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If you’re an IT admin using Windows Autopatch, a new report is now available to monitor the status of Secure Boot across your organization. As the 2011 Secure Boot certificates start expiring in June 2026, this report helps you start by identifying devices that have Secure Boot enabled. Out of those, see which devices are fully up to date and which ones still need updated certificates. When will this happen: The Secure Boot status report is now available in Windows Autopatch. The 2011 Secure Boot certificates (or CAs) start expiring in June 2026. How this will affect your organization: The Secure Boot status report in Windows Autopatch is designed to help you understand the Secure Boot posture of your fleet. It can help you identify devices that may require attention—before issues occur. What you need to do to prepare: If you don’t yet use Windows Autopatch, consider how it can help you
The January 2026 non-security preview update is now available for Windows 11, versions 25H2 and 24H2. Information about the contents of this update is available from the release notes, which are accessible from the Windows 11 update history page. To learn more about the different types of monthly quality updates, see Windows monthly updates explained. Looking to explore upcoming features and improvements in Windows 11? Check out the Windows roadmap. It includes what’s coming to the Windows Insider Program, what’s gradually rolling out, and what’s generally available. Highlights for the Windows 11, version 25H2 update: The Settings Agent now supports more languages, with expanded support for German, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Italian, and Chinese (Simplified).* This update expands the functionality of Cross‑Device Resume. You can continue activities from your Android ph
IMPORTANT: This notice is only relevant for environments where:Microsoft Office is used Scan Cab is used to check for update compliance The January 2026 Scan Cab was deployed before 2:30 PM PT on January 27, 2026. An updated version of the January 2026 Scan Cab was made available at 2:30 PM PT on January 27, 2026. This Scan Cab includes new metadata corresponding to new updates for Microsoft Office 2016. The new security updates for Microsoft Office released January 26, 2026, included additional protections to address CVE-2026-21509. Reliance on untrusted inputs in a security decision in Microsoft Office allows an unauthorized attacker to bypass a security feature locally. See the additional information section of this message for details. How this affects your organization:IT administrators who downloaded the Scan Cab before 2:30 PM PT on January 27, 2026, should re-acquire and re-deplo
(Updated 1/26 to adjust Windows Server entries and links) Microsoft released today a resolution for an issue observed after installing the January 2026 Windows security update. This issue may cause applications that open or save files stored in cloud‑backed locations to become unresponsive or display errors. Some installations of Outlook may also become unresponsive and fail to open when PST files are stored in cloud‑backed storage such as OneDrive. An out-of-band (OOB) update was released today, January 24, 2026, to address this issue. This cumulative update includes all protections and improvements from the January 2026 Windows security update released January 13, 2026, as well as from the OOB update released on January 17, 2026 (which introduced fixes for two known issues: remote desktop connections and hibernation failures). This OOB update is available through Windows Update for Win
Mark your calendars for February 5, 2026. Windows engineering teams will be hosting a second Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) on the Microsoft Tech Community to help you get the information you need about updating Secure Boot certificates on your Windows devices before they start expiring in June 2026. Experts will be on camera and in the chat to help you with update scenarios, inventorying your estate, formulating the right deployment plan for your organization, and more. When will this happen:This one-hour AMA event will start at 8:00 AM PST (3:00 PM UTC) on February 5, 2026. What you need to do to prepare:Visit the event page, then select Add to Calendar. Want an event reminder? Log in to the Tech Community and select Attend. Can’t attend at that time? Scroll to the bottom of the event page, then post your questions early where it says “Comment.” The event will be recorded so you can catc
Microsoft has identified issues upon installing the January 2026 Windows security update. To address these issues, an out-of-band (OOB) update was released today, January 17, 2026. Connection and authentication failures in remote connection applications: This issue affects multiple platforms including Windows 11, version 25H2; Windows 10, version 22H2 ESU; and Windows Server 2025. See the bottom of this message for the complete list of affected products. Devices with Secure Launch might fail to shut down or hibernate: This issue only affects Windows 11, version 23H2. The out-of-band (OOB) update was released today, January 17, 2026, in the Microsoft Update Catalog. If you have not yet deployed the January 2026 Windows security update and your IT environment includes the affected applications and features, we recommend applying this OOB update instead. For more information and installatio
Windows updates released on and after January 13, 2026, introduce the first phase of protections addressing a Kerberos information disclosure vulnerability (CVE‑2026‑20833). These updates introduce new auditing and optional registry controls that devices can use to begin reducing reliance on RC4 encryption. They also help prepare domain controllers for a future shift to AES‑SHA1 as the default Kerberos encryption method for accounts without explicit encryption settings. The initial deployment phase focuses on identifying misconfigurations or dependencies before the second deployment phase begins in April 2026. When this will happen:The initial deployment phase starts January 13, 2026, and introduces new Kerberos audit events that help identify any remaining RC4 dependencies across your environment. This phase also adds the temporary RC4DefaultDisablementPhase registry value, which organi
Introduction We are announcing the retirement of Q&A, Power BI’s legacy natural language tool. Starting December 2026, Q&A experiences will be retired. Moving forward, users can leverage Power BI Copilot, which offers a more advanced and integrated solution for querying data using generative AI. This change reduces feature overlap, accelerates innovation, and provides a consistent experience across Power BI. When this will happen: Q&A experiences and Q&A Setup will be fully retired by the end of December 2026. How this affects your organization: Who is affected: All organizations using Q&A experiences in Power BI reports, dashboards, mobile, or embedded analytics. What will happen: Creation of new Q&A visuals or experiences will no longer be permitted after December 2026. Existing Q&A visuals in reports, dashboards, mobile, and embedded scenarios will stop working and will be removed. Q&
Preview the expanded Windows Backup for Organizations experience! In early 2026, if users miss the restore option during the out-of-box experience (OOBE) by accident or due to a technical issue, they can still restore at first sign-in. Windows Backup for Organizations helps preserve Windows settings, the list of installed Microsoft Store apps, and the Start menu pins. And now, even more devices can take advantage of this capability, including Microsoft Entra hybrid joined, multi-user setups, and Windows 365 Cloud PCs. When will this happen: The opportunity to sign up for private preview is open now and until February 13, 2026. First sign-in restore will become generally available in early 2026. How this will affect your organization: Windows Backup for Organizations helps your organization upgrade, migrate, or refresh Windows devices. First sign-in restore experience expands its benefits
Prepare for a two-phase hardening change related to CVE-2026-0386. The Unattend.xml file that underlies the hands-free deployment feature of Windows Deployment Services (WDS) poses a vulnerability when it’s transmitted over an unauthenticated RPC channel. Starting with the January 2026 security update, you can explicitly disable it with the help of new Event Log alerts and registry key options. In April 2026, hands-free deployment will be disabled by default. After that date, it will no longer work unless explicitly overridden with registry settings. When will this happen:January 2026 security update: Phase 1 of hardening begins. Hands-free deployment continues to be supported and can be explicitly disabled to enhance security. Use the new Event Log alerts and registry key options. April 2026 security update: Phase 2 of hardening follows. Hands-free deployment will be disabled by default
The January 2026 security update is now available for all supported versions of Windows. We recommend that you install these updates promptly. For more information about the contents of this update, see the release notes, which are easily accessible from the Windows 11 update history page. To learn more about the different types of monthly quality updates, see Windows monthly updates explained. Highlights for the Windows 11, version 25H2 update: This security update includes improvements that were a part of update KB5072033 (released December 9, 2025). This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates. This update addresses an issue where you might experience RemoteApp connection failures in Azure Virtual Desktop environments. This might occur after installing KB5070311. This update addresses an issue where devices