Microsoft issues second emergency update in seven days
Update resolves issues following disastrous January Patch Tuesday
Microsoft issued a second emergency Windows 11 patch after January’s Patch Tuesday update and last week’s OOB update caused cascading failures
Numerous reports of Outlook crashing and failures in OneDrive integration forced Microsoft to issue a second emergency Windows 11 patch on Saturday.
The January 13th Patch Tuesday update caused a cascade of problems affecting shutdown and Remote Desktop. That led to an emergency update being issued last week which seemed to fix the first two of these but then caused email to hang and crash and problems with accessing cloud storage.
“An out-of-band (OOB) update was released today, January 24, 2026, to address this issue. This cumulative update includes all protections and improvements from the January 2026 Windows security update released January 13, 2026, as well as from the OOB update released on January 17, 2026 (which introduced fixes for two known issues: remote desktop connections and hibernation failures).”
The update is available for Windows 11 version 24H2 and 25H2, with the same fix rolled out to version 23H2, Windows Server editions, and other versions.
Unlike last week’s OOB patch, KB5078127 will be distributed through Windows Update.
Prior to this update the temporary workaround involved uninstalling the January update, leaving systems vulnerable to 114 security vulnerabilities that the patch was designed to address, putting administrators in a very difficult position.
Looking ahead, these OOB updates will eventually be incorporated into February’s Patch Tuesday updates.
The ongoing fallout from January’s Patch Tuesday has added further voices to the chorus of criticism of Microsoft for allowing Windows to diminish in quality, whilst focusing resources on the development of ‘agentic OS.’