Windows 11: Let's Be Honest, There Are Big Issues, Right?

It never ends....

Windows 11 25H2 Update Causes Unexpected BitLocker Recovery Prompts


If your PC suddenly booted into BitLocker recovery mode after the latest Windows update, you're not alone. Microsoft has confirmed that the October 2025 cumulative update is causing this problem on many Intel-based systems running Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2, and even some Windows 10 22H2 setups. The issue makes Windows ask for the BitLocker recovery key when starting up — even though nothing on your computer has changed. BitLocker is built to protect your data by encrypting your entire drive. Normally, it only asks for the recovery key when Windows detects a major hardware change, like replacing your motherboard or resetting the BIOS. This time, however, the recovery request appears out of nowhere after the update. The affected updates are KB5066835 for Windows 11 and KB5066791 for Windows 10. After these are installed, some devices can't boot normally and stop at the recovery screen instead.

Microsoft hasn't shared the full technical explanation yet, but the problem seems to involve the "Connected Standby" power feature. This setting lets your laptop stay online while in sleep mode — syncing emails or streaming music without fully waking up. It was designed years ago to extend battery life, but it looks like the way Intel CPUs handle low-power states is confusing Windows' security checks. Essentially, BitLocker thinks something suspicious has happened and triggers recovery mode to protect your data.

The company is working on a fix that should arrive through another small enablement package soon. The rollout will likely happen in phases, and you'll get it automatically through Windows Update once it's ready. Until then, it's smart to make sure your BitLocker recovery key is backed up. You can check your Microsoft account, Azure AD, or print it out and store it safely. This way, if your system suddenly asks for the key, you'll be ready.

The bug has even affected some Azure virtual desktops running Windows 11 24H2, which are now stuck in recovery mode and can't be accessed remotely. That means this isn't just a home user problem — businesses running encrypted virtual machines could be hit too.

Windows 11's October update has had its share of issues already, so this is another headache for administrators and users alike. But there's some good news: the recovery prompt doesn't mean your data is lost or corrupted. Once you enter your BitLocker key, your PC will boot normally again. After that, you can install Microsoft's next update when it becomes available to prevent the issue from coming back.
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Darkkahn said:
Every time I think about upgrading to 11, one of these problems pop up!
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That's why I mostly game on Linux and Dual boot only from time to time on Win11 and I turn off updates there (Win11) for like 2 months, lmao.

Oddly enough I update my CachyOS daily and I have yet to see it break because of it.

I broken it two times but that one was on me.

One time I decided to update to beta GNOME which wasn't yet in Cachy repo and the newest one was installing Hyprland beside GNOME, I guess using two DE's is a bad idea so I just decided to stick with what I know and don't meddle with it too much and use official repos for core OS packages. So far so good.

I use the newest Mesa-git drivers and I always update my ProtonGE and ProtonEM with Proton Plus and that's about it.
 
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When my werk laptop bitlocker fucked up the first time, I smartly took photos of all the keys and everything. It paid off not long after unsurprisingly.
Linux Mint on my home PC for a couple of years now.
 
Some time ago, there were people who lost everything on their PCs, because Bitlocker encrypted the drives, without the people even realizing it.
Since I don't need my files to be encrypted on my home PC, just to be safe, I disabled this service on Windows.
It saves a bit of memory and CPU, and it's safer this way.
 
I guess I'm lucky but I have not been having any issues with Windows 11. Runs flawless, no bugs. I just debloated it using a script and removed all the AI/Co-Pilot nonsense. Runs fairly well for me.
 
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winjer said:
Some time ago, there were people who lost everything on their PCs, because Bitlocker encrypted the drives, without the people even realizing it.
Since I don't need my files to be encrypted on my home PC, just to be safe, I disabled this service on Windows.
It saves a bit of memory and CPU, and it's safer this way.
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I have it disabled too since I'm mostly on Linux anyways. And I just hop in to play some kernel level anticheat games on Win11, I also debloated it and disabled ms-gamebar bug.
 
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I've been using CachyOS (KDE Plasma) for about a week, and I'm absolutely loving it. Every game I've tried has worked perfectly out of the box. Even with my NVIDIA graphics card, I haven't encountered a single problem so far.
 
Rocinante618 said:
I guess I'm lucky but I have not been having any issues with Windows 11. Runs flawless, no bugs. I just debloated it using a script and removed all the AI/Co-Pilot nonsense. Runs fairly well for me.
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I've had no issues with for years now.. I'd say best version of win thus far
 
twilo99 said:
I've had no issues with for years now.. I'd say best version of win thus far
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Stability isn't really the issue with Windows 11 anymore, the kernel and performance are great. What bothers a lot of people is how invasive it's become: telemetry, ads in Explorer and Start, Copilot hooks into the UI, and forced online accounts. Sure, scripts can strip some of that out, but it shouldn't require advanced tweaks just to get a clean experience.
 
BeardSpike said:
I have it disabled too since I'm mostly on Linux anyways. And I just hop in to play some kernel level anticheat games on Win11, I also debloated it and disabled ms-gamebar bug.
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What gamebar bug did you have?
I had to deal with the ms-game bar link bug, every time I plugged in, or turned on a controller On Windows 11.
Not a big deal, but quite annoying.

FoVHDv4fbVkvVr94.png
 
Maddoxswe said:
Stability isn't really the issue with Windows 11 anymore, the kernel and performance are great. What bothers a lot of people is how invasive it's become: telemetry, ads in Explorer and Start, Copilot hooks into the UI, and forced online accounts. Sure, scripts can strip some of that out, but it shouldn't require advanced tweaks just to get a clean experience.
Click to expand...

I haven't bothered to turn any of that off and it's made zero difference in my case.

The biggest issue Windows still has is drivers imo but that's gotten much better over the years
 
Maddoxswe said:
I've been using CachyOS (KDE Plasma) for about a week, and I'm absolutely loving it. Every game I've tried has worked perfectly out of the box. Even with my NVIDIA graphics card, I haven't encountered a single problem so far.
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I'm using CachyOS too although I use GNOME DE and have an AMD card.

winjer said:
What gamebar bug did you have?
I had to deal with the ms-game bar link bug, every time I plugged in, or turned on a controller On Windows 11.
Not a big deal, but quite annoying.

FoVHDv4fbVkvVr94.png
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Same one, I have a few controllers myself, and had a decent amount over the year. That's how we started Controllers OT here on NeoGaf, me Astray and BennyBlanco.

So it was pissing me off to the infinity and beyond.

Espacially since I like to test new controllers in competitive MP games.

It's good I have stumbled on to that bat file which disables the damn thing.
 
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BeardSpike said:
I'm using CachyOS too although I use GNOME DE and have an AMD card.


Same one, I have a few controllers myself, and had a decent amount over the year. That's how we started Controllers OT here on NeoGaf, me Astray and BennyBlanco.

So it was pissing me off to the infinity and beyond.

Espacially since I like to test new controllers in competitive MP games.

It's good I have stumbled on to that bat file which disables the damn thing.
Click to expand...

I just used these commands for powershell. And it fixed my problem.
If anyone else is having a similar issue with gamebar, here they are:

reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameDVR /f /t REG_DWORD /v "AppCaptureEnabled" /d 0

reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore /f /t REG_DWORD /v "GameDVR_Enabled" /d 0

reg add HKCR\ms-gamebar /f /ve /d URL:ms-gamebar
reg add HKCR\ms-gamebar /f /v "URL Protocol" /d ""
reg add HKCR\ms-gamebar /f /v "NoOpenWith" /d ""
reg add HKCR\ms-gamebar\shell\open\command /f /ve /d "`"$env:SystemRoot\System32\systray.exe`""
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Bitlocker is a nightmare. I changed a random power setting in my laptop's bios and I suddenly found myself locked out of my own fucking computer. It's like the product teams at Microsoft literally just don't think.

Fortunately, I was able to fix it and disable all of that nonsense, but I can absolutely see that leading to disaster for a lot of people who aren't aware of the trap that Microsoft has laid for them.
 
Danny Dudekisser said:
Bitlocker is a nightmare. I changed a random power setting in my laptop's bios and I suddenly found myself locked out of my own fucking computer. It's like the product teams at Microsoft literally just don't think.

Fortunately, I was able to fix it and disable all of that nonsense, but I can absolutely see that leading to disaster for a lot of people who aren't aware of the trap that Microsoft has laid for them.
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Bitlocker was also pissing me off because it locked all the NTFS drives, even the ones I basically use to share files between CachyOS and Win11. I still could unlock them because Cachy is awesome but it was getting tired some.

So I switched it off mainly because of that Maddoxswe Maddoxswe

But it appears it will also save me some headaches in Win11 itself.

If someone wants to use NTFS drives on CachyOS install through terminal ntfs-3g

Code: 
sudo pacman -S ntfs-3g
 
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I also disabled animations to make to more snappy and I think that fixed task bar for it to hide and appear faster like on my Linux distro.

Also notification pop ups hide and appear faster this way.

This thing is so bloated so any thing that makes it as snappy as my Linux distro is welcomed, lmao.
 
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Installed cachyos with my 5070ti and still messing with it, hope to give it a good test this weekend. Is protondb still the place to check for game compatibility and fixes?
 
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draliko said:
Installed cachyos with my 5070ti and still messing with it, hope to give it a good test this weekend. Is protons still the place to check for game compatibility and fixes?
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Watch CachyOS vids of Mattscreative on yt. He uses Arch, CachyOS and PikaOS with his 5070ti. Could have some good tips for you.

I generally only check protondb.com for MP games.

Other than that anything I tried works of right out of the bat.

Install ProtonPlus

flathub.org

Install ProtonPlus on Linux | Flathub

A modern compatibility tools manager
flathub.org flathub.org

And download ProtonGE and ProtonEM.

I launch almost everything through it without much trouble.

Sometimes I have to use WINEDLLOVERRIDES argument but that are rare instances like Dino Crisis bundle from GOG and using ReShade with Signalis.
 
BeardSpike said:
Sometimes I have to use WINEDLLOVERRIDES argument but that are rare instances like Dino Crisis bundle from GOG and using ReShade with Signalis.
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ProtonDB and PcGamingwiki.com are at their best for getting old games to run well, either with ProtonDB having launch property commands to copy/paste, and especially pcgamingwiki for old games that have necessary/useful mods to get modern features (4k, 60fps, etc.). Even getting old games to run on Windows, pcgamingwiki has saved me time by just directly linking the mod downloads with concise instructions.
 
BeardSpike said:
Personally I use mpv player on Windows, Linux and Android.

mpv.io

a free, open source, and cross-platform media player
mpv.io mpv.io

I'm quite happy with it.
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I tried it sometime ago. It's was good. And still, much better than the Microsoft app.
But I still prefer PotPlayer.
Though I think MPV is one of the few players that support Vulkan.
 
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pudel said:
Interesting. Is it better than VLC? And if yes, why?
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Dunno if its better than VLC, I think it is just as good.

And has minimalist HUD.

I can even set height of subtitles and their size with a simple combo of hotkeys


Edit: another app that I recently discovered and use both on Win and Linux is Zen Browser

Zen Browser

Beautifully designed, privacy-focused, and packed with features.
zen-browser.app zen-browser.app

It is focused on minimalism also and based on Mozilla Gecko. I can't get enough of it.
 
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BeardSpike said:
Dunno if its better than VLC, I think it is just as good.

And has minimalist HUD.

I can even set height of subtitles and their size with a simple combo of hotkeys.
Click to expand...

PotPlayer is almost the opposite. It has a ton of options and broad support for plugins, skins, etc.
 
twilo99 said:
AMD fixed those for the most part but sometimes Win would update drivers on it's own and replaces them with older versions of what you have installed yourself…

It's doesn't happen often, but l know that it does happen
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I have this disabled and I always DDU, and install drivers manually. Personally I only had problem with one optional driver, recommended and one preview driver I tested were extra stable.
 
BeardSpike said:
I have this disabled and I always DDU, and install drivers manually. Personally I only had problem with one optional driver, recommended and one preview driver I tested were extra stable.
Click to expand...

Right but most people don't know or bother to turn that off..

I dunno I've been used it since launch and it's been solid overall
 
twilo99 said:
AMD fixed those for the most part but sometimes Win would update drivers on it's own and replaces them with older versions of what you have installed yourself…

It's doesn't happen often, but l know that it does happen
Click to expand...
Ah, that happens when Windows update is configured to manage video drivers but that option didn't prompt for me for a long time so I don't even know if it is still an option.
 
twilo99 said:
Right but most people don't know or bother to turn that off..

I dunno I've been used it since launch and it's been solid overall
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Code: 
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /f /v ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Run this in powershell as admin for those interested in how to turn this off.
 
I did mess about with cachy and pretty much what I tested played quite good, so I converted my media server to cachyos but arch is not so friendly for me (sunshine, Plex MS, sonarr, etc seems easier to install on Ubuntu/fedora) so now I'm also testing nobara on it, slat least I can see the differences.
 
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