January Windows update patched vulnerabilities but caused multiple new bugs

Microsoft's January Patch Tuesday update, released on Jan. 13, addressed 114 security vulnerabilities but has also triggered several new bugs affecting Windows users. The update fixed critical vulnerabilities and one that had been exploited in the wild, yet introduced issues including Remote Desktop sign-in failures for Cloud PC authentication, a Secure Launch problem that caused some systems to restart instead of shutting down or hibernating, and a classic Outlook freeze that shows "Not Responding", loses Sent Items visibility and redownloads mail.

Microsoft released an out-of-band patch on Jan. 17 that addresses the Remote Desktop and Secure Launch problems for qualifying systems via Windows Update. Other problems tied to the Jan. 13 update include apps freezing or returning errors when opening or saving files to cloud storage such as OneDrive or Dropbox; Microsoft said it is working on a fix.

Another inconsistency produces error 0x803f8001 when launching some apps, which an independent advisor attributed to Microsoft Store license or cache issues; Microsoft has not commented, though a Windows Central editor said the Jan. 13 patch fixed that issue on his machine. Microsoft has offered temporary workarounds for the Outlook PST-on-OneDrive problem—using Outlook on the web, moving PST files out of OneDrive, or uninstalling the update via support documents—but a definitive fix for that Outlook bug has not yet been provided.

Some issues have been resolved by the Jan.

Key Topics

Tech, Microsoft, Patch Tuesday, Remote Desktop, Outlook, Onedrive