Critical Bug: Windows 11 Update KB5062553 Causes Taskbar and Start Menu to Vanish on Login
Accumulated failures in Windows 11 version 24H2 have led to situations in which the system, under certain conditions, loses portions of its interface immediately upon the first login after updating. Users encounter vanishing shell elements, a frozen File Explorer, and malfunctioning core processes, leaving the working environment fragmented into barely responsive components. The issue affects both ordinary installations and corporate environments with non-persistent images, where applications must be reinstalled at every login.
The problem emerges after installing the cumulative update KB5062553, released in July. During the initial account login, several essential XAML system packages fail to register in time, disrupting the startup of Windows’ interface mechanisms. In internal documentation, Microsoft linked the malfunction to application dependencies on the packages MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS, Microsoft.UI.Xaml.CBS, and MicrosoftWindows.Client.Core. Because the loading sequence is compromised, critical shell processes do not activate, resulting in the disappearance of navigation elements.
Affected systems frequently exhibit crashes of the Start menu, failures of File Explorer, and breakdowns of the ShellHost system process. Some users report a missing taskbar despite an active Explorer, along with scenarios in which the Settings app refuses to open without any notification. In non-persistent virtual desktop environments, the bugs recur at every login, as dependent components are reinstalled each time from scratch.
Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and is preparing a fix, though no timeline has been given. As a temporary workaround, users may employ PowerShell commands to manually reregister the missing packages. This involves running three Add-AppxPackage commands followed by a reboot. For administrators managing non-persistent corporate images, Microsoft recommends using a pre-shell script that completes the installation of required components in advance, thereby eliminating the race condition.
Against the backdrop of this chain of system-level errors, other vendors are also working to address the fallout from recent Windows updates. Last week, Nvidia released an interim set of GeForce drivers to resolve performance drops in games following October’s KB5066835 update, while Microsoft issued out-of-band patches to fix issues with the installation of extended security packages and the repeated reallocation of updates in Windows 11.
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