Strange Windows 11 error messing up task manager will be fixed
Some Windows 11 users recently encountered a bug in a preview update where the task manager might appear in different colors and might be rendered unreadable – but the good news is that the latest patch from Microsoft has fixed the problem .
This issue was introduced in the optional update (a preview, meaning it’s still in testing) for Windows 11, which arrived at the end of November (KB5020044).
It caused the Task Manager — the control panel that shows your running processes and a range of other details like resource usage (CPU, memory, GPU, and more) — to turn into “unexpected colors” in some parts of the UI, which might have caused it the information it contained means could not be deciphered.
It’s certainly one of the strangest Windows bugs to manifest in recent times, and while it’s not a show-stopper, it’s certainly an irritation if it’s obscuring something you actually want to see. According to Microsoft, those who had selected custom mode in Personalization > Colors under Settings were affected.
As Beeping computer (opens in new tab) According to reports, the good news is that the issue has been resolved in the latest Windows 11 Cumulative Update, KB5021255, released earlier this week.
Windows 11 users should have been offered KB5021255 for download by this time, but if not, just go to Windows Update and check for new updates and it should be there now.
Analysis: The dangers of optional updates
It’s not a big surprise to see a bug introduced by a preview update. These updates are optional precisely because they are tested, and it’s only wise to install one on your main PC if it fixes an issue that’s really troubling you. Because these updates can fix something on the one hand and break something on the other, which is exactly what happened here (fixed game bugs, then task manager, well, not broken, but certainly misbehaved in some cases).
Of course, it’s not just preview updates that can unintentionally break parts of Windows. As we’ve seen in the past, even release updates can have frighteningly serious bugs (that’s certainly the case with Windows 10, although we’ve seen nothing quite as bad as the Windows 11 file deletion error).
At least in the case of this task manager gremlin, the bug won’t have hit that many people since it’s a niche number of users who install a preview update and those who did had to change the above setting (and even then, it didn’t affect everyone). Also, the fix came quickly, in fact just a few weeks after the bug was discovered.
Anyone running trial software—whether they’re Windows Insiders who have preview versions of Windows 11 installed or those on the release version of Windows 11 using optional updates—must be prepared to go beyond the norm to additional buggy levels bump.
https://www.techradar.com/news/weird-windows-11-bug-that-messed-up-task-manager-gets-a-fix Strange Windows 11 error messing up task manager will be fixed
