ON 3 February 2026, SecurityOnline[.]info notes that Microsoft’s January cumulative updates for Windows 11 sparked a string of technical issues, including devices failing to enter a proper sleep state or shutting down correctly. According to Microsoft, these defects have extended to Windows 10 in systems where Virtualisation-Based Security (VBS) is active, with Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) functioning as a fortified, isolated memory environment for credentials and tokens.
The firm reports that Windows 10 version 22H2, LTSC 2021, and LTSC 2019 editions may experience shutdown or hibernate failures when KB5078131 or KB5073724 are installed with VSM enabled. As an interim mitigation, affected users are advised to run shutdown /s /t 0 via the command line, while a broader fix is being engineered for both Windows 10 and 11. The article notes that most standard Windows 10 users likely do not have VSM active, so normal shutdown procedures should remain unaffected for them.