By Delia / Last update March 2, 2022

Windows 11 KB5010414 is a cumulative patch that brings several new features in February 2022. It makes some improvements to both the taskbar and the Start menu, but from user feedback, it seems to bring some new issues as well.

windows 11

Start menu may be incorrectly hidden

Many people have complained that the Start menu is automatically hidden when hovering over the mouse on the icon after installing this update, and the taskbar improvements introduced in KB5010415 may be responsible for this problem, as the Windows 11 widget board has been fixed to the left side of the taskbar since this release. 

As originally envisioned, it could be activated when you hovered your mouse over the icon. Unfortunately, for some reason, this seems to cause the Start menu to experience conflicts when it is opened and then immediately closed. Even if the user does not try to interact with the widget board, as long as the cursor is moved to the left side of the taskbar, the Start menu will be closed.

kb5010414 start menu

Microsoft responded: "It is because if the cursor goes over widgets icon it closes the Start menu because it thinks you want to open the widget menu, it should only close the start menu when the It is because if the cursor goes over widgets icon it closes the Start menu because it thinks you want to open the widget menu, it should only close the start menu when the Widget menu opens," one user noted in the Feedback Hub and there are similar reports on social media."

They say they're working on this, but also think it might be because users are moving their mouse past the widgets icon, and suggest "carefully avoiding it as you move your mouse into the Start menu" as a workaround for now.

Start menu is not the only problem

In addition to the Start menu, the KB5010414 cumulative update has also caused some users to experience problems with the taskbar, such as it not loading smoothly or displaying a blank space. Some users also found that some apps (Chrome, Teams, Edge) would overwrite the taskbar when maximized after installing the update. These issues are likely caused by the taskbar improvements in KB5010415.

Microsoft has now introduced fixes for these issues in new preview release, which is expected to be pushed out to all users soon.