Windows 11 bugs with latest update include installation failures and File Explorer weirdness

Windows 11's latest update for May is causing trouble, and we're witnessing bugs with File Explorer and installation failures (not for the first time in either case, it's worth noting).

This is the cumulative update for May (which is known as patch KB5058411) and Windows Latest highlighted these problems with the patch which was delivered last week. As ever, it takes time for issues to filter through and be reported.

There are some bugs with File Explorer, and while they don't appear to be anything like widespread, they're frustrating glitches. One report via Microsoft's Feedback Hub explains that the mouse and keyboard - one or the other, or indeed both in some cases - can fail to work in File Explorer, and some interface buttons can become unresponsive.

Microsoft has been having a run of trouble with File Explorer in Windows 11, so while it's disappointing to see this, it's not exactly surprising. A lot of those issues with this central part of the operating system's interface are related to generally sluggish performance, too, and this has led to a feeling that the newer OS isn't an improvement on Windows 10 in this respect. All that said, the issues which are presenting themselves with this latest Windows 11 update aren't prevalent, and they remain scattered reports.

The more common bugbear here is the May update failing to install, and this is a long-running source of annoyance for Windows 11 users (and for that matter, Windows 10 before it). Updates will sometimes fail with random, meaningless error codes, and as we see in the Reddit mega-thread (see above) for this patch, there are a bunch of reports of the likes of 'Install error - 0x800f081f' and similar garbled hexadecimal nonsense.

Windows Latest points out that your best bet in these scenarios is to stop trying to install KB5058411 from Windows Update, and instead download it from Microsoft's update catalog and perform a manual installation. Keep your fingers crossed and that should work, otherwise you might just want to wait it out at this point - bear in mind that the optional update for May (the preview of June's upgrade) is just around the corner.

In fairness to Microsoft, there don't appear to be a lot of bugs with the May update, although there's certainly some weirdness going on with this patch. We also noticed a few reports of internet connections going wrong after applying the update (again, those complaints are in the above Reddit thread).