Microsoft Admits Latest Windows 11 Update May Break Your Games
This issue emerged with the August 11th KB5121003 update for Windows 11 version 25H2, so if you haven't already installed it, further stalling or pausing updates is recommended. The issue is likely present on Windows 11 Experimental Preview Build 26340.9212 as well, so be wary of it if you're in the Experimental branch.
The root cause of the issue relates to the "inpoutx64" driver and how it interacts with certain RGB peripherals and internal components. That driver allows user-level software to communicate directly with the system's hardware, and while it was originally designed for older hardware functions (like transferring data through legacy parallel ports), it's primarily used today by hardware monitoring and RGB LED control software.
Interestingly, all of the known games with this issue rely on Unreal Engine 5. This includes the recently-released Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls as well as Arc Raiders and The Finals.
Once you've done that, do the following:
- Hit the Start Button and type "regedit" to open regedit.exe.
- Paste "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\inpoutx64" into the search bar.
- Double-click the "Start" registry value and type "4" under "Value data."
- Restart your PC.
Doing this should fix the issue, but given that you're disabling the driver they use to do their duty, this will naturally cause compatibility issues with RGB peripherals, hardware monitoring software, and tweak tools like fan control or memory tuning apps. In the worst case, it may also ruin functions like keyboard macros. Microsoft recommends restoring your registry if the new issues caused outweigh the pains of the old ones. Hopefully it gets that official patch out sooner rather than later.
