July 2026 Windows Update — Known Problems and Fixes

The July update has been out for two days. Here's what's gone wrong so far and what to do if it's hit you.

Two problems have surfaced. Neither affects most people, but both are worth knowing about because they're easy to misdiagnose. One hits certain Dell laptops. The other breaks older VPN and business security software. I'll take them in turn.

Dell laptops shutting down and overheating

If you've got a Dell laptop with an Intel processor and it started shutting down on its own, running hot, or draining the battery faster than usual after this update, this is why.

The technical cause is a clash between two bits of software. Microsoft added a new component to Windows called the USB-C Connection Manager, and on some Dell machines it doesn't get on with Dell's own Intel power-management driver (the mouthful is "Intel Innovation Platform Framework Processor Participant"). When they fight, the laptop can shut down unexpectedly, feel sluggish, get hot, or eat through its battery.

It only affects certain Dell Intel laptops running Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2. Microsoft has confirmed it and put a hold on the update, which means it won't be offered to affected Dell machines until there's a fix. They expect that in the coming days. There's no published list of exactly which models, so the only reliable way to know is to check your own PC.

Microsoft has now published a list of affected models: the Dell Pro Max 14 and Pro Max 16 Premium, Pro Precision 7 (14 and 16 inch), Precision 5470, 5480, 5490 and 5770, and the XPS 17 9720 and 9730. If your Dell isn't on that list, the update should install normally.

How to check if your Dell is affected

1. Right-click the Start button (the Windows logo, bottom-left).
2. Click Device Manager in the menu that pops up.
3. Scroll down and click the little arrow next to System devices to open it.
4. Look for Intel Innovation Platform Framework Processor Participant in the list.
5. If it has a small yellow triangle with an exclamation mark next to it, your laptop is affected. No yellow triangle means you're fine.

If it's already installed and your Dell is playing up

If your laptop is shutting down or overheating and you've confirmed the yellow warning, you can remove the update while you wait for Microsoft's fix.

1. Open Settings (press the Windows key, type Settings, hit Enter).
2. Click Windows Update down the left-hand side.
3. Click Update history.
4. Scroll to the bottom and click Uninstall updates.
5. Find KB5101650 in the list and click Uninstall next to it.
6. Restart when it asks you to.

VPNs and older security software losing internet

The second problem is a networking one, and it's mostly a business headache rather than a home one. After this update, some older VPN clients and certain corporate security tools stop connecting to the internet.

This one isn't a bug, it's deliberate. Microsoft has tightened a security rule: network drivers now have to be properly registered with Windows, and older software that uses unregistered drivers gets cut off. Modern VPNs and security tools from the big vendors already do this correctly and carry on working. The software that breaks tends to be older VPN clients, corporate endpoint security agents, and specialist networking tools, the sort of thing you'd find on a work laptop rather than a home PC.

How to confirm this is your problem

If your VPN or a security tool stopped connecting straight after the update, you can check whether this is the cause.

1. Press the Windows key, type Event Viewer, and press Enter.
2. On the left, open Windows Logs, then click System.
3. Look for an error from AFD with Event ID 16003 that mentions "an unregistered TDI provider was detected".
4. If it's there, this update is why your networking software stopped working.

The fix

Update the VPN or security software to a newer version. That's the proper fix and usually the only one you need. Check the app for updates first. If there isn't a newer version available, contact whoever makes it, because they'll need to release one.

If you run an IT setup and you're stuck waiting on a vendor, there is a registry workaround (the setting is AfdTdiUnknownProviderValidationLevel) that lets the old driver through. Only use it as a stopgap. It lowers the security Microsoft just added, so it's not something to leave in place.

Some keyboard shortcuts stopped working

After this update, keyboard shortcuts in certain apps stop responding for a small number of people. Microsoft changed how Windows clears up application hotkeys when an app closes, and in rare cases a shortcut gets stuck from the previous session. Most people won't see this at all.

If it's happened to you, the fix takes seconds:

1. Close the affected app completely.
2. Reopen it.

That should sort it. If closing and reopening doesn't fix it, report it to Microsoft: press the Windows key, type Feedback Hub, open it, and describe which shortcut has stopped working and in which app.

Windows 11 24H2 stops getting security updates in October

This isn't a problem caused by the July update, but it was flagged in the July release notes, so it's worth covering while people are paying attention to Windows updates.

If you're running Windows 11 24H2 on Home or Pro, Microsoft will stop sending security updates to those editions on 13 October 2026. After that date, no more security patches, no bug fixes, no technical support. Enterprise and Education editions of 24H2 aren't affected until October 2027, so if you're on a managed work computer, this probably isn't your concern.

For most people, nothing to do. Windows Update will automatically upgrade the PC to 25H2 before October. It's a small download: 25H2 is built on the same codebase as 24H2, just with a few additions. No reinstall, no compatibility issues. It comes through like any other update.

If you want to check which version you're on: go to Settings > System > About, then look under Windows specifications for the Version line. 24H2 means you're on the version with the October deadline. 25H2 means you've already been upgraded.

The only people who might need to act are those who've disabled automatic updates, or whose PC doesn't qualify for 25H2. If it's the latter, that starts a conversation about whether the hardware is still worth keeping going. For most home PCs, Windows Update sorts this on its own.

Internal laptop speakers stopped working

If the speakers built into your laptop have gone silent or dropped to almost nothing since this update, and it's an HP or another laptop that uses Realtek audio, this is the one that's got you. The sound doesn't crackle or distort, it just about disappears.

The driver at fault is the Realtek one, version 6.0.9597.1. It's turned up on HP laptops most, but others using Realtek audio are affected too. Microsoft hasn't added this to its official known-issues list, but enough people have reported it on Microsoft's own community forums that it's clearly a real one and not a coincidence. The fix is to throw out the driver Windows put in and replace it with the proper one from whoever made your laptop.

1. Right-click the Start button (the Windows logo, bottom-left) and click Device Manager.
2. Click the little arrow next to Sound, video and game controllers to open it.
3. Right-click your Realtek audio device (it'll be something like Realtek(R) Audio), click Uninstall device, and if it offers to delete the driver software as well, tick that box.
4. Restart the laptop. Use Restart, not Shut down. On Windows 11 they're not the same thing, and Restart is the one that clears everything out properly.
5. Go to your laptop maker's website (HP, Dell, Lenovo, whoever built it), find the support page for your exact model, and download the audio driver listed there. Install that one, not the generic version Windows offers you.
6. Restart once more.

HP laptops not starting up after the July update

This is the serious one, and it turned up ten days in. Some HP laptops won't boot at all after installing the July update. You get a black screen, a blue screen, a BitLocker recovery prompt asking for a key you might not have to hand, or the machine just loops - restart, fail, restart again. Often there's an error on screen: 0xc0430001. If that's you, the update went in and then locked the laptop out on the next restart.

In plain English, here's what's gone wrong. The July update changes how Windows checks that its own startup files are legitimate. That check is part of Secure Boot. On older machines, or ones with a very small system partition left over from a previous Windows install (the old 100MB kind), the new check fails, and Windows won't let itself start. It's protecting the machine from what it thinks is a tampered boot file, except nothing's been tampered with. It's the update itself tripping the alarm.

The honest bit: Microsoft still hasn't acknowledged this one for HP, and it's not on any official known-issues list. But there is now a workaround that stops it happening. If you turn Secure Boot off in the BIOS settings first, the July update installs without tripping the alarm. Secure Boot lives in the low-level settings screen you get to by pressing F10 as the laptop starts up, before Windows loads. Turn it off, install the update, then turn it back on. The other option is to update your HP's BIOS to the latest version, which handles the certificate change more gracefully. I'll go through both properly below.

That's if you haven't installed the update yet. If your laptop's already gone in and now won't boot, disabling Secure Boot won't help you, the damage is done. You need to take the update back off instead, and since the machine won't fully start, you can't do that the normal way through Settings. You have to go in through Windows Recovery.

If you haven't installed it yet — here's how to do it safely

If your HP is one of the affected models and the July update hasn't gone in yet, don't just let it install and hope. Do it this way instead.

1. Before you start, make a note of your BitLocker recovery key. Go to account.microsoft.com, sign in with the Microsoft account that's linked to your PC, and look under Devices, then your PC, then BitLocker keys. Write the key down or print it. (If you don't use BitLocker this step doesn't apply, but it costs nothing to check.)
2. Restart the laptop and press F10 repeatedly the moment the HP logo appears. That opens the BIOS settings, the low-level screen that loads before Windows. (On some HPs it's Esc first, then F10.)
3. Find the Secure Boot option. It's usually under Security or Boot Options. Turn it Off and save. The laptop will restart.
4. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates and install the July update normally. Let it restart when it asks.
5. Once the update's installed and Windows is back up, restart again and press F10 to get back into the BIOS settings. Turn Secure Boot back On and save.
6. Restart one more time to confirm everything's working.

How to remove the update when the laptop won't boot

First you need to get into the recovery menu. There are two ways in:

1. If the laptop won't start at all: turn it on, and as soon as you see anything on screen, hold the power button down until it switches off. Do that three times. On the third go, Windows gives up trying to boot normally and takes you into recovery by itself.
2. If you can still get to the sign-in screen or desktop: hold the Shift key and click Restart. Keep Shift held until the blue recovery menu appears.

Once you're in the recovery menu, the path is the same either way:

1. Click Troubleshoot.
2. Click Advanced options.
3. Click Uninstall Updates.
4. Click Uninstall latest quality update.
5. Let it do its thing and restart when it's finished.

That should get the laptop booting again. Once it's back up, go to HP's support site, look up your exact model, and check for a BIOS update - HP may push a firmware fix that stops this happening when you eventually reinstall the update. After that, hold off on the July update until Microsoft sorts it properly. You'll have to keep an eye on it manually, because with the update uninstalled Windows will keep trying to offer it back to you.

Installation freezing or getting stuck - especially on custom-built PCs

This one is a different update to the main July one. On the same day as KB5101650, Microsoft put out KB5100998, a .NET Framework update. On a subset of custom-built PCs it's the install itself that's going wrong.

The reports all look the same. People on machines they've built themselves - ASUS ROG boards, an MSI B650 with a Ryzen 7800X3D, an MSI MPG Z790 - plus some laptops, find that when KB5100998 tries to install, the PC freezes partway through, reboots on its own, loses the keyboard and mouse, or sits there for hours saying "undoing changes". One person who took it apart properly reckons it's a deadlock caused by NTFS Disk Quota getting tangled up during the install. Microsoft hasn't said a word about it, but there are enough matching reports on Microsoft Q&A and the ASUS ROG forum that it's plainly real.

To be clear, this isn't everyone. Most people install both updates and never notice a thing. It's a small group of custom builds. If yours went in fine, you can skip the rest of this.

If it's caught you, here's what to try, in order.

1. Uninstall just KB5100998. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Update history > Uninstall updates, find KB5100998 and uninstall it. Leave KB5101650 where it is if that one installed OK.
2. If the machine got stuck mid-install and won't boot normally, try the Disk Quota trick. Turn Disk Quota off on your C: drive first: right-click the Start button, click Computer Management, open Storage > Disk Management, right-click your C: drive, click Properties, go to the Quota tab, and untick Enable quota management. Then let the update install, and turn quota management back on once you've restarted.
3. If neither of those works, take both updates off: uninstall KB5100998 first, then KB5101650, both from Settings > Windows Update > Update history > Uninstall updates.

So should you still install the July update?

For nearly everyone, yes. This update carries 570 security fixes including two zero-days that criminals are already exploiting. That's not one to sit out. Here's the short version:

• Not on a Dell laptop? Install it. No reason to wait.
• On a Dell laptop? Microsoft released a fix on 18 July — out-of-band update KB5121767. Check Windows Update now and it should appear. If it doesn't show up, wait another day and try again.
• VPN stopped working? Update the VPN software first. If you'd already uninstalled the Windows update because of it, reinstall the Windows update once the VPN is sorted.
• Audio stopped working on your laptop? Download the latest audio driver directly from your laptop manufacturer's website (HP, Dell, Lenovo, whatever brand you've got). Uninstall the current driver first, restart, then install the one from the manufacturer.
• HP laptop won't start after the update? If it's already gone in and won't boot, use the Recovery menu instructions above to take the update back off. If it hasn't installed yet, the safer route is to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS settings first — full steps in the HP section above. Or bring it to me either way.

If the update has caused bigger problems on your machine, things not loading, crashes, the laptop refusing to start, that's computer repair territory rather than something to fiddle with yourself. Bring it to me and I'll get it sorted.

What's coming in August - the preview update is out

If you like an early look, Microsoft put the August preview update (KB5101684) out on 28 July on the Release Preview Channel, builds 26200.8973 for 25H2 and 26100.8973 for 24H2. It's optional, so it won't land on its own. You'd have to go into Windows Update and specifically ask for it. It adds Voice Isolation for Voice Access, which strips background noise when you're controlling the PC by voice, some new precision touchpad gestures, and Windows Hello fingerprint sign-in for external USB fingerprint readers. File Explorer gets a tidy-up too - it'll finally show proper KB, MB and GB file sizes in list view instead of rounding everything, and search is a bit better. There are a few fixes in it small businesses will care about: an MDM enrolment bug that left some managed devices stuck as non-compliant and locked out of work systems, File History backups that were failing to network SMB shares, and mapped DFS drives wrongly flagging files as though they'd come from the internet.

Nothing's broken from this one, and Microsoft lists no known issues with it, but there's no reason to rush it. The fixes in it aren't urgent, and the whole lot becomes part of the normal August Patch Tuesday on 14 August, so it'll come through automatically next month whether you go looking for it now or not.

Mark

Mark has been fixing computers since the late '90s and went self-employed in 2008. Based in St Helens since 2013, he works evenings and weekends from his home in Laffak — friendly, affordable repairs for PCs, laptops, and Macs. See reviews on Google