Earlier today, Neowin reported on an issue wherein the Samsung Magician app, which, sort of, is an essential software for Samsung SSDs, is broken on modern Windows 11 systems in several ways. Users who are affected have reported an inability to launch the app, performance issues, UI problems, and more. Check out our dedicated article on the topic here. Hence, Windows or any Windows update did not have anything to do with this.
This surfaced hot on the heels of another Samsung-related bug wherein the system (C) drive on Windows 11 PCs became inaccessible, though, again, Samsung, not Microsoft or Windows update, was found to be the culprit.
With these recent issues in mind, it is no surprise that a senior veteran Microsoft Windows engineer, Raymond Chen, has urged users and customers not to look for fault all the time in Windows and its updates.
Chen has remarked how corporate IT teams often raise alarms after monthly Patch Tuesday updates, claiming that it “broke our system” as the issues typically come to light after a Patch Tuesday release, when systems reboot following an update installation. However, according to some of Microsoft"s enterprise product support staff, the reboot itself and not the update is what actually triggers latent hidden system problems.
The backstory usually goes back to changes made several weeks earlier, changes which are unrelated to Windows update itself. These include deployment of new drivers, new software installs, or new group policy changes, sometimes sourced from questionable online tips like a random "TikTok video or something." These mods can quietly do many "sketchy" things like alter registry permissions, reconfigure services, or tweak undocumented settings. Machines remain seemingly stable until the next reboot, which happens after a Windows Update.
Thus when the update cycle arrives, the reboot activates those hidden misconfigurations, rendering systems unbootable. Hence, the timing of the issue creates the illusion that the patch caused the failure when in reality the Windows update simply exposed pre-existing instability. The idea of hotpatching sounds like a good idea in this situation as it doesn"t require a restart.
Although this article mainly discusses the enterprise scenario, the idea of user-error can be applied to home systems too.
While we completely agree with Microsoft"s take here, the company should also note that this reputation has come from actual issues Windows Update can and does cause, like the recent one which the company was forced to pull as it failed to download on affected systems. Microsoft has now released a replacement update for it under KB5086672.