[German]I'm dropping an observation here in the blog that a blog reader pointed out to me by email. The preview update KB5055629 released for Windows 11 23H2 could cause "collateral damage". The reader ran into problems with the unintentionally activated weather widget, which made it difficult to log out.
Windows 11 23H2 Update KB5055629
Microsoft has released the optional preview update KB5055629 for Windows 11 23H2 on April 22, 2025. The fixes will be rolled out globally the following month as part of the Patchday security update. I mentioned this preview update in the blog post Windows 10/11: Preview Updates April 22, 2025.
Numerous fixes and new features
Microsoft is making some fixes (e.g. eliminating the slow loading of Excel on network shares) and other corrections with the preview update to Windows 11 23H2. In addition, the Windows Kernel Vulnerable Driver Blocklist (DriverSiPolicy.p7b) is updated.
Furthermore, the free version of Microsoft Teams (Chat) is now pinned to the taskbar by default after the update installation. In addition, there are some changes with regard to the management of applications in Windows 11 23H2. Under All apps in the Start menu, the system components of Windows 11 are now displayed with the name System (previously listed under Settings > Apps > Installed apps).
With this preview update, Microsoft CoPilot is also being released to users as a preview in some countries (North America and parts of Asia and South America).
In the support article for the optional preview update KB5055629 for Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2, you can also read that the Microsoft developers have tinkered with the widgets. Web developers can now use their existing content to create interactive widgets that can be added to multiple widget interfaces.
New lock screen widgets in EWR
Furthermore, on devices with Windows 11 22H2-23H2 that are operated in the European Economic Area (EEA), support for lock screen widgets (previously referred to as "Weather and more") will be introduced as a new feature. After installing the preview update (and from May 2025), users will be able to add, remove and rearrange lock screen widgets such as weather, watchlist, sports, traffic and more.
According to Microsoft, any widget that supports the Small size option can be added. To customize the lock screen widgets, the user should navigate to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen.
Trouble with weather widget on the lock screen
On April 24, 2024, German blog reader Marina S. contacted me by email (thanks for that) and reported problems in connection with the optional preview update KB5055629 for Windows 11 23H2. She wrote: "This morning I was negatively surprised after the latest update: 2025-04 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 version 23H2 for x64-based systems (KB5055629)".
This is because she was "suddenly shown a weather widget on the lock screen when restarting after a day". This is the new feature that Microsoft has in store for "valued customers" in the EEA. It had unpleasant consequences for the Windows 11 user.
She wrote: "Logout didn't work – only after I clicked on the 3 dots and clicked on Settings the login option was shown". She then looked under Widget settings. The widget was deactivated there, and the weather widget appeared in the list. After removing it, the widget was set to activated activated again, the reader wrote. She had to call up the settings several times and deactivate the widget again until it worked. This was also the case in other user profiles.
Marina S. wrote that she deactivated superfluous activities such as animations, sounds and others from the outset. That's why the user is "once again annoyed" that Microsoft has to reactivate an activity that she finds superfluous. Question: Has anyone else noticed this?
PS: Wolfgang Sommergut has described in this German article how widgets can be deactivated via GUI, registry or group policies in Windows 11. Should also apply to the update mentioned.
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