By the end of May 2024, Microsoft released the latest non-security updates for Windows 11 users under build numbers 22621.3662 and 22621.3662 (KB5037959). Shortly after, the company confirmed that the update was causing problems with the taskbar, resulting in the latter temporarily crashing, becoming unresponsive, disappearing, and doing other nasty things. Besides, users will see errors in the event viewer, such as “Bad application name”, “Taskbar.View.dll” and “Bad module name”.
Fortunately, all those annoyances are gone now.
Microsoft has updated The official release notes for KB5037959 Just to clarify that the taskbar issues in recent non-security updates are now gone. The company fixed the problem using a Known Issue Rollback technique that can remotely repair affected systems without them having to uninstall updates, install additional patches, restart, or perform any other user action.
If you are a regular customer on builds 22621.3662 or 22621.3662, there is nothing you need to do to apply the patch. However, it may take up to 24 hours for the resolution to reach your unmanaged computers. If you want to speed things up, just restart your system.
As for IT administrators, they can fix the broken taskbar in Windows 11 KB5037959 using a special group policy:
IT administrators can resolve this issue by installing and configuring the special Group Policy listed below. The special group policy can be found in Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > .
For information about deploying and configuring this special Group Policy, see How to use Group Policy to deploy known issue remediation.
Group Policy Downloads with Group Policy Name:
All of the changes and feature improvements in KB5037959 are expected in the June 2024 patch updates, which should land later today. They include the permanent address bar in File Explorer, a new linked devices page in the Settings app, the slightly cursed “Account Manager” in the Start menu, the built-in QR generator for links, and more. Also, expect the operating system to receive plenty of security updates to make your devices more secure.