Microsoft confirms more Windows PCs cannot shut down after recent updates

January 2026 was a true disaster for Microsoft and Windows updates, with the company confirming new bugs on a weekly basis. Some of those bugs were quite serious, like devices failing to start with an "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_ERROR," while others were rather funny, like not being able to shut down a computer or put it into hibernation. Microsoft attempted to fix that bug with an out-of-band update, but as it later turned out, the problem affects more devices than Microsoft initially thought.

Microsoft has updated the official Windows Health Dashboard documentation to clarify that shutdown and hibernation issues also affect PCs with Secure Launch and Virtual Secure Mode enabled. The latter is a virtualization-based technology that keeps sensitive information in a protected area for additional security. If your device uses Virtual Secure Mode, it might not properly shut down or hibernate after installing recent Windows updates.

The good news is that the problem does not affect regular customers. It is found on systems with Windows 11 version 23H2, Windows 10 version 22H2, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021, and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019. While there is an out-of-band update to fix the problem on systems with Secure Launch (do not confuse this with Secure Boot, which verifies the bootloader instead of the entire system), computers with Virtual Secure Mode enabled are still waiting for a fix to arrive:

Updated 2026-01-30: Secure Launch-capable PCs with Virtual Secure Mode enabled are also impacted by this issue. We plan to resolve this issue in a future Windows update.

Microsoft has been getting quite a lot of flak from users for botched updates and useless AI features that put Windows 11 in quite a crisis. To do some damage control and calm users, Windows boss, Pavan Davuluri, recently issued a statement that Microsoft plans to fix things in 2026 and focus on pain points, such as performance, stability, and more. Hopefully, we will not get another month like January this year, and Windows updates will be much more stable going forward.

By the way, the latest non-security update for Windows 11 fixed quite a lot of stuff, so check out more details here.

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Posted Monday 2 February 2026 at 3:56 pm AEST (my time).

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