June 2026 Windows Update — Known Problems and Fixes

June's Windows update has been out for ten days. Here's what's gone wrong and what you can do about it.

There are now ten issues to cover: one cosmetic, nine more serious. If you have an HP EliteBook or ProBook, you're on Windows 10 and got locked out by BitLocker, you upgraded your PC from Windows 10 and the June update won't install, your OneDrive folder has stopped opening in File Explorer, your PC has lost its connection to other devices on your network, or your PC keeps freezing solid a few minutes after you switch it on, jump to those sections first. If Windows is taking three minutes or more to start up and things like Settings are slow to open afterwards, skip to the slow startup section. If you have an Intel hybrid-core laptop that's suddenly running at a crawl, skip straight to the CPU efficiency core section. And if you run specialist business software (accounting or audit packages, dental practice systems, or anything that opens Word and Excel documents for you automatically) and it's suddenly stopped doing that, skip down to the section on software that won't open Office files. If none of that applies and you don't use custom folder icons, you can stop reading here and just install the update.

Custom folder icons have vanished

After installing June's update (KB5094126 on Windows 11, KB5094127 on Windows 10), some folders that had a custom icon are back to the plain yellow folder. Folders that displayed a custom name might show their real name instead. Your files are all still there and the folders open exactly as before. It's only the look that's changed.

This isn't a bug. Microsoft did it on purpose, and they've confirmed it. Windows now ignores the little hidden file that sets a folder's icon (it's called desktop.ini) when that file came from somewhere outside your PC. A downloaded folder, a network drive, an icon pack you grabbed off the internet. Windows tags anything that arrived from outside, and it now refuses to trust the icon instructions in those tagged files.

The reason is security. A dodgy desktop.ini file tucked inside a downloaded folder could be used to make hostile files look like safe, familiar ones. It's been a known weak spot for years. Closing it means the icons set by those outside files stop showing. A fair trade, but annoying if it's hit you.

Who this affects

You'll have noticed this if you use any of these:

• A downloaded icon pack or theme that gave your folders custom icons
• A network drive (a NAS box at home, or a shared server at work) where folders had icons set on them
• Folders you downloaded from the internet that came with their own icon files inside

If none of that sounds like you, your icons won't have changed.

How to get your icons back

Pick the fix that matches your situation. The first one covers most home users. The later ones are for network drives and for anyone comfortable digging into Windows settings.

1. Set the icon again yourself (easiest)

If the folder is on your own PC and you set the icon in the first place, just set it again. Windows trusts an icon you apply yourself locally, so re-doing it sticks.

1. Right-click the folder and choose Properties
2. Click the Customise tab at the top
3. Click Change Icon near the bottom
4. Pick your icon (click Browse if it's a file you saved), then click OK
5. Click OK again to close Properties

The icon comes straight back and stays put.

2. For icons on a network drive

If the folders live on a NAS or a work server, you need to tell Windows that the server is a place it can trust. Once it's trusted, Windows reads the icon instructions from it normally again.

1. Open the Start menu, type Internet Options, and click it when it appears
2. Go to the Security tab
3. Click Trusted sites, then click the Sites button
4. In the box, type the address of your server (for example \\NAS or \\servername), then click Add
5. Click Close, then OK

Your folder icons on that drive should come back after a restart.

3. Turn the protection off across the whole PC (advanced)

This last one switches the new protection off completely, so Windows goes back to reading icon files from anywhere. Only do this on your own home PC. Never on a work machine, because you'd be turning off a security fix that's there for a reason.

If your edition of Windows has the Group Policy editor (Pro and above):

1. Press the Windows key, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter
2. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer
3. Find Allow processing of desktop.ini files from all locations and double-click it
4. Set it to Enabled, click OK, and restart

On Windows Home, which has no Group Policy editor, you can do the same with a registry key instead. Under HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer, create a DWORD value called DisableDesktopIniMotwCheck and set it to 1, then restart. If that sentence means nothing to you, skip this option and use fix 1 or 2 instead. Editing the registry blind is how PCs end up on my bench.

HP laptops stuck on error 0xc0430001

This one's more serious. A handful of recent HP business laptops won't boot at all after June's update. Instead of Windows starting, you get a screen with the error 0xc0430001 and the machine goes no further.

So far I've seen it on the HP EliteBook 840 G10 and the HP ProBook 460 G11. It's likely to hit other recent HP business models too, so don't assume you're safe just because your exact model isn't listed.

The cause is a clash between Windows and HP's own firmware. June's update rolls out new Secure Boot certificates, and some HP laptops are running older BIOS firmware that doesn't get on with them. So it's really an HP firmware problem rather than a Windows bug, but it's the Windows update that sets it off. The fix is to update the HP BIOS.

If the laptop still starts up

Easiest route. If you can still get into Windows (or you caught this before installing the update):

1. Click Start, type HP Support Assistant, and open it. Most HP laptops come with it pre-installed
2. Go to the Updates section
3. Let it check, then install any BIOS or firmware update it finds
4. Restart when it asks. Don't switch the laptop off part-way through a BIOS update, it needs to finish

If the laptop won't boot at all

You'll need a second working PC and a spare USB stick. The idea is to put the BIOS update on the USB stick, then run it on the dead laptop.

1. On the working PC, go to HP's support site at support.hp.com
2. Type in the broken laptop's exact model (for example EliteBook 840 G10) and find its drivers page
3. Download the latest BIOS update for that model
4. Plug in the USB stick and follow HP's instructions to copy the BIOS update onto it. HP's downloader can usually do this for you
5. Plug the stick into the broken laptop and follow HP's recovery steps to run the BIOS update from it

If any of that sounds like hard work, or the laptop's completely dead and you're not sure where to start, bring it in. A stuck BIOS update can make things worse, and getting it wrong on a laptop that won't boot is the safest way to turn a fixable problem into an expensive one. I'd rather do it on the bench than talk you through it blind.

Windows 10 asking for a BitLocker recovery key

This one looks terrifying and isn't. After installing KB5094127, a small number of Windows 10 machines boot into a blue screen asking for a 48-digit BitLocker recovery key before Windows will load. No desktop, no login, just a long code to type in.

First, who this hits. It's narrow. You need to be on a business-managed Windows 10 machine that's still getting updates through the Extended Security Updates programme, with BitLocker switched on and a particular group policy setting in place (the PCR7 platform validation profile). If you're a home user on Windows 10, this almost certainly isn't you. It's an IT-managed-fleet problem.

Here's the why, in plain terms. BitLocker keeps an eye on your PC's startup setup and locks the drive if something fundamental changes, in case someone's tampered with the machine. June's update swaps in those new Secure Boot certificates, BitLocker spots the change, and it asks for the recovery key to make sure it's really you. The good news is it only does this once. Enter the key, and it won't pester you again.

If you're locked out right now

You need the recovery key for that machine. There are two common places it lives:

1. Go to account.microsoft.com/devices on your phone or another PC, sign in with the Microsoft account the device is linked to, find the device, and look for its BitLocker recovery key
2. If it's a work machine, your IT department or whoever set BitLocker up will have a copy. They may also have saved it to a printout or a file when encryption was first turned on
3. Type the 48-digit key into the blue screen. Windows starts normally and won't ask again

Microsoft has acknowledged this and is working on a proper fix.

If you manage the machines and haven't updated yet

You can dodge the lockout entirely by removing that one group policy setting before the update goes on:

1. Press the Windows key, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter
2. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > BitLocker Drive Encryption > Operating System Drives
3. Find Configure TPM platform validation profile for native UEFI firmware configurations and double-click it
4. Set it to Not Configured, click OK, then install the update

Upgraded from Windows 10? The update might refuse to install

If your PC started life on Windows 10 and you later moved it up to Windows 11, June's update might just refuse to go on. You'll find it sat in Windows Update failing every time, and if you check the history it shows an error code of 0x80073712 or 0x800f0993. The PC itself runs fine. Nothing's broken. The update simply won't take.

This only hits machines that were upgraded, not ones that came with Windows 11 already on them. If you went from Windows 10 (21H2 or 22H2) or Windows 11 23H2 up to 24H2 or 25H2, you're in the group that can be affected. It's not a huge number of people, but it's a real fault and I've had a couple come through.

What's gone wrong is that a part of Windows that keeps track of all its own components got slightly scrambled during the upgrade, quietly, without anyone noticing at the time. The June update checks that catalogue before it installs, finds it doesn't add up, and stops. There's a built-in repair tool that puts the catalogue right, and for a lot of machines that's enough to get the update on. Microsoft has now published a more targeted fix on top of that, which I've added below.

How to fix it

You're going to run one command in a black window. Type it exactly as written and let it finish. It can take a while, so leave it be.

1. Click Start and type cmd
2. When Command Prompt shows up in the list, right-click it and choose Run as administrator. Click Yes if Windows asks for permission
3. In the black window, type this exactly: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
4. Press Enter and wait. It'll sit at certain percentages for a few minutes, sometimes around 20% or 40%. That's normal, don't touch it. The whole thing can take ten or fifteen minutes
5. When it finishes and says the operation completed, close the window and restart the PC
6. Go to Settings > Windows Update and click Check for updates. The June update should now install

If the command throws up an error of its own, or the update still won't install after you've run it, that's the point to stop poking at it. Bring the PC in and I'll get the update on properly.

Update (27 June 2026): Microsoft has now published a specific workaround for this one. If the RestoreHealth repair above didn't shift it, the next thing to try is removing the leftover bit of the previous update that's confusing the catalogue. It's one command, run the same way as before. Type it exactly.

1. Click Start and type cmd
2. When Command Prompt appears in the list, right-click it and choose Run as administrator. Click Yes if Windows asks for permission
3. In the black window, type this exactly (it's long, so it's easiest to copy and paste it in): dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~26100.1742.1.10
4. Press Enter and wait for it to finish. It says the operation completed when it's done
5. Close the window, restart the PC, then go to Settings > Windows Update and click Check for updates. The June update should now install

If it still won't go on after that, an in-place upgrade of Windows 11 will sort it. That reinstalls Windows over the top of itself, keeping all your files, programs and settings, and rebuilds the component catalogue cleanly in the process. It's a bigger job than a single command and easy to get wrong on a machine that's already playing up, so if you've got this far and the update's still stuck, that's the point to bring it to me rather than press on alone.

OneDrive won't open in File Explorer

Since June's update went on, some people click the OneDrive folder in the left-hand side of File Explorer and nothing happens. Either the window just sits there, or the whole of File Explorer hangs and you have to close it. The folder's still listed where it always was. It just won't open.

Your files are fine and so is the syncing behind the scenes. OneDrive carries on backing things up in the background. It's only the shortcut into the folder from File Explorer that's broken, so you can still get at everything through the little blue cloud down by the clock, or on the OneDrive website. Nothing's lost.

It seems to land mainly on PCs that are joined to a work domain, or machines where someone has turned off the User Account Control prompts (those "do you want to allow this app to make changes" boxes) while signed in as an administrator. Microsoft hasn't said anything about it yet, so for now you're fixing it yourself. Here are three ways to do that, easiest first.

1. Turn User Account Control back on

If those permission prompts were switched off on your PC, putting them back is often all it takes.

1. Click Start and type UAC
2. Click Change User Account Control settings when it appears in the list
3. Drag the slider back up. The second notch from the top is the normal setting
4. Click OK, click Yes if it asks, and restart the PC

Try opening OneDrive in File Explorer again after the restart. If it works, you're done.

2. Get into OneDrive from the cloud icon instead

If you just need your files right now and don't want to fiddle with settings, go in the side door. Look down by the clock at the bottom-right of the screen for a little blue cloud. That's OneDrive.

1. Click the blue cloud icon at the bottom-right (you might need to click the little up-arrow first to show hidden icons)
2. Click Open folder

That opens your OneDrive folder directly, bypassing the broken shortcut in the sidebar.

3. Make your own shortcut to the folder

If you want the folder back somewhere handy, you can build a shortcut to it yourself in about thirty seconds.

1. Right-click an empty bit of your desktop
2. Choose New, then Shortcut
3. In the box, type %UserProfile%\OneDrive exactly as written
4. Click Next
5. Name it OneDrive and click Finish

Double-click that whenever you want your OneDrive folder, and it'll open straight to it.

PC freezes solid a few minutes after starting

This is the worst one in the batch, and there's no proper fix for it yet. On some PCs, the June update makes Windows 11 lock up completely within about five minutes of reaching the desktop. The whole machine stops dead. The mouse won't move, apps stop responding, and even Task Manager won't open. The only way out is to hold the power button down until it switches off.

Most of the reports are on Lenovo machines, but it's turned up on other makes too, so a different brand doesn't put you in the clear. Microsoft hasn't acknowledged it and there's no setting to change or command to run that sorts it.

The only thing that reliably stops it is taking the update back off. If your PC is doing this, here's how to roll it back.

1. If you can get five minutes in before it freezes, work quickly. Click Start, then the cog icon for Settings
2. Go to Windows Update, then Update history
3. Scroll down and click Uninstall updates
4. Find KB5094126 in the list and click Uninstall next to it
5. Let it finish and restart

Update (24 June 2026): For some PCs, a more specific cause has emerged. If your EFI System Partition (a small hidden partition Windows uses at startup) is running low on space, the June update can conflict with it and trigger the freeze. Microsoft hasn't issued an official fix, but there's a registry workaround for this specific case. Open the Start menu, type regedit, and press Enter. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Bfsvc. Right-click in the right-hand pane, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, name it EspPaddingPercent, and set the value to 0. Restart the PC. If you don't know what a registry key is, don't attempt this — bring the PC in instead.

Some software won't open Word or Excel files any more

This one's narrow, so most home users can skip it. But if it's hit you, it's a proper head-scratcher, because nothing on screen tells you anything's wrong.

Since KB5094126 went on, certain specialist business programs have lost the ability to open Office documents. You click a button inside the software to open a file, and nothing happens. No error, no warning, no spinning wheel. Word or Excel just never appears. The programs hit so far are CCH Engagement and Workpaper Manager (accounting and audit software), Dentrix and Softdent (dental practice systems), and Zotero (a reference manager students and academics use). If you're an accountant, an auditor or a dental practice, this is the one to watch.

The cause is a security change in the update. June's patch tightened up the behind-the-scenes way one program is allowed to start another, and these particular apps relied on the old, looser way to launch Word and Excel in the background. Microsoft has confirmed the problem and is working on a fix, due in July's update.

The workaround

Open the file yourself instead of letting the software do it for you. Two ways:

1. Open Word or Excel first, then use File > Open from inside it to find the document
2. Or find the file in File Explorer and double-click it directly

It's a bit more faff than clicking a button in your usual program, but for the odd document here and there it's fine, and it'll see you through until Microsoft's fix lands.

If your business depends on documents opening automatically (overnight batch jobs, or macros that fire up Word in the background), the manual workaround won't cut it. Microsoft has a script for business customers that sorts this properly, so get on to Microsoft Support for Business and ask for it. If you'd rather not deal with that yourself, give me a shout and I'll sort it out with you.

PC loses connection to other devices on your network

This one has come up in the last day or so. Some Windows 11 25H2 machines lose all access to their local area network after installing KB5094126. The internet still works fine, so it's not immediately obvious what's gone wrong. But shared drives stop showing up, network printers go offline, NAS boxes disappear, and anything else on the local network becomes unreachable. Uninstalling the update fixes it straight away — but Windows reinstalls it automatically, so you end up with the same problem the next time the machine restarts.

So far this is specifically on Windows 11 25H2 machines. If you're on 24H2 or Windows 10, it doesn't seem to be hitting you.

Microsoft hasn't acknowledged it yet and there's no fix. Two things worth trying while you wait:

1. Update your network adapter driver first. Go to your PC maker's support site (Dell, Lenovo, HP, whoever built the machine), find your model, and see if there's a newer network or LAN driver. Some people have found this clears the problem without needing to touch the update at all
2. Uninstall the update and pause. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Update history, click Uninstall updates, find KB5094126 in the list and remove it. Once the PC restarts and your network is back, return to the main Windows Update page and use Pause updates to stop it coming back for a week while you wait for Microsoft to fix it

Recycle Bin shows the wrong file name

Delete a file, open the Recycle Bin to fish it back out, and the name's gibberish. Instead of Budget 2026.xlsx you'll see something like $R4ABC12.xlsx. That's the internal temporary name Windows gives a file the moment you delete it, and since KB5094126 went on it's showing that instead of the real name. Annoying when you're trying to pick the right one out of a long list.

This hits every Windows 11 PC with KB5094126 installed, so it's a common one. The saving grace is it's purely cosmetic. Restore the file and it comes back with its proper name and all its contents, exactly as before. Nothing's lost and nothing's corrupted, the bin's just labelling things badly.

Microsoft has confirmed the bug and already fixed it in an optional preview update, KB5095093, which came out on 23rd June. To install it:

1. Go to Settings > Windows Update
2. Click Check for updates
3. If KB5095093 shows up under "Optional updates available", click Download & install
4. Restart when it finishes

If you'd rather not put an optional preview update on, you don't have to. The same fix arrives automatically with July's Patch Tuesday, so you can just wait it out and live with the odd file names until then.

Optional preview update released June 23rd

On 23rd June Microsoft put out an optional update, KB5095093 (builds 26200.8737 and 26100.8737). Optional means exactly that: it won't install on its own and you don't have to take it. It's a preview of the fixes that become mandatory in July's Patch Tuesday, so this is your chance to get them early if something on the list matters to you.

What's in it:

• Point-in-Time Restore. A new way to roll the PC back to a recent restore point, taking your apps, settings and personal files back with it. Think of it as a more thorough version of System Restore
• Flexible update pause. You can now pause updates for up to 35 days by picking an actual end date in Settings > Windows Update, rather than being stuck with a fixed week
• The Recycle Bin garbled-name bug above, fixed
• Networking and VPN reliability improvements

To get it now, go to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates and look for it under Optional updates. If nothing on the list is pressing, there's no rush. July's Patch Tuesday rolls all of it out automatically.

GIF search broken in the emoji panel since 30th June

From today, opening the GIF tab in the emoji panel (the little window that appears when you press Win + . to insert emoji) shows "GIF service is not available" instead of a search box. Google shut down the Tenor API on 30th June 2026, and Windows 11 relied on Tenor to power GIF search. Every PC with KB5094126 but not the optional preview update KB5095093 is affected. The rest of the panel still works — emoji, kaomoji, symbols — only the GIF tab is dead. Microsoft has documented this in the KB5095093 release notes.

The fix is KB5095093, which switches the panel over from Tenor to GIPHY. If you've already installed it, GIF search is working fine. If not:

1. Go to Settings > Windows Update
2. Click Check for updates
3. Under Optional updates, click Download & install next to KB5095093
4. Restart when prompted

If you can't see it or would rather not install a preview update, the fix comes automatically with July's Patch Tuesday. In the meantime, you can still search for GIFs in a browser and copy one across, or just live without them for a few weeks.

Intel laptop running at a crawl after the update

KB5094126 added something called a Low Latency Profile. The idea is that Windows briefly bumps up CPU speed when you open the Start menu or launch an app, so things feel more responsive. On most machines it works fine, or you'd never notice it either way.

On some Intel hybrid-core laptops, it doesn't work fine at all. The efficiency cores (the lower-power cores Intel uses for background tasks) get stuck running flat out at 100% and never come back down. The result is a laptop that's nearly unusable. Task Manager can take two or three minutes to open. Apps crawl. The cursor stutters. Everything just drags, and nothing obvious is hogging the CPU.

The issue has been reported on Intel Core i7-13850HX systems and similar hybrid-core chips from recent laptop generations (the kind that mix performance cores and efficiency cores on the same processor). If your laptop has one of those and it went from fine to unusable the day after the update, this is almost certainly the cause.

What to do about it

There's no fix from Microsoft yet. The only thing that reliably stops it is uninstalling the update. Here's how to do that:

1. Click Start, then the cog icon to open Settings
2. Click Windows Update on the left
3. Click Update history
4. Scroll down to the bottom of that page and click Uninstall updates
5. Find KB5094126 in the list (you can search for it at the top of the page) and click Uninstall next to it
6. Let it finish and restart your laptop

Once you're back to a working machine, go back to Settings > Windows Update and click Pause updates to stop it coming back for a week while you wait for Microsoft to issue a fix. You can extend that pause if they haven't sorted it by then.

Installing the update again after removing it brings the problem straight back, so users on the Microsoft Answers forum have confirmed it's definitely KB5094126 causing it. Microsoft hasn't officially acknowledged this one yet. I'll update here when a fix lands.

Windows taking forever to start up after the update

Switch the PC on and you're staring at "Please wait..." on the login screen for minutes. You get in, the screen goes black for the better part of a minute, and only then does the desktop turn up. Once you're there, things you'd expect to open instantly drag their heels. Opening Settings for the first time after a restart can take a good fifteen seconds. The whole machine feels like it's wading through treacle for the first few minutes.

Behind the scenes, background services that are meant to start themselves are timing out instead. If you dig into the Windows Event Log you'll see services failing to start with a 45-second timeout error. People running Blue Iris, OpenVPN and Jump Desktop have all reported it, but anything set to launch automatically at startup can be caught by the same thing.

This is the same Low Latency Profile from the Intel section above, just showing itself a different way. There it pinned the efficiency cores at full tilt. Here it's tripping up the startup sequence so services can't get going in time. It hits a wider spread of hardware than the Intel problem does, and it's hit-and-miss in a way that's genuinely odd. Roughly half the affected machines show it. The other half, sometimes set up identically, are completely fine. Microsoft hasn't said anything about this specific symptom yet.

The proper fix: switch the Low Latency Profile off

You don't have to uninstall the whole update for this one. You can turn off just the feature that's causing it and keep June's security patches in place. It needs a small free tool called ViVeTool to do it. Take your time and follow the steps in order.

1. On the PC, open your web browser and go to github.com/thebookisclosed/ViVe
2. On the right-hand side of that page, click Releases
3. Under the latest release, find the list of files (it's called Assets) and click the one ending in .zip to download it. It'll land in your Downloads folder
4. Open your Downloads folder, right-click the file you just got, and choose Extract All, then Extract. That unpacks it into a new folder. Leave that folder open, you'll need to come back to it
5. Click Start and type cmd. When Command Prompt shows up in the list, right-click it and choose Run as administrator. Click Yes when Windows asks for permission
6. You now need to point that black window at the folder you unpacked. Go back to the extracted folder, click once in the address bar at the top (the strip that shows the folder path), and it'll turn into highlighted text. Copy it. Then in the black window type cd, a space, then paste the path, and press Enter
7. Now type this exactly: vivetool.exe /disable /id:58989092 and press Enter. It should say it set the configuration successfully
8. Restart the PC

After the restart the slow startup and the service timeouts should be gone, and you keep June's patches.

Should you still install the update?

Yes. The icon thing is cosmetic, and the security side of this update is the part that matters. June's patch closes six zero-day holes, including ones in BitLocker and in the part of Windows that handles web traffic (HTTP.sys). Those are the sort of flaws attackers go looking for. Leaving them open to keep a custom icon is a bad trade.

Most people won't notice anything different. If you do see a missing icon and it bothers you, the fixes above sort it in a couple of minutes.

If the update has left your PC in a worse state than a missing icon, a stuck install, a machine that won't boot properly, anything like that, don't sit on it. Bring it in and I'll have a proper look. That's what local computer repair is for, and it usually costs less than you'd think.

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