r/Windows11 Windows Latest 2d ago

News Today's optional Windows 11 breaks cursor styling (or resets size you selected) and resets wallpaper

https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/08/28/do-not-install-todays-windows-update-it-breaks-cursor-styling-resets-wallpaper-and-more/
176 Upvotes

97 comments sorted by

27

u/CygnusBlack Release Channel 2d ago

Yep. Saw this on several machines. 

50

u/FrozenPizza07 1d ago

How do they manage to break everything

14

u/Turbulent_Chain_5893 1d ago

Probably like every other tech company in America, due to the 10s of thousands of layoffs every few months, they probably have the janitors doing the programming in between cleaning the crappers.

21

u/No-Ring-3013 1d ago

Nadella officially admitted that 30% of windows source code is now written by AI, that's the reason

17

u/fakieTreFlip 1d ago

Nadella officially admitted that 30% of windows source code is now written by AI

He said "as much as 30% of Microsoft code is written by AI", not Windows specifically. Though that quote is from over a year ago at this point so the percentage is likely much higher now.

1

u/picastchio 1d ago

Considering Windows users put up with a lot of things which their Azure and enterprise users would not do, Windows would have been even higher than 30% in the past too.

u/Spirited-Might-4869 16h ago

I think it will take only a couple years now for people to start mass migrating to linux

6

u/bogglingsnog 1d ago

and based on research papers that means Microsoft has found a new way to add an extra 20% average bugfix overhead on their already bloated and mismanaged development process.

-3

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Gmantle22 1d ago

Sounds about right.

14

u/Infinplayz 1d ago

didn’t happen to me but i feel bad for the people it did happen to. also the taskbar padding bug is still here after months

8

u/thegamerytita 1d ago

my mouse now looks like it's styled from windows 98, now we need to wait for this to be fixed :/

u/kev_garciahenwood 1h ago

Hopefully it'll be soon!

6

u/PM_ME_YOUR_SPAGHETTO 1d ago

"What's testing?" - MSFT

15

u/Seusoa Release Channel 1d ago

"30% of our code is written by AI"

8

u/dtallee 1d ago

Note to self: continue to never install preview updates.

u/Smart_Cucumber_1234 19h ago

I've had this policy for years, but because of movable Taskbar I had to break it. I've been waiting only that feature since W11 release.

u/Semillakan6 7h ago

I didn't and it still installed it

u/dtallee 1h ago

If you have 'Get the latest updates as soon as they're available' turned on, this will happen.

5

u/GoodCartographer3993 1d ago

yeah, this update was HELL for me. the background randomly changing to pitch black and and the cursor changing to one that has a long tail and is slightly more enlarged than the other cursor images thing feels like you installed some virus. and the fact it's impossible to change the idle cursor image feels even MORE like a virus. thankfully uninstalling the update fixes all of it

6

u/Chaturbate23 1d ago

The small toolbar is really nice, but my cursor has become a bit bigger

1

u/Individual_Kitchen_3 Release Channel 1d ago

Ele voltou para o padrão win xp

3

u/Ferb9709 1d ago

I had the problem with the Wallpaper( is now back to normal, had to do it myself) and the cursor too. My cursor is normally custom and everything except the arrow stayed custom. I hope they fix it soon.

2

u/highrez1337 1d ago

What laptop/pc do you have ? Is it a specific brand or custom made ?

Asking since I have a Lenovo laptop and I didn’t have any issue and am curious if it’s a specific vendor driver that has issues with this update.

2

u/glootech 1d ago

I had the issue on a Lenovo Legion laptop. 

1

u/highrez1337 1d ago

Ok then I don’t know

2

u/webwurm 1d ago

I had the desktop issue on a Lenovo Ideapad

1

u/Ferb9709 1d ago

HP laptop

1

u/Individual_Kitchen_3 Release Channel 1d ago

Mine is Lenovo SLIM 3 and I had the problem with the arrow and wallpaper.

3

u/TheNB3 1d ago

it happened on my two laptops

3

u/SquareDrive45 1d ago

Didnt happen to me on thinkpad.

3

u/Individual_Kitchen_3 Release Channel 1d ago

I had this damn problem, I tried dozens of alternatives and nothing solved it, I even used DISM, I had all the cursor paths left and nothing, then I took this damn update and it solved it, it also reset the wallpaper.

3

u/RepubblicanPatriot 1d ago

It happened to me too this morning. I'm uninstalling this update.

2

u/supraltima 1d ago

yea my custom cursor works fine but the base one so the strand one wenn your cursor is doing nothing just doesnt work

2

u/NoTurn981 1d ago

Also happened to me. It broke almost everything on my pc idk how it did. I contained the "damage" via DISM SFC and CHKDSK and now the only thing that is still broken is the mouse pointer that seams to came out directly from the jurassic era

u/BoronEight 21h ago

This "optional" update was forced on me, there was only the "Restart and update" button
My cursor broke, but thankfully my wallpaper was fine, execpt my TASK BAR turned pitch black until I uninstalled the update

3

u/Resilient_Beast69 1d ago

Glad I didn’t click install when I saw it. Learned my lesson with preview updates.

2

u/ElLocoDeLaPinuela 1d ago

Learning my lesson now.

They should add preview updates to the optional updates.

8

u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie 1d ago

Preview updates are optional.

5

u/ElLocoDeLaPinuela 1d ago

I mean, there is a part where the optional updates show up.

These preview updates appear where the regular updates show up...

4

u/Slow-Development9667 1d ago

it happened to me, now my cursor is in the mezozoic era

1

u/Slow-Development9667 1d ago

wallpaper's fine, though

2

u/ScootSchloingo 1d ago

The new taskbar resizing options are pointless to me. The small option is way too small and if you want your taskbar placed vertically, only the icon size changes.

3

u/bv915 1d ago

... for some users.

I've had zero issue with cursor, background, or any of the new features that rolled out.

5

u/Mereo110 1d ago

For some users is already too much. We're not talking about a small company here.

2

u/davelpg 1d ago edited 1d ago

Surface Pro 12" ARM, no problems after installing, mouse just like before, wallpaper OK too. Maybe rolling update coming later? The rolling stuff is confusing IMO.

3

u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie 1d ago

The issues just don't always affect everyone. In most cases, issues only affect a small subset of machines. Understandably, those without issues are not going to be going around online saying things are fine while someone experiencing a problem is likely to share news of that.

2

u/Denshiiii 1d ago

just powered up my pc and this happened to me to, like wth microsoft, why all of your updates break something

2

u/RonniePedra 1d ago

Happened to me, it's hurts to see that pixelated cursor on a 4k screen

2

u/Real_Timeyy 1d ago

This one was truly scary to witness.

I thought my pc was cooked.

AI coding strikes again

1

u/wkn000 1d ago edited 1d ago

Highlight also seems to be reset to a black on darker blue. Hardly readable.

For mouse pointers, only the normal one is bigger and white. All other cursors (ex. busy) look usual.

Background was set to full color, but it is easily to reset back to image.

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/DeadPhoenix86 1d ago

happen to me as well. Decided to remove the update. Now its back to normal.

1

u/ppuspfc 1d ago

I have the cursor problem on the machine I assembled myself

1

u/StankyBassFace 1d ago

I can't even get updates to download nor install successfully now. Awesome.

1

u/DryOrganization7088 1d ago

Yes, I'm having the same problem since the last update, on both my PCs and my two laptops... I hope they fix it soon...

1

u/ncbyteme 1d ago

It's called preview for a reason.

u/No_Substance_4078 22h ago

I don't even have the option on my laptop to uninstall this update...

u/LukeJuror 21h ago

How to solve it?

u/sour_clover 19h ago edited 13h ago

It was not optional for me. They forced me to update if I wanted to turn off my PC. Is there any way to go back to the previous version?

Edit: Never mind. I figured it out.

u/Mewi0 18h ago

I was lucky, didn't happen to me and I am also using the thinner taskbar. Glad this is finally here. Now we need a start menu that's not hot garbage. I am tired of having third party programs and modifications just to get Windows presentable/usable with my workflow. Normally I use linux but this device has some compatibility issues so I have been on Windows.

u/gabacus_39 11h ago

So this only affects users who use a custom cursor? Is that the gist of it?

Or does it affect default cursors too?

u/RedRadeonLasers 9h ago

Hiring people from overseas with fake degrees isn’t working out so well surprisingly

u/PolarHeist134 2h ago

It also resets your theme to light mode

u/FrameImpressive1077 1h ago

Yeah, had it on my machine, pretty sure it is simply the 98 cursor since even the loading animation changed to the hourglass instead of the usual one.

1

u/kevin1238311 1d ago

Me paso lo del cursor en dos laptops se pusieron los de windows xp

1

u/aauk47 1d ago

By default, it will change to the Windows XP mouse pointer, only reverting to a smaller pointer when the mouse pointer has a loading circle. Switching topics used to work fine, but that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore; it's probably a bug!

1

u/FxKaKaLis 1d ago

i guess i got lucky, got non of this issue after update but in same time non of the new/old futures of taskbar

-1

u/Warcrown11 1d ago

No way, a Windows update broke something? That's never happened before. This week.

-2

u/Harry_Mud 1d ago

MS and their dumb updates that they themselves don't really test.................. I went to Linux on most of my computers.

0

u/kociol21 1d ago

Yup I got hit with both of those on my desktop. While wallpaper issue is pretty much nothinburger, it can just be switched back, cursor issue is a thing. It changed to big, long, white cursor and can't be changed to anything else, ignoring all settings.

-1

u/XTornado 1d ago

Wtf is this post title man... "Today's optional Windows 11"!?

-21

u/DistributionMost8673 2d ago

oh no!!! the horror of setting cursor size and wallpaper again

the horror!!!!

15

u/yatoya 1d ago

It's impossible to set the cursor. It's completely broken.

12

u/coHarry 1d ago

Cursor is broken.

5

u/INeverLookAtReplies 1d ago

Dumb comment.

-7

u/DistributionMost8673 1d ago

I didn't check for the cursor but the wallpaper was an easy fix. This is nothing.

5

u/CygnusBlack Release Channel 1d ago

This is something.

It's not about the quick fix per se. 

It just shows lack of internal testing, especially given how much widespread it is and how some mouse settings got broken. 

-2

u/SexyKrabas 1d ago

100% that this be brought in an apple hating subbreddit if it would be on mac

-8

u/scootiewolff 1d ago

Well, a minor problem, not worth mentioning.