‘Force Restart’—Microsoft Changes Windows Update Next Month - Forbes
For affected users, this means your PC will restart in both September and October when it updates. Per Neowin, the September “force restart” is the change — the October restart is the usual quarterly cycle. “After these PCs restart following the application of security updates in September, they will remain enrolled for future hotpatch updates.
Microsoft is changing Windows PC updates next month, forcing restarts to enable specific security component fixes to install, before normal hotpatching resumes in October. For affected users, this means your PC will restart in both September and October when it updates. The change will start to affect users ten days from now, with the release of the forthcoming September Patch Tuesday.
Per Neowin, the September “force restart” is the change — the October restart is the usual quarterly cycle. “After these PCs restart following the application of security updates in September, they will remain enrolled for future hotpatch updates. No changes are being made to hotpatching itself.”
This primarily affects managed PCs, and so Microsoft has warned IT admins to let users know this is coming — otherwise the force restart will come as a major surprise. While it’s “unfortunate that hotpatch PCs will have to force-restart for the next couple of months,” Neowin says, “hopefully it won’t result in major disruptions to business activities.”
Meanwhile, Windows Latest has just warned PC owners to “skip today’s Windows 11 update: it breaks cursor styling, resets wallpaper, and more.” This affects August’s optional KB5120998 update, which brings “the much-awaited movable taskbar, a resizable Start menu, and a decluttered Search box. However, it also appears to be breaking cursor customization and wallpaper settings for a large number of people, based on a fast-growing pile of user reports since release.”
It won’t affect all users, but as ever, it’s unclear whether your PC will be on the good or bad list, and so you’ll need to decide whether to take the risk. Windows Latest does assure that “uninstalling the Windows Update fixed it for everyone who tried.”
There are other August issues for Windows 11 users to contend with, including “a DISM error, 0x800f0915, when trying to repair their system image after installing the update.” You’re unlikely to be affected, as the number of user reports circulating thus far remains low. But with update errors and two months of forced restarts to come, there’s plenty to bear in mind.