Windows 11 November Patch Tuesday KB5068861: Start Menu Redesign and Task Manager Fix

Microsoft’s November Patch Tuesday for Windows 11 ships as KB5068861 (build family in the 26200 series) and delivers a compact but consequential mix of user-facing polish and reliability fixes—most notably a redesigned, more customizable Start menu, a refreshed taskbar battery icon with an optional on‑tray percentage, and a long-awaited repair to a Task Manager shutdown bug that could leave background processes running after the window was closed. These changes arrive as part of Microsoft’s staged, telemetry‑driven rollout model and are available via Windows Update or as offline .msu installers from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Background / Overview​

Microsoft continues to deliver Windows 11 updates through monthly cumulative updates (Patch Tuesday) combined with optional preview releases that let the company validate user‑facing features before enabling them broadly. The November 2025 cumulative—packaged as KB5068861 for many devices—folds fixes that first appeared in preview packages (for example, KB5067036) into the mainstream servicing pipeline. Because some UI changes are controlled by server‑side feature flags, installing the cumulative is necessary but not always sufficient to see every visual or behavioral change immediately.
This staged approach reduces the risk of large‑scale regressions but also creates short‑term variability: two otherwise identical machines on the same build may display different Start layouts or Copilot integrations depending on device eligibility, region, or licensing. Administrators and power users should therefore test on pilot hardware and avoid assuming universal visibility immediately after installation.

---

What KB5068861 Actually Delivers​

The November cumulative is pragmatic rather than revolutionary: small, widely requested usability improvements plus important reliability fixes. The highlights most users and admins will care about are:

• A redesigned, more customizable Start menu — single scrollable surface, new All apps views (Category, Grid, List), ability to pin more apps, and a visible Phone Link companion toggle.
• A refreshed Taskbar battery icon — larger glyphs, color‑coded states (charging/healthy, low‑battery, critical), and the long‑requested ability to enable a persistent battery percentage next to the icon.
• A reliability fix for Task Manager that ensures closing the app truly ends the process instead of leaving background instances that can draw resources over time. This fix was initially validated in preview builds and folded into the Patch Tuesday cumulative.

Beneath the visible changes, the rollup includes the usual servicing‑stack updates (SSU), security hardening, and assorted bug fixes affecting gaming handhelds, Storage Spaces, Voice Access, and certain HTTP parsing edge cases. The cumulative is therefore a combined quality-and-polish release rather than a standalone feature pack.

---

Deep Dive: The New Start Menu​

What changed, technically and visually​

The reworked Start menu collapses previously separated pages into a single, vertically scrollable canvas where pinned apps, Recommended items, and the All apps listing live together. Microsoft introduces three All apps view modes:

• Category view — groups apps into topical buckets like Productivity, Games, and Creativity.
• Grid view — a tile-like alphabetic grid for fast scanning on wide screens.
• List view — the traditional alphabetical list for users who prefer classic ordering.

The Start menu remembers your chosen view and adjusts layout density depending on the display size; larger screens will show a more expansive grid and more pinned icons. The Phone Link companion is surfaced as a simple toggle, letting you show or hide phone‑related content from the Start surface with a single click.

Why it matters​

For users with large app libraries or multiple monitors, the single-scroll model speeds discovery and reduces friction. For organizations, the change has limited manageability impact but does require checking any scripts or automation that assume the older Start layout. IT pros should validate Start pins and layout policies in a pilot ring before broad deployment.

What to watch — unverified or flagged claims​

Some early reports claimed implementation details—such as a locally stored JSON used to map apps into categories and a specific 15 MB size for that file. Those numeric claims are not confirmed in Microsoft’s official notes and should be treated cautiously until Microsoft publishes a formal engineering note or KB entry that verifies the payload and format. This is an example where community discovery flagged a behavior but the precise technical artifacts remain unverified.

---

Deep Dive: Battery Icon and Taskbar UX​

The visual and behavioral changes​

The battery icon in the taskbar receives practical polish:

• Color‑coded state: green while charging/healthy, yellow when battery saver or low, red at critical levels.
• Larger glyph: improved visibility across display sizes and scaling levels.
• Optional battery percentage: a toggle in Settings → System → Power & battery allows a persistent numeric battery percentage adjacent to the icon. This toggle is off by default.

The same color treatment is extended to the lock screen battery indicator. The update also includes refined taskbar thumbnail hover animations and, in some builds, a "Share with Copilot" shortcut for window thumbnails—features that are being gradually enabled and may be governed by entitlement and privacy settings.

Practical impact​

For laptop users, a persistent battery percentage and color cues reduce the friction of checking battery state and help avoid surprises—particularly for users who frequently rely on the “Update and shut down” path or who use battery-constrained devices like handheld gaming PCs. IT teams will value clearer visual signals during maintenance windows.

---

Deep Dive: Task Manager Fix — Why It Matters​

The bug and the fix​

A known regression caused Task Manager to continue running in the background when the user closed it with the Close (X) button, leaving background taskmgr.exe instances that could accumulate and consume system resources. That bug was reproduced by community testers and first appeared in preview packages; KB5068861 contains the fix that ensures Task Manager terminates when closed, eliminating the background process leakage that could degrade performance over time.

Broader implications​

Although the symptom appears small, the bug impacted battery life on mobile devices, interfered with automation scripts that rely on predictable process counts, and undermined user confidence in the UX. By returning Task Manager to deterministic behavior, Microsoft removes a low-level, high‑impact source of instability for power users and administrators. Still, because the underlying servicing orchestration interacts with drivers, Fast Startup, and multiple shutdown phases, administrators should validate behavior in representative environments. Some edge cases tied to specific drivers or firmware may persist until those components are updated.

---

Other Notable Fixes and Quality Improvements​

• Gaming handheld behavior: fixes for devices that couldn’t remain in low‑power states and a controller response delay after sign-in.
• Storage Spaces: fixes addressing scenarios where Storage Spaces could become inaccessible or Storage Spaces Direct could fail when creating clusters.
• Voice Access: improved initial setup behavior when no microphone is present and the voice model isn’t installed.
• Window management: fixes where selecting the desktop inadvertently opened Task View.
• HTTP parsing: a correctness fix for HTTP.sys request parsing to better conform to RFC 9112 chunk termination rules—important for server components that rely on precise HTTP parsing.

These are representative, not exhaustive; the cumulative also bundles servicing stack updates and security hardening typical of monthly releases.

---

Deployment Options: How to Get KB5068861​

There are three primary ways to obtain the update:

• Windows Update (recommended for most users): Settings → Windows Update → Check for updates. This delivers an express/differential payload that is typically much smaller than the offline MSU.
• Microsoft Update Catalog (manual/offline): download the combined SSU+LCU .msu installers (x64/ARM64) and install via double-click or DISM. Catalog MSUs are larger—community checks put combined sizes in the multi‑gigabyte range (roughly 3.7–3.9 GB for some families). Plan bandwidth and disk space accordingly.
• Enterprise channels: WSUS, ConfigMgr, Intune, or image with DISM. For offline deployments, place all MSUs in a single folder and use DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:<path> to apply them; reboot when prompted.

Practical command example for offline install:

• DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\Packages\Windows11.0-KB5068861-x64.msu

Always confirm your OS build with winver after updating to verify installation.

---

Enterprise Guidance and Risk Mitigation​

Pilot, test, and stage​

Microsoft’s staged rollout model means feature visibility can differ by device. Enterprises should adopt a conservative path:

• Create a pilot ring covering representative hardware and driver stacks.
• Validate key workflows: Update-and-shutdown sequences, imaging, scheduled reboots, and critical vendor drivers.
• Monitor telemetry for 48–72 hours after pilot deployment and be ready to roll back if necessary.

Known caveats and regressions to monitor​

Optional preview packages have previously introduced regressions—most notably the Task Manager backgrounding bug discovered after the October preview. Although the November mainstream cumulative contains a fix, preview installs can carry unrelated changes that cause intermittent regressions in areas like Storage Spaces, USB devices, or DRM playback. Administrators should pay attention to logs, Event Viewer entries, and vendor advisories.

Deployment checklist for admins​

• Inventory devices by hardware and driver version.
• Validate on a pilot ring that includes laptops, desktops, and any handheld or thin‑client devices.
• Stage SSUs and LCUs together for offline installs; verify package integrity.
• Confirm Update-and-shutdown now performs as expected across devices.
• Maintain rollback plans (system images, restore points) and patch windows.

---

Recommendations for Home and Power Users​

• If you rely on Update-and-shutdown or noticed Task Manager duplications, install the November cumulative via Windows Update or the offline MSU once you’ve backed up critical files. If you prefer maximum stability, wait at least a week after wide release to monitor community reports.
• If you use experimental feature‑flipping tools (ViVeTool) to force UI changes, be aware these bypass Microsoft safeguards and may expose you to unfinished features and stability regressions. Use such tools only on non‑critical devices.
• If you need the Task Manager fix immediately but want to avoid the larger cumulative, the October optional preview (KB5067036) delivered the change earlier—install only on test hardware first. Otherwise, the November Patch Tuesday cumulative provides the safer mainstream path.

---

Community Response and Early Signals​

Early hands‑on reports from insiders and press aggregates show a mix of enthusiasm and caution. The Start menu and battery UI are broadly welcomed as practical fixes that improve daily usability. However, the rollout’s staged nature produced inconsistency: some users saw changes immediately, others did not. Community testers also helped surface regressions (notably the Task Manager issue), which Microsoft addressed in the cumulative—an example of the preview‑to‑mainstream feedback loop working as intended. Still, the brevity of Microsoft’s KB notes leaves some technical details opaque, which complicates forensic analysis for enterprise teams.

---

Critical Analysis — Strengths and Potential Risks​

Strengths​

• Practical UX wins: The Start menu refinements and battery percentage toggle respond directly to long-standing user feedback and improve day‑to‑day productivity.
• Targeted reliability fixes: Repairing the Task Manager backgrounding bug and Update-and-shutdown behavior addresses real operational pain points that affected battery life and maintenance workflows.
• Measured rollout: Insider validation, optional previews, and staged server gating reduce the chance of mass regression. The path Microsoft followed—validate in dev/preview, fold fixes into cumulative—aligns with best practices for large-scale OS servicing.

Risks and open questions​

• Staged feature visibility: Server‑side gating produces inconsistent experiences and can complicate troubleshooting across fleets. Administrators must avoid assuming uniformity after a single update.
• Opaque changelog details: Microsoft’s terse “addressed underlying issue” language lacks forensic detail, which forces IT teams to rely on their own telemetry rather than public post‑mortems. This complicates risk assessments for mission‑critical environments.
• Preview regressions: Past optional previews have introduced unrelated issues; installing previews on production systems carries risk. Use pilot rings and robust rollback plans.

Where community reports include precise technical artifacts or numeric claims (for example, a local JSON mapping size for Start categories), those statements should be considered provisional until Microsoft provides an authoritative confirmation. Treat such details as useful leads, not definitive facts.

---

Practical How‑To: Quick Steps to Check and Install​

• Open Settings → Windows Update.
• Click Check for updates. If KB5068861 is offered, click Download and install.
• Reboot when prompted. Verify your build via Win+R → winver. You should see a 26200‑family build (25H2) or a corresponding 26100‑family build (24H2) on updated devices.

For offline installs:

• Download the matching KB5068861 .msu for your architecture from the Microsoft Update Catalog.
• Place the .msu files in one folder.
• Open an elevated Command Prompt and run: DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\Packages\Windows11.0-KB5068861-x64.msu
• Reboot and verify with winver.

---

Conclusion​

KB5068861 is a pragmatic Patch Tuesday: a bundled set of interface polishes and reliability fixes that together improve usability and predictability in everyday Windows 11 workflows. The Start menu’s increased customizability and the taskbar battery enhancements are modest but meaningful wins for end users. More importantly for administrators and power users, the Task Manager fix and Update‑and‑shutdown reliability improvements remove subtle but consequential failure modes that previously caused battery drain and automation headaches.
The delivery model—install binaries but wait for server‑side gating to enable features—remains the central caveat: installing the cumulative is necessary but not sufficient to guarantee immediate visibility of every new UI element. For most users, installing KB5068861 via Windows Update is recommended; administrators should pilot the update, validate critical workflows, and maintain rollback plans. Finally, remain cautious with community claims about internal payload sizes or implementation formats until Microsoft confirms them in official engineering notes.

---

Source: Windows Central Windows 11's November Patch Tuesday update brings new Start, battery icon improvements, and important Task Manager fix — download now

 

[ggo]

Microsoft’s November Patch Tuesday for Windows 11 ships as KB5068861 (build family in the 26200 series) and delivers a compact but consequential mix of user-facing polish and reliability fixes—most notably a redesigned, more customizable Start menu, a refreshed taskbar battery icon with an optional on‑tray percentage, and a long-awaited repair to a Task Manager shutdown bug that could leave background processes running after the window was closed. These changes arrive as part of Microsoft’s staged, telemetry‑driven rollout model and are available via Windows Update or as offline .msu installers from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

View attachment 114748Background / Overview​

Microsoft continues to deliver Windows 11 updates through monthly cumulative updates (Patch Tuesday) combined with optional preview releases that let the company validate user‑facing features before enabling them broadly. The November 2025 cumulative—packaged as KB5068861 for many devices—folds fixes that first appeared in preview packages (for example, KB5067036) into the mainstream servicing pipeline. Because some UI changes are controlled by server‑side feature flags, installing the cumulative is necessary but not always sufficient to see every visual or behavioral change immediately.
This staged approach reduces the risk of large‑scale regressions but also creates short‑term variability: two otherwise identical machines on the same build may display different Start layouts or Copilot integrations depending on device eligibility, region, or licensing. Administrators and power users should therefore test on pilot hardware and avoid assuming universal visibility immediately after installation.

---

What KB5068861 Actually Delivers​

The November cumulative is pragmatic rather than revolutionary: small, widely requested usability improvements plus important reliability fixes. The highlights most users and admins will care about are:

• A redesigned, more customizable Start menu — single scrollable surface, new All apps views (Category, Grid, List), ability to pin more apps, and a visible Phone Link companion toggle.
• A refreshed Taskbar battery icon — larger glyphs, color‑coded states (charging/healthy, low‑battery, critical), and the long‑requested ability to enable a persistent battery percentage next to the icon.
• A reliability fix for Task Manager that ensures closing the app truly ends the process instead of leaving background instances that can draw resources over time. This fix was initially validated in preview builds and folded into the Patch Tuesday cumulative.

Beneath the visible changes, the rollup includes the usual servicing‑stack updates (SSU), security hardening, and assorted bug fixes affecting gaming handhelds, Storage Spaces, Voice Access, and certain HTTP parsing edge cases. The cumulative is therefore a combined quality-and-polish release rather than a standalone feature pack.

---

Deep Dive: The New Start Menu​

What changed, technically and visually​

The reworked Start menu collapses previously separated pages into a single, vertically scrollable canvas where pinned apps, Recommended items, and the All apps listing live together. Microsoft introduces three All apps view modes:

• Category view — groups apps into topical buckets like Productivity, Games, and Creativity.
• Grid view — a tile-like alphabetic grid for fast scanning on wide screens.
• List view — the traditional alphabetical list for users who prefer classic ordering.

The Start menu remembers your chosen view and adjusts layout density depending on the display size; larger screens will show a more expansive grid and more pinned icons. The Phone Link companion is surfaced as a simple toggle, letting you show or hide phone‑related content from the Start surface with a single click.

Why it matters​

For users with large app libraries or multiple monitors, the single-scroll model speeds discovery and reduces friction. For organizations, the change has limited manageability impact but does require checking any scripts or automation that assume the older Start layout. IT pros should validate Start pins and layout policies in a pilot ring before broad deployment.

What to watch — unverified or flagged claims​

Some early reports claimed implementation details—such as a locally stored JSON used to map apps into categories and a specific 15 MB size for that file. Those numeric claims are not confirmed in Microsoft’s official notes and should be treated cautiously until Microsoft publishes a formal engineering note or KB entry that verifies the payload and format. This is an example where community discovery flagged a behavior but the precise technical artifacts remain unverified.

---

Deep Dive: Battery Icon and Taskbar UX​

The visual and behavioral changes​

The battery icon in the taskbar receives practical polish:

• Color‑coded state: green while charging/healthy, yellow when battery saver or low, red at critical levels.
• Larger glyph: improved visibility across display sizes and scaling levels.
• Optional battery percentage: a toggle in Settings → System → Power & battery allows a persistent numeric battery percentage adjacent to the icon. This toggle is off by default.

The same color treatment is extended to the lock screen battery indicator. The update also includes refined taskbar thumbnail hover animations and, in some builds, a "Share with Copilot" shortcut for window thumbnails—features that are being gradually enabled and may be governed by entitlement and privacy settings.

Practical impact​

For laptop users, a persistent battery percentage and color cues reduce the friction of checking battery state and help avoid surprises—particularly for users who frequently rely on the “Update and shut down” path or who use battery-constrained devices like handheld gaming PCs. IT teams will value clearer visual signals during maintenance windows.

---

Deep Dive: Task Manager Fix — Why It Matters​

The bug and the fix​

A known regression caused Task Manager to continue running in the background when the user closed it with the Close (X) button, leaving background taskmgr.exe instances that could accumulate and consume system resources. That bug was reproduced by community testers and first appeared in preview packages; KB5068861 contains the fix that ensures Task Manager terminates when closed, eliminating the background process leakage that could degrade performance over time.

Broader implications​

Although the symptom appears small, the bug impacted battery life on mobile devices, interfered with automation scripts that rely on predictable process counts, and undermined user confidence in the UX. By returning Task Manager to deterministic behavior, Microsoft removes a low-level, high‑impact source of instability for power users and administrators. Still, because the underlying servicing orchestration interacts with drivers, Fast Startup, and multiple shutdown phases, administrators should validate behavior in representative environments. Some edge cases tied to specific drivers or firmware may persist until those components are updated.

---

Other Notable Fixes and Quality Improvements​

• Gaming handheld behavior: fixes for devices that couldn’t remain in low‑power states and a controller response delay after sign-in.
• Storage Spaces: fixes addressing scenarios where Storage Spaces could become inaccessible or Storage Spaces Direct could fail when creating clusters.
• Voice Access: improved initial setup behavior when no microphone is present and the voice model isn’t installed.
• Window management: fixes where selecting the desktop inadvertently opened Task View.
• HTTP parsing: a correctness fix for HTTP.sys request parsing to better conform to RFC 9112 chunk termination rules—important for server components that rely on precise HTTP parsing.

These are representative, not exhaustive; the cumulative also bundles servicing stack updates and security hardening typical of monthly releases.

---

Deployment Options: How to Get KB5068861​

There are three primary ways to obtain the update:

• Windows Update (recommended for most users): Settings → Windows Update → Check for updates. This delivers an express/differential payload that is typically much smaller than the offline MSU.
• Microsoft Update Catalog (manual/offline): download the combined SSU+LCU .msu installers (x64/ARM64) and install via double-click or DISM. Catalog MSUs are larger—community checks put combined sizes in the multi‑gigabyte range (roughly 3.7–3.9 GB for some families). Plan bandwidth and disk space accordingly.
• Enterprise channels: WSUS, ConfigMgr, Intune, or image with DISM. For offline deployments, place all MSUs in a single folder and use DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:<path> to apply them; reboot when prompted.

Practical command example for offline install:

• DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\Packages\Windows11.0-KB5068861-x64.msu

Always confirm your OS build with winver after updating to verify installation.

---

Enterprise Guidance and Risk Mitigation​

Pilot, test, and stage​

Microsoft’s staged rollout model means feature visibility can differ by device. Enterprises should adopt a conservative path:

• Create a pilot ring covering representative hardware and driver stacks.
• Validate key workflows: Update-and-shutdown sequences, imaging, scheduled reboots, and critical vendor drivers.
• Monitor telemetry for 48–72 hours after pilot deployment and be ready to roll back if necessary.

Known caveats and regressions to monitor​

Optional preview packages have previously introduced regressions—most notably the Task Manager backgrounding bug discovered after the October preview. Although the November mainstream cumulative contains a fix, preview installs can carry unrelated changes that cause intermittent regressions in areas like Storage Spaces, USB devices, or DRM playback. Administrators should pay attention to logs, Event Viewer entries, and vendor advisories.

Deployment checklist for admins​

• Inventory devices by hardware and driver version.
• Validate on a pilot ring that includes laptops, desktops, and any handheld or thin‑client devices.
• Stage SSUs and LCUs together for offline installs; verify package integrity.
• Confirm Update-and-shutdown now performs as expected across devices.
• Maintain rollback plans (system images, restore points) and patch windows.

---

Recommendations for Home and Power Users​

• If you rely on Update-and-shutdown or noticed Task Manager duplications, install the November cumulative via Windows Update or the offline MSU once you’ve backed up critical files. If you prefer maximum stability, wait at least a week after wide release to monitor community reports.
• If you use experimental feature‑flipping tools (ViVeTool) to force UI changes, be aware these bypass Microsoft safeguards and may expose you to unfinished features and stability regressions. Use such tools only on non‑critical devices.
• If you need the Task Manager fix immediately but want to avoid the larger cumulative, the October optional preview (KB5067036) delivered the change earlier—install only on test hardware first. Otherwise, the November Patch Tuesday cumulative provides the safer mainstream path.

---

Community Response and Early Signals​

Early hands‑on reports from insiders and press aggregates show a mix of enthusiasm and caution. The Start menu and battery UI are broadly welcomed as practical fixes that improve daily usability. However, the rollout’s staged nature produced inconsistency: some users saw changes immediately, others did not. Community testers also helped surface regressions (notably the Task Manager issue), which Microsoft addressed in the cumulative—an example of the preview‑to‑mainstream feedback loop working as intended. Still, the brevity of Microsoft’s KB notes leaves some technical details opaque, which complicates forensic analysis for enterprise teams.

---

Critical Analysis — Strengths and Potential Risks​

Strengths​

• Practical UX wins: The Start menu refinements and battery percentage toggle respond directly to long-standing user feedback and improve day‑to‑day productivity.
• Targeted reliability fixes: Repairing the Task Manager backgrounding bug and Update-and-shutdown behavior addresses real operational pain points that affected battery life and maintenance workflows.
• Measured rollout: Insider validation, optional previews, and staged server gating reduce the chance of mass regression. The path Microsoft followed—validate in dev/preview, fold fixes into cumulative—aligns with best practices for large-scale OS servicing.

Risks and open questions​

• Staged feature visibility: Server‑side gating produces inconsistent experiences and can complicate troubleshooting across fleets. Administrators must avoid assuming uniformity after a single update.
• Opaque changelog details: Microsoft’s terse “addressed underlying issue” language lacks forensic detail, which forces IT teams to rely on their own telemetry rather than public post‑mortems. This complicates risk assessments for mission‑critical environments.
• Preview regressions: Past optional previews have introduced unrelated issues; installing previews on production systems carries risk. Use pilot rings and robust rollback plans.

Where community reports include precise technical artifacts or numeric claims (for example, a local JSON mapping size for Start categories), those statements should be considered provisional until Microsoft provides an authoritative confirmation. Treat such details as useful leads, not definitive facts.

---

Practical How‑To: Quick Steps to Check and Install​

• Open Settings → Windows Update.
• Click Check for updates. If KB5068861 is offered, click Download and install.
• Reboot when prompted. Verify your build via Win+R → winver. You should see a 26200‑family build (25H2) or a corresponding 26100‑family build (24H2) on updated devices.

For offline installs:

• Download the matching KB5068861 .msu for your architecture from the Microsoft Update Catalog.
• Place the .msu files in one folder.
• Open an elevated Command Prompt and run: DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\Packages\Windows11.0-KB5068861-x64.msu
• Reboot and verify with winver.

---

Conclusion​

KB5068861 is a pragmatic Patch Tuesday: a bundled set of interface polishes and reliability fixes that together improve usability and predictability in everyday Windows 11 workflows. The Start menu’s increased customizability and the taskbar battery enhancements are modest but meaningful wins for end users. More importantly for administrators and power users, the Task Manager fix and Update‑and‑shutdown reliability improvements remove subtle but consequential failure modes that previously caused battery drain and automation headaches.
The delivery model—install binaries but wait for server‑side gating to enable features—remains the central caveat: installing the cumulative is necessary but not sufficient to guarantee immediate visibility of every new UI element. For most users, installing KB5068861 via Windows Update is recommended; administrators should pilot the update, validate critical workflows, and maintain rollback plans. Finally, remain cautious with community claims about internal payload sizes or implementation formats until Microsoft confirms them in official engineering notes.

---

Source: Windows Central Windows 11's November Patch Tuesday update brings new Start, battery icon improvements, and important Task Manager fix — download now

Hello,

This KB5068861 was installed on my Windows 2025 PDC today.
Oh great, very nice indeed:

- Some of my services of my application now fail to start.
- the World Wide Web Publishing Service does not start anymore too.

The machine on which this patch was installed is (was) a clean machine. Nothing fancy stuff installed here.
Actual it's a VM virtual machine I have created on monday.

I forgot to mention: the UI is partially broken too.

It seems that it might be better to avoid this update.

Thank you again MS !!!

 

[ChatGPT]

Sorry that update broke services on your PDC — that’s stressful. Let’s get you back to a working state and gather the facts so we can pinpoint the cause.
Do this in order (safest first). If you already have a VM snapshot/backup from before the update, stop and revert to it now — that is the fastest, safest recovery.
1) If you have a snapshot: revert now

• Reverting the VM snapshot made just before the update will restore everything (recommended for a production PDC). Don’t proceed with the steps below if you restore the snapshot.

2) If no snapshot / you want to try quick roll-back of the update

• Confirm the update is present:
  • Open an elevated Command Prompt and run:
  • wmic qfe get HotFixID,Description,InstalledOn | findstr 5068861
  • OR
  • dism /online /get-packages | findstr 5068861
• If it’s present, uninstall (note: uninstalling a cumulative can remove multiple fixes; prefer snapshot if available):
  • wusa /uninstall /kb:5068861
  • Or if you need the DISM package name first (from the dism /get-packages output) then:
  • DISM /Online /Remove-Package /PackageNameackage_for_KB5068861~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.1.0
  • Reboot after uninstall.
• If wusa says the package can’t be uninstalled, you may need to use DISM with the exact PackageName shown by /get-packages.

3) Short diagnostics while services are down (if you want to investigate instead of/ before uninstall)

• Check dependent services (W3SVC depends on WAS):
  • sc queryex was
  • sc queryex w3svc
  • net start was
  • net start w3svc
• Check why service failed (Event Viewer is the primary source):
  • Event Viewer → Windows Logs → System — look for Service Control Manager events (Event IDs 7000, 7001, 7009, 7011, 7031, 7034).
  • Applications and Services Logs → Microsoft → Windows → WAS → Administrative (and Operational) for WAS/IIS errors.
  • Also look in Windows Logs → Application for .NET/IIS module errors.
• Check HTTP layer / port conflicts (if http.sys or bindings are affected):
  • netstat -ano | findstr ":80 "
  • netsh http show servicestate
  • netsh http show urlacl
  • Check HTTPERR logs: C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\HTTPERR\
• Gather important error text and paste here (or post screenshots / copy text):
  • Exact Service Control Manager error line (e.g., "The World Wide Web Publishing Service failed to start. Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start.") or the Event ID message.
  • WAS/IIS event IDs and message bodies from Event Viewer.

4) Common causes & quick checks for W3SVC/WAS failing after an update

• WAS not starting (if WAS fails, W3SVC cannot start). Look for WAS events complaining about configuration or malformed applicationHost.config.
• Permissions on %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\ (applicationHost.config) — ensure file is intact and not corrupted.
• HTTP.sys or kernel driver incompatibility (driver failing to load) — check System event log for http.sys or driver load errors.
• Port binding conflict (another process bound to 80/443).
• Dependent services (Remote Procedure Call RPC must be OK).
• Corrupted .NET/IIS modules after the install — check Application log for Module load exceptions.

5) Repair attempts (if you choose to try instead of revert)

• Check and repair system files:
  • sfc /scannow
  • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
• If applicationHost.config looks corrupted, restore it from backup (IIS keeps automatic backups in C:\inetpub\history).
  • Check folder C:\inetpub\history\ for the most recent backup; you can restore applicationHost.config from there (stop WAS service first).
• If port conflict found, stop offending process (identify with tasklist /fi "pid eq <pid>") and try starting W3SVC.

6) If you decide to keep the VM as-is but block the update going forward

• On WSUS/ConfigMgr: decline/withdraw the KB from the catalog for the PDC group until MS releases a fix or you have validated.
• On a single machine: hide the update temporarily (not recommended for servers long-term).

7) Collect and post these items (I can help analyze)

• Exact OS name + build: Win+R → winver screenshot or run winver and paste output.
• Output of:
  • dism /online /get-packages | findstr 5068861
  • sc queryex was
  • sc queryex w3svc
  • type of Event Viewer error lines (copy the full text of the latest 3 Service Control Manager events and the last 3 WAS/IIS events).
  • Latest lines from C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\HTTPERR*.log if present.
• Say whether you have a pre-update snapshot.

8) Short-term recommendation summary

• Best: revert VM snapshot taken before the update.
• Second: uninstall KB5068861 with wusa/DISM and reboot.
• If neither possible: gather the Event Viewer errors and http.sys/port information and post here — I’ll help diagnose the exact failure path (WAS config corruption vs http.sys vs port conflict vs something else).

If you post the Event Viewer error text (or the winver + dism output + sc query outputs) I’ll walk through the exact fix steps.