Windows hasn't had the most well-esteemed history when it comes to shipping bug-free software. Sure, weird issues and glitches are par the course for all kinds of software, but Windows seems to get the really weird ones every so often. Ones that really stand out in a sea of boring ones. So, here are some of the weirdest bugs that Windows has ever had.

4 Copilot was stripped from Windows 11 for seemingly no reason

Good news for some

The bug that started this piece, a recent Windows 11 bug just straight up removed Copilot from Windows 11. The client was gone, it was automatically unpinned from the taskbar, and it was like Copilot never even existed.

Given how much Microsoft has wanted people to use Copilot, it's so weird to see a bug that just flat-out removed it. How did such a bug come to be? What part of the Windows update introduced the bug that nuked Copilot?

3 Windows Update time travels to install your updates

I kind of wish it actually did that

There's a big debate over whether or not we should change the clocks every Spring and Fall. People have arguments for and against the system, and one of the good reasons for scrapping is that it can wreak havoc on systems that weren't properly programmed to take it into account.

Well, as it turns out, even Windows can't quite escape this issue. A Redditor shared a screenshot of a Windows Update dialogue telling them their PC would restart 5 hours ago. And while it would be nice to have Windows updates installed via time travel, the bug seems to have arisen due to the clocks going back an hour in the Fall.

2 Windows Phone asked you to insert an installation disk

So, is there a CD tray, or...?

Hey, remember Windows Phone? We definitely do over at XDA, and we've even done a piece on the best Windows Phones of all time, years after the Redmond giant stopped making them. And because a Windows Phone is running, well, Windows, that means that you'll get some strange moments where the operating system will ask you to do something that would sound perfectly reasonable on a computer, but absurd on a phone.

Take the above error message, for instance. If something went wrong with the software installation, Windows does what it does best and shows you an error message about it. A good way to fix it on a PC is to grab an installation media, use it to repair the operating system, and go on your merry way.

Except if this happens when you're using Windows Phone, you're left with no real way to insert a disk. Sure, this error message appears rarely and apparently only pops up if you try tweaking Windows in a way it doesn't like. But it's still very funny.

1 Creating a ghostly second cursor when dragging the Task Manager

Just a little bit creepy

Taking the top spot for the weirdest Windows bugs, we have this strange issue with the Task Manager. This happens when you drag the top of the Task Manager around with your cursor; if this rare bug kicks in, your cursor will be replaced by a ghostly copy that continues to drag the window in the same direction as it was going when the apparition appeared. You can still move your own cursor just fine, but your Task Manager will be kidnapped by a past version of your inputs. Spooky.

The above example is from Windows 11, but some people in the Reddit thread claimed they saw it happen on Windows 10 and Windows 2000. As such, this bug has been lurking within Windows for decades now, and probably hasn't been fixed yet.

Windows has its fair share of weird bugs

I'm sure there are some strange bugs that I've missed; we're talking about decades of Windows, after all. Still, I hope you enjoyed this fun trip down the halls of some of the weirdest errors that Windows has ever seen.