Bengaluru, January 26 — Microsoft has issued an urgent Windows 11 update aimed at resolving critical issues caused by the January 2026 security updates, which left millions of Outlook users experiencing freezes, failed restarts, and missing emails.
The company confirmed that the problems primarily affected classic Microsoft Outlook profiles using POP accounts and PST files, following the January 13, 2026 update. Many users reported Outlook becoming unresponsive, failing to reopen, or only working after force-closing the application or restarting their devices.
Microsoft clarified that the root of the issue was linked to PST files stored on cloud services such as OneDrive or Dropbox. In these configurations, Outlook could hang, re-download old emails, or display missing Sent
