Some (*11*) 11 users recently ran into a bug with a preview update where the task manager could end up appearing in different colors, possibly making it unreadable, but the good news is that the latest fix from Microsoft fixed the problem.
This issue was introduced in the optional update (a preview, which means it's still in testing) for (*11*) 11 that arrived at the end of November (KB5020044).
This caused the Task Manager, the panel that shows running processes and many other details such as resource usage (CPU, memory, GPU and more), to change to "unexpected colors" in some parts of the interface, which which potentially means that the information it contains could not be set.
This is definitely one of the rarer (*11*) bugs to show up lately, and while it's not a hindrance, it's definitely an irritation if it obscures something you really want to see. According to Microsoft, this affected those who had chosen the custom mode in Personalization > Colors in Settings.
As Bleeping Computer (opens in a new tab) reports, the good news is that with the latest (*11*) 11 cumulative update, KB5021255, which was released earlier this week, the issue has been resolved.
(*11*) 11 users should have been offered to download KB5021255 at this point, but if not, just head over to (*11*) Update and check for new updates, and you should be there.
Analysis: The dangers of optional upgrades
It's not a big surprise to see a bug introduced by a preview update. These updates are optional precisely because they're being tested, and it's wise to install one on your primary PC when you fix a problem that's really giving you trouble. Because these updates can fix something with one hand and break something with the other, which is exactly what happened here (game bug fixed, then Task Manager, well it's not broken but it's certainly misbehaving in some cases).
Of course, it's not just preview updates that can accidentally break parts of (*11*). As we've seen in the past, even version upgrades can contain extremely serious bugs (this is certainly the case with (*11*) 10, although we haven't seen anything as serious as file deletion with (*11*) 11 ).
At least in the case of this gremlin task manager, the bug will not have affected as many people, since it is a small number of users who install a preview update, and those who did have to change the mentioned settings (and even so it didn't affect everyone). Also, the remedy came quickly, in fact only a few weeks after the bug was discovered.
Anyone running test software, whether (*11*) Insiders who have preview versions of (*11*) 11 installed or those on the final version of (*11*) 11 using optional updates, should be prepared to encounter additional error levels beyond the norm.
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