Earlier this week, Microsoft released the first Patch Tuesday updates of 2026 for Windows 11 and Windows 10. On Windows 11, it was released under KB5073455 for Windows 11 23H2 and KB5074109 for Windows 11 25H2 / 24H2.
As is often the case with Patch Tuesday updates, they introduce bugs and issues, and this month is no exception either. The company has confirmed that Windows 11 23H2 computers are not able to shut down normally after installing the latest KB5073455 release. Thankfully, not all devices are affected by this bug as Microsoft has explained that the issue is on systems configured with Secure Launch. So if a user chooses to shut down an affected PC, the system does a restart.
If you are wondering what it is, Windows Secure Launch, introduced in Windows 10, is a Virtualization-based Security (VBS) service that uses hardware-based Dynamic Root of Trust for Measurement (DRTM) to protect system integrity during startup. Secure Launch allows the system to boot into untrusted code initially but quickly transitions all CPUs into a trusted state to verify the untrusted code is not malicious. This is to protect from firmware-level threats and works in tandem with Secure Boot. Microsoft refers to these systems as Secured-core PCs.
The company has provided a workaround for the shut down issue. It writes:
"To shut down your device, type cmd in the Search bar and select cmd from the search results to open a Command Prompt. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter: shutdown /s /t 0"
The issue affects hibernation as well as some systems are not able to enter a hibernation state; unfortunately, Microsoft says currently there is no workaround for that. The company says it is investigating the problem and has encouraged users to save their work carefully before their system runs out of power or else they lose all progress.