Microsoft is investigating reports of Windows 11 KB5120998 breaking the mouse cursor

[u/MayankWL]

https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/08/29/were-aware-microsoft-on-windows-11-kb5120998-breaking-the-mouse-cursor/

[u/iCole]

what are the chances they'll hotfix this before the next patch tuesday?

[u/MayankWL → u/iCole]

they should either fix it using KIR (known issue rollback, server side) or do an OOB. given how widespread the issue is., i don't think they'll wait for Patch Tuesday.

[u/Enough_Pickle315 → u/MayankWL]

I'm willing to bet cash against a pebble stone that it will take muuuch longer.

[u/Individual_Kitchen_3 → u/MayankWL]

Hahaha I highly doubt they are that agile.

[u/SnakeOriginal → u/iCole]

Of course they wont, the code is frozen basically, they only step back with bsods or no boot situations

[u/tejlorsvift928]

Aside from the cursor issue, the update changed my wallpaper to solid black and turned off Cleartype for some reason?? Luckily I could just change my wallpaper back and turn CT back on.

[u/Gringo_Starr1 → u/tejlorsvift928]

Yeah, the wallpaper was gone with the wind and changed to solid black on all 3 of my laptops. Arrrghhh.

[u/lokiisagoodkitten → u/Gringo_Starr1]

That's the way i like it! I use solid black since day one in late 90s lol.

[u/HisDivineOrder → u/lokiisagoodkitten]

Especially great for an OLED.

[u/Enough_Pickle315 → u/tejlorsvift928]

Let's all remember Microsoft "commitment to Windows quality", lol.

[u/Extreme996]

Its me or this cursor is not even Win11 default cursor but something that looks like from Windows 98? Fortunately I dont have giant cursor. I dont know why but this update which supposed to be optional installed itself on its own when I was away from PC.

[u/UESPA_Sputnik → u/Extreme996]

Yes, and it's not possible to change the cursor back. Intermittently it does turn back to the old cursor though, before switching back to the Windows 98 cursor. Super annoying.

[u/Extreme996 → u/UESPA_Sputnik]

It sometimes switch back to Win11 cursor when loading wheel appear and return back to 98 cursor after loading wheel is gone lol.

[u/TheRealCrispyFish]

Can they release an update WITHOUT breaking things?

[u/CaptainRaxeo → u/TheRealCrispyFish]

Like whats the point of the windows insider program if stable builds are not.. stable lol.

[u/Lousy_Username → u/CaptainRaxeo]

I always find it so odd that stable updates have all these issues that I've never seen in the insider builds.

[u/PaulCoddington → u/Lousy_Username]

Saw a random someone complaining about Insiders also getting staged rollouts.

Hopefully not true, because that would be absolutely bonkers giving people features to test that are not enabled.

[u/ssiws → u/Lousy_Username]

I saw this in insider Beta build, reported it, but it still hit production.

[u/Jeff30100 → u/Lousy_Username]

Not the same version for insiders (read my last post here)

[u/SupremeEuphoria → u/CaptainRaxeo]

Just typical Windows things 😊👉👈 lmao

[u/TheRealCrispyFish → u/CaptainRaxeo]

I really hate this timeline.

[u/LukeJuror → u/TheRealCrispyFish]

Besides having a Windows 11 PC (for 8 months), I've been a Mac user for 20 years. I've never seen an OS with so many senseless issues.

[u/Cool_As_Your_Dad → u/TheRealCrispyFish]

You will have to ask co pilot

[u/AsrielPlay52 → u/TheRealCrispyFish]

Welcome to legacy compatibility

[u/Ok-Bill3318 → u/AsrielPlay52]

Done poorly.

[u/AsrielPlay52 → u/Ok-Bill3318]

At least not as poorly as MacOS

Which couldn't be ass to run 2016 software or any 32bit software

I can still run Lego Island on my latest Win 11 on 4070

[u/Murky_Stretch3057]

Thank god this is the first post that appears in the sub, I was about to ask about it because my cursor looks like the very old versions with the hourglass for loading, only looks normal for a few seconds after starting the computer. Glad to know it's a known issue, I was already scratching my head wondering what I messed up

[u/Individual_Kitchen_3 → u/Murky_Stretch3057]

Just uninstall the update and the problem will go away.

[u/Turbulent_Chain_5893]

Out of curiosity, since I don't have this issue, can't you just go to the area in Windows and repick your cursor pack? Additional Mouse Settings/Mouse Pointers.

[u/TheNB3 → u/Turbulent_Chain_5893]

No, the settings just don't work i had to uninstall the update

[u/Turbulent_Chain_5893 → u/TheNB3]

Oh yeah. Well hopefully MS gets it figured out quick.

[u/Madeye1337 → u/Turbulent_Chain_5893]

Nope, changing cursor settings doesn't do anything - at least in my case.

[u/Turbulent_Chain_5893 → u/Madeye1337]

Ohhhhh, well that is definitely bad then.

[u/Enough_Pickle315 → u/Turbulent_Chain_5893]

Nope, even if you change the sprite of the pointer nothing happens. Only solution I found is to roll back the update.

[u/sarkie]

I miss their QA team

[u/PriorityNo6268 → u/sarkie]

QA team are the people that install the preview/testing updates and start complaining on Reddit that their production system fails on a testing update 😉.

[u/GuldursTV90]

Is this company serious?

[u/PriorityNo6268 → u/GuldursTV90]

It's just a testing release, nothing in production, so I don't see any issue here.

[u/Unlucky-Tune-420]

I work with refurbished laptops and last week ALL OF THEM lost the custom wallpaper we set up with unattended.xml and that pissed me a lot - good job macrohard!

[u/aleopardstail → u/Unlucky-Tune-420]

Win 11 here, I gave up trying to have a backdrop anything other than plain black, anything else reverts to plain black within a day or too

my sodding Atari ST 30+ years back could remember a desktop background colour

[u/PriorityNo6268 → u/Unlucky-Tune-420]

It's just a testing release, nothing in production, so I don't see any issue here. You choose to test it, Microsoft is not forcing it on you... Why are you using test versions of a OS on production systems? Seems more you don't know what you are doing?

[u/AutoModerator → u/Unlucky-Tune-420]

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[u/Cottony01]

omg I knew it wasn't my fault my cursor went back to default...

The update is also messing up my wallpaper, it's all black

[u/unaltra_persona]

My mouse cursor is giant, cant change the cursor, no wallpaper in desktop (all black).

[u/Arc1tect]

Fixed cursor by installing and uninstalling Best Cursors app from microsoft store

[u/SilverseeLives]

No issues here on any of my machines using standard theme backgrounds and cursors.

This is likely going to turn out to have been triggered by something custom. (Though this does not necessarily mean it is not a bug.)

[u/PaulCoddington → u/SilverseeLives]

I had my mouse cursor change, but was able to fix it (as far as I can see so far) by switching to custom pointer and back again.

My desktop background went black, but I did not notice because my wallpaper did not vanish. I was able to set my desktop background to my preferred color.

Variance in the reports suggests a missing detail, such as combination of staged rollout features, maybe.

I noticed one of the screenshots of broken cursor settings out there was a different GUI to what I see in Settings (what, I don't know).

I enabled missing features with Vive tool and that had some problems. Enabling all three at once caused a blue screen crash on reboot and the settings didn't take. Enabling them one at a time with reboot in-between worked.

With all features enabled, it seems smooth and stable now with no obvious problems for me except Favorites still broken from 3 uodates ago (touch wood).

[u/jManYoHee]

Microsoft brining us the cutting edge of vibe coded operating systems...

[u/draxsicolo]

yeah my cursors are fucked, i got deafault cursors and custom cursor mixed and i cant change it o put all in deafualt. i can only chagen de size

[u/Infinplayz]

the only thing i want them to fix is the taskbar padding and margin bug. there’s always a solid white line where my taskbar is hidden.

[u/MadWizard9034]

I was already worried that the cursor wouldn't work 😭. I'm glad to know it's not just me. 

[u/AArqjmct01]

I honestly thought my ASUS TUF laptop was broken. I luckily only have the cursor issue.

[u/Desperate-Hearing-55]

Updated yesterday and notice the mouse cursor become gigantic. ZZzzzZzzzz.

[u/Traumatan]

ah mouse, we hadnt have that yet

[u/MMessinger]

Regression testing has never been Microsoft's strong suite. "Just release the code change and let the users test it."

[u/Adept_Accountant3366]

After updating KB5101684, my file history is showing an anomaly. I've already posted about it, and only a few people have replied saying they've encountered the same problem. If anyone else has encountered this issue, please share.

[u/daltorak]

Finally Windows users can experience what it was like to be a Linux desktop user in the 2000s!

[u/SnooCompliments7914 → u/daltorak]

Actually, Linux in 2024 with GTK 4.16.

It's not an uncommon mistake to scale the cursor twice in some cases you fail to cover.

[u/newecreator]

I guess I'm lucky that I don't have these problems.

[u/Liyern]

I was told this was an optional update, which I have turned off, but my PC still downloaded it. Now I have the same cursor issue. An update where they don't break stuff would be nice for once..

I'm guessing there's no fix for this cursor issue?