January has really not been Microsoft's perfect start to 2026. Besides a big Microsoft 365 outage, the company has had to release not one, but two out-of-band (OOB) updates for Windows 11. Usually, OOB updates are reserved for emergencies that can't wait until the patch cycle comes around again, so two in one month is pretty worrying.

The first OOB update landed when people discovered they couldn't shut down Windows 11. If they tried, the PC would restart instead. Now, the company has confirmed that there's a second OOB update rolling out that fixes a nasty issue with Outlook that rendered it near-unusable.

Windows 11's second emergency patch of the month fixes a nasty Outlook issue

You no longer need to deploy your own fixes

A few days ago, we caught wind that Outlook was really struggling on Windows 11. At the time, Microsoft didn't have a proper fix for us; all it could say was that people should use the web version of Outlook, remove the PST files, or uninstall the latest Windows update. However, Microsoft has now released its second OOB update in a month to remedy it.

Here are the notes for the patch:

[File System] Fixed: After installing the Windows update released on and after January 13, 2026, some applications became unresponsive or encountered unexpected errors when opening files from or saving files to cloud-based storage, such as OneDrive or Dropbox. In certain Outlook configurations that store PST files on OneDrive, Outlook may hang and fail to reopen unless the process is terminated or the system is restarted. Users may also see missing sent Items or previously downloaded emails being re‑downloaded.

Fortunately, unlike the last OOB patch, this one will be distributed through Windows Update. Tell your PC to look for any new updates and keep an eye out for KB5078127; that's the patch. Otherwise, you can manually download it from the Microsoft Update Catalog.