The latest Windows 11 update is riddled with bugs, but Microsoft has finally addressed the problem

sad woman
(Image credit: Shutterstock / Tiko Aramyan)

If you’ve been keeping up with Windows 11 news you’ll know that there’s been a lot of turbulence with the latest optional update - Windows 11 version KB5036980 - and the introduction of ads into the start menu. Happily, Microsoft is finally doing something about it - but it might be too little, too late for some users.

The update is currently available for users running Windows 11 version 23H2 and 22H2 and can be installed manually from the Update Catalog. Besides the annoying pop-ups of ads in your start menu, it seems that users are also getting error messages when trying to change their profile photo. 

Spotted by Windows Latest, some users who installed the update are getting an error message when they try to change their account photo. This seems to only be happening on people’s local system accounts and not their actual Microsoft accounts, meaning that it’s definitely a Windows issue rather than something to do with Microsoft’s online account systems.

Playing the waiting game 

Microsoft has updated its Feedback Hub to say that it’s aware of the reports and has already started to make changes in the internal builds. So, the May 2024 optional update is expected to fix the current issues. 

Windows Latest received comments from Microsoft support staff that it is investigating the error and confirmed that the issue affects the mandatory KB5036893 update and the optional KB5036980 update that put ads in the Start menu. The profile pic bug is expected to be fixed soon, along with some other bugs that have been plaguing Windows 11 as of late.

So if you are currently experiencing this issue, you’ll likely just have to wait for the May patch for Microsoft to issue a fix. Until then, you may be stuck with your profile picture for a while - I hope it's cute!

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Muskaan Saxena
Computing Staff Writer

Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).

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