Has your Windows 11 desktop acquired a rather deathly appearance? It could be the victim of a flawed update that has resulted in the desktop wallpaper turning solid black.

Microsoft admits that a bug in the Windows updates that were released at the end of August has resulted in some desktops taking on the funereal appearance.

“Following installation of Windows updates released August 27 2026 (KB5120998) and later, some Windows Desktop settings fail to load, resulting in desktop backgrounds displaying as a solid black color,” Microsoft’s bug report states. “It is possible other desktop settings may be affected, such as slideshow settings or contrast themes.”

For the time being, it seems there’s nothing you can do to bring a bit of color back to the desktop, either. Manually changing the wallpaper will make no difference, according to the software firm. “This is because the issue prevents the correct loading of settings, regardless of their value,” Microsoft states. “In this case, a default black background is used instead.”

The only option is to wait for Microsoft to roll out a patch and stare into the dark void. The bug affects customers running Windows 11 version 25H2 (the current release for the vast majority of Windows PCs) and version 24H2.

The depressing wallpaper is only one of several “known issues” with the current version of Windows 11 that Microsoft is trying to fix.

Other ongoing problems include:

  • Microsoft Teams and Outlook failing to launch on PCs with ARM-based processors.
  • False warnings that Windows Defender antivirus is switched off when the operating system first starts.
  • Mouse personalization settings being reset on versions of Windows that aren’t using English language settings.
  • Selected games (including ARC Raiders and Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls) becoming unresponsive when certain drivers for RGB lighting systems are enabled.

Microsoft says it’s currently working on finding solutions to all of these issues.

It’s not uncommon for Windows updates to create problems with PCs. The sheer number of different hardware configurations out there make it impossible for testing to pick up every potential issue that might arise with the release of a new operating system update.

Microsoft is due to release the next major feature release of Windows 11 (26H2) this fall, having shared it with the Insider channel (Microsoft’s public testers) last week.