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster

[eviks]

How does this explain all the fails when shipping the OS when those people were working?