Windows 11 Shutdown Problem? Emergency Fix Released

A small portion of Windows 11 users have experienced critical errors after a recent update. The errors include not being able to shut down their devices, as well as not being able to log in remotely. Microsoft issued a fix to address the issues over the weekend. While there is always the temptation to get your hands on the latest features as part of a new software update, there is a reason why many choose to adopt the stabilisation period approach, waiting anywhere from two to four weeks for all the issues to be ironed out before updating. Case in point, a recent issue with the latest January update from Microsoft for Windows 11, as the update caused some critical errors for a small portion of users. While the spread of the errors was relatively small compared to the size of the Windows 11 ecosystem of users, the issues were quite significant. To that end, one of the critical errors made it difficult to shut down devices. More specifically, users triggered an automatic restart of their Windows 11 device whenever they tried to shut it down or put it into hibernate mode. The other critical error was the inability to restore devices from remote connection applications fail for both Windows 11 and Windows 10. Thankfully, both critical errors have been addressed via a fix published by Microsoft over the weekend. “Microsoft has identified issues upon installing the January 2026 Windows security update. To address these issues, an out-of-band (OOB) update was released today, January 17, 2026,” it advised on a support page. “If you have not yet deployed the January 2026 Windows security update and your IT environment includes the affected applications and features, we recommend applying this OOB update instead,” it added. It may have been a small percentage of users who were affected, but this is the latest in a series of reminders to always hold off a couple of weeks before installing any kind of update, as you never quite know what issues may arise.