Windows 10 update reportedly fixes odd bug that’s slowing down some PCs

Windows 10 has received a new update (in preview) which reportedly fixes a nasty problem with high CPU usage (and more), plus it adds the news and interests feature to the Windows taskbar (but note that this function is still rolling out – more on that later).

Cumulative update KB5001391 is in preview (meaning it’s still in testing, ahead of its full release next week) and is for those running the two most recent versions of Windows 10 from last year (20H2 and 2004).

As Windows Latest flags up, there have been reports of unexplainably high CPU usage with recent Windows 10 patches, with complaints made about PCs being slowed down considerably on Microsoft’s Feedback Hub.

The tech site says that patch KB5001391 has cured this spiking processor usage problem, at least according to reports from some users, although little detail has been provided about what this bug actually was (save for being a ‘race condition’ where two running processes start grabbing an inordinate amount of system resources, slowing everything else down).

On top of that apparent bug cure – which Microsoft doesn’t mention, by the way – there’s also a solve that the software giant does include in the release notes, for an issue where blank tiles pop up in the Start menu (after a Windows patch is applied), taking up unnecessary space and generally being annoying.

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As mentioned, another big change with this cumulative update is that the news and interests feature has arrived – although note that not everyone will get it straight away after applying the patch. Some folks will, and some won’t, but everyone will receive it eventually, as it’s being deployed in a phased rollout.

The news widget could prove divisive, as we’ve discussed before, but the good news is that when it does arrive on your PC, if you don’t like it, it’s easily switched off. The feature delivers curated news stories which can be tailored to your interests, and at a glance weather info, all built into the taskbar for convenience.

If you’re thinking of applying KB5001391 in the hope of getting the news widget, or curing the high CPU usage bug if you’re experiencing that, then bear in mind that it is a preview update so you’ll have to search for and manually install it (via Windows Update, where KB5001391 is an optional update). Otherwise, you can wait for the finished version to be delivered in a week (next Tuesday).

One final thing that’s worth noting: from what we’ve seen on Reddit, there are at least a few complaints that KB5001391 takes a good while to install. If that’s the only glitch floating around, mind you, it’s not such a bad one, but bear in mind that anything in preview is still being tested and could be buggy.