Windows 11 update KB5074109 is breaking systems — Microsoft says uninstall it ASAP. Here's how.

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Your recommendation now is to uninstall the latest update to mitigate bugs. What's going on with the quality control for updates, Microsoft?

Laptop running Windows 11 in a modern office during golden hour.
(Image credit: Future | Edited with Gemini)

Windows 11 users are dealing with yet another update headache, and this time, Microsoft is openly telling people to uninstall the problematic patch. Update KB5074109 has triggered a wave of bug reports ranging from performance issues to broken features, and the company has now published guidance urging affected users to roll it back. It’s the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of Windows updates causing more problems than they solve.

Recent updates

Update 5:45 PM ET Jan 23, 2026: We're seeing reports that people are having issues rolling back the update and seeing error 0x800f0905. If you're one of those, don't worry, we have yet another guide to help you out. You can't make this stuff up! Read: "Windows 11 won’t even let some users uninstall KB5074109 — error 0x800f0905 is blocking the rollback. Try these tips to fix."

For example, we've seen reports of apps not working correctly, resulting in error messages such as 0x803F8001. Also, a small number of users have reported random black screens after installing the update KB5074109 on devices featuring NVIDIA GPUs.

Now, if you use the legacy version of the Outlook app, Microsoft has acknowledged (via WindowsLatest) problems with accounts configured using the POP protocol and profiles with PST files, where users may experience "Outlook hangs and does not exit properly" issues. According to the notes, the problem may occur for any profile that has PSTs stored on OneDrive.

Since the company still doesn't have a permanent fix and the workaround "may be complicated," it's recommending users to either use the web version of the service, relocate the PST files out of OneDrive, or uninstall the build 26200.7623 from the computer.

Also, recently, the company was forced to release an Out-of-band (OOB) update, KB5077744, for versions 25H2 and 24H2 to address sign-in failures during Remote Desktop connections. Furthermore, the software giant released an emergency update for version 23H2 (which is already out of support) to address a problem that prevented users from properly shutting down their devices.

In this how-to guide, I'll outline the easy steps to uninstall the latest update of Windows 11 to mitigate the current issues.

Disclaimer

Although running a computer without the latest updates is generally not recommended, the number of issues associated with this release makes uninstalling the update a reasonable course of action.

How to uninstall update KB5074109 from Windows 11

To uninstall the January 2026 Security Update from your computer, use these steps:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Click on Windows Update.
  3. Click the "Pause for 1 week" button to prevent the system from reinstalling the update.
  1. Click the Update history page on the right side.

Windows 11 update history

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
  1. Click the Uninstall updates setting under the "Related settings" section.

Windows 11 uninstall updates

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
  1. Click the Uninstall option to remove the update KB5074109 from Windows 11.

Windows 11 uninstall KB5074109

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
  1. Click the Uninstall button one more time.
  2. Click the Restart now button.

Once you complete the steps, the cumulative update will be uninstalled from your computer, thus restoring the system to the time it was working correctly.

Whether this is another isolated misfire or a sign of deeper quality‑control issues inside Microsoft, the frustration is real — especially for users who rely on Windows 11 for work. For now, uninstalling KB5074109 seems to be the safest move until a fixed build arrives. But it raises the same question our audience asks every time: why does Windows Update feel like a gamble in 2026?

Have you come across any issues with the January 2026 Security Update? Let me know in the comments.

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Mauro Huculak
Mauro Huculak
Windows How-To Expert

Mauro Huculak has been a Windows How-To Expert contributor for WindowsCentral.com for nearly a decade and has over 22 years of combined experience in IT and technical writing. He holds various professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and CompTIA and has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years.

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All Comments

    1. Comment by Pearl.

      this happened to me!!!! my outlook for reason could not work for a whole week!!!!!!! i tried everything, reinstall outlook, remove add ins, start in safe mode, none works... I contacted my server provider, no help. And it was that update from microsoft!!!!! i finally remembered to contact microsoft and they uninstalled that update, and wola everything back to normal again. I lost a couple clients probably from not being able to send out appointments confirmations, and emails on time, it was super bad and lost a week of work time too. I even got a new laptop!!!!!!! Can't believe this happened.

      • Comment by Rab Gibb.

        I run a surfacebook 2 with surface dock and the dock DP ports with an external monitor stopped working with KB5074109. Since it's summer holidays here I wasn't using it everyday, so the timing coincidence was disguised. Took me 3x afternoons of investigation - including, running ms surface and dock diagnostics, rolling back KB5074109, reinstalling the surface book & dock last driver package and registry settings - which didn't solve it. In the end as a workaround I removed the dock and replaced it with the portless surface power brick, usb-c to pd cable for the monitor and a usb-a to ethernet + usb-a mini hub. 24hrs later I read this! I think the one thing I didn't do was UNPLUG THE DOCK to reset it. One of the very early pointers to the problem was device manager showing that uefi and me drivers were faulty. (triangle with!) The roll back and driver reinstall removed the fault icon, but wasn't sufficient to make things work again. The other rabbit hole i identified was that MS is updating uefi security certificates, but I was running uefi unlocked, so that auto update wasn't going to happen. People still have a few months grace to to update their certificates.

        • Comment by W Pontius.

          KB5074109 installed with no issues, though I never use Outlook.

          Microsoft's AI push will flop and burn harder than Disney's P.C remake of "Snow White"! My guess is Microsoft will bail out OpenAI, most likely a pennies-on-the-dollar buyout of their intellectual property as they wither and die by the end of the year. Good riddance!!

          • Comment by johnc.

            My best guess....they fired the programming team along with the quality control team and gave full Windows update planning, programming and execution to copilot so they could save a few quid on staff and at least try to prove to themselves that AI is totally worth it.

            • Comment by Norm Ullock.

              I have a very stable up to date WIn 11 Pro PC that never has any crashes. The day after update 4109 was installed I began getting my PC not responding to mouse and keyboard commands and every thing was actin goofy. I did a restart then got a blue screen with continue to win 11 or troubleshoot. I continued to win 11 and everything worked fine for 18-48 hours then the same crashes. I uninstalled 4109 3 days ago and my PC has been fine , so far. I am still monitoring . It is starting to look like 4109 was the cause of my crashes. I am thinking about using WUshowhide to make sure 4109 doesn't get reinstalled. I currently have win update suspend for 4 weeks. I do not run outlook on my PC. My NVIDIA graphics driver was updated about 3 weeks ago. Has anyone had crashes similar to my experience?

              • Comment by kenbwell.

                System will not uninstall KB5074109. Receive error 0x800F0905. Any suggestions please? Or am I too late?

              • Comment by pjmlp.

                Microsoft's quality has become so bad that even open source projects done by volunteers apparently are delivering a much better quality. It is a pity PC OEMs aren't racing in to adopt Linux distributions to sell pre-installed on computer stores, Dell XPS developers edition at Currys instead of online? I bet Microsoft's wallet would feel the impact.

                • Comment by Zola L.

                  When I try to uninstall '4109, I get an error back telling me the process has failed with a 0x800f0825 code. Which means figuring out what that means and then having to resolve it, followed by retrying uninstalling 4109.

                  This is becoming a joke. Microslop are very keen to push their AI agents, but don't seem able to fix their own OS platform

                • Comment by Athena Owl.

                  How and what is this for

                  • Comment by LeRoy123.

                    My Surface Go 2 totally locked up. Gives a message: "Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart. We'll restart for you." Stop code: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (0x1E)

                    It never restarts. I tried EVERTHING the internet advised but it is totally gone and will not open back up.

                    • Reply by Moseph.

                      I had this exact error code on one of my PCs after this update. It would boot each time, but would BSOD after 5 mins like clockwork. Uninstalling the update didn't help either (not uncommon for some changes from a Windows Update to not get reverted after being uninstalled). Ultimately, after a couple days of troubleshooting, the only option I had left was to fully restore from backup