Microsoft Confirms Windows 11's January Update Is Bricking Some PCs

Microsoft's Windows 11 January 2026 Update woes continue, and now the company is confirming that some users are no longer able to boot their PCs, receiving the BSOD stop code "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME" instead. The issue is limited to physical devices, and doesn't seem to impact virtual machines at all. But since this is the same update that somehow also broke Sleep functionality, the standard Shutdown menu, and Outlook Classic, it's not a good look for Microsoft, especially since this was mostly meant to be a routine security update. Perhaps this is a sign that "as much as 30%" of Microsoft's code shouldn't be written by AI, as its CEO Satya Nadella once disclosed? It's hard to say.


In any case, users impacted by this issue are advised by Microsoft to resort to standard manual recovery steps, including WinRE or, in a serious situation, resorting to a full clean reinstall of Windows 11 from the ISO. Sadly, the root cause of the issue remains unknown, with Microsoft not providing details on what specific hardware is impacted. Microsoft even seems unsure whether "this is a regression caused by a Windows update", urging impacted users to wait for Microsoft to update its documentation with further details. The initial report of this and the only currently publicly-accessible location of this report is the AskWoody Forums, with the Microsoft-hosted documentation on the boot issue barred behind the Admin portal of Microsoft's Cloud forums for business users.

This limitation and the mention of virtual machines suggests that these boot issues may be limited in some way to Enterprise versions of Windows or pro-grade hardware, but limited information makes any further conclusive statements impossible. Users on the AskWoody Forums and elsewhere are highly critical of Microsoft for these bugs, decrying an apparent lack of even basic testing for Windows 11 updates.

While I'm typically inclined to agree, I do think it's important to remember that Microsoft's position is not an easy one to maintain—by far the largest OS install base also means a nearly inconceivable amount of hardware and operating variations between them. But that position also has to come with accountability and high standards. Continuing to push somewhat controversial AI integrations into Windows 11 while failing to uphold system stability is in fact a problem, and users are right to be upset about it. Hopefully, Microsoft is able to iron out these issues and deliver on its promises of a better Windows 11 sooner rather than later.