Forum Discussion
Updates from Oct 2025 to Jan 2026 causing Desktop and Taskbar to disappear
Machine is DELL Optiplex 7070, OS is Windows 11 x64:
Starting in Oct 2025 and thru to Jan 2026 following updates caused the taskbar to disappear:
KB5065789
KB5066835
KB5068861
KB5072033
The first three times I was able to uninstall the update since I had access to god-mode on my desktop.
But on Jan. 11, 2026 the last one (KB5072033)also caused my desktop to disappear. Just a black screen. I used Ctrl-Alt-Del to get to task manager and by working on changing permissions on Explorer.exe and stopping and restarting explorer.exe I was finally able to get the desktop to return and then uninstall KB5072033.
I Have paused updates for 5 weeks, and hidden the offensive ones, but I rely on the computer to manage many accounts and this is getting really scary.
2 Replies
Thanks for responding, but you haven't offered any solutions!
Your Dell Optiplex 7070 running Windows 11 x64 has experienced serious issues starting from updates released between October 2025 and January 2026. These updates, specifically KB5065789, KB5066835, KB5068861, and KB5072033, have caused the taskbar and desktop to disappear, resulting in a black screen. Initially, you managed to uninstall the problematic updates using access to God Mode, but on January 11, 2026, the latest update KB5072033 caused the desktop to vanish again, leaving only a black screen.
