Beware! The latest Windows 11 update might crash your PC

Microsoft releases routine updates for Windows every month, and while the intent is to fix issues and occasionally add new features, the latest one is doing more harm than good. Some Windows 11 users have taken to social media to report that the latest KB5035853 update could be crashing their PCs, with the feared Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) appearing on startup.

Although Microsoft hasn’t appeared to document any known issues with this update for Windows 11 22H2 and Windows 11 23H3, there’s a Reddit thread on the matter. Frustrated Windows 11 users mention the problems they are experiencing after installing the update. One mentions that Explorer.exe shows an error during shutdown and another reports that the ribbon of the File Explorer is slow to load. Audio-related issues and PCs feeling laggy when gaming are among some of the other problems being reported.

One user reports getting the BSoD showing a 0xc0000225 error. Other Windows 11 users seem to suggest that this could be happening only on Lenovo devices with AMD CPUs under the hood. In that case, Windows loops on boot and asks for a BitLocker code.

Windows Latest also reports that printers may not be working right after the update, and TechRadar indicates that this update is causing issues with gaming handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme).

Since Microsoft has yet to acknowledge these issues on the Known Issues page for the update in question, there’s a chance that these could just be isolated incidents. But if this ends up happening to your PC, there’s an easy solution.

If you can, you’ll want to document the issue in the Windows 11 Feedback Hub on another PC so Microsoft becomes aware of it. You can then try to roll back the update. Boot your PC into safe mode, and head into the Settings app, choose Windows Update > Update History > Uninstall Updates. There is also a YouTube video that gets into more complex solutions.

It’s not uncommon for routine security updates to cause Windows PCs to crash or bring about other issues. February’s round of Windows 11 updates caused PCs to freeze at 96% when updating (this has since been fixed).  There’s a ton of different hardware that runs Windows 11, and sometimes, one update is not always right.

If Microsoft receives a lot of reports on the issue, it could issue an emergency patch, but this is rare. Otherwise, a fix might not come till the next Patch Tuesday, when the company typically ships updates, which is in two more weeks.