Microsoft has acknowledged a new issue in Windows 11 version 22H2. This latest problem only impacts those who have installed November's optional update, KB5020044, and could result in Task Manager not displaying in expected colors. While the company looks into this and promises an fix will be coming in an upcoming release, there is a workaround that can help you avoid this.

This issue was first opened by Microsoft on November 30, but only a certain set of people might be impacted. This is because Task Manager will only display unexpected colors and an unreadable UI if the system is set to a specific theme. That is, if you have the choose your mode setting under personalization in Windows 11's settings app set to custom.

Those who have selected the dark or light theme won't be impacted. If you already installed this update and are annoyed by this problem, you can set the choose your mode setting back to light or dark theme and avoid using the custom theme. Following Microsoft's update schedule, a possible fix could come on the next Patch Tuesday which is on December 13, but the company hasn't confirmed this.

Even though this update causes issues with Task Manager, it does fix a problem where some applications might become unresponsive. This Windows 11 version 22H2 issue was first reported on November 18 and occurred when keyboard shortcuts were used to turn on/off or change IME (Input Method Editor) input modes in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean without error messages.

The preview update that causes this issue is a fairly interesting one, to say the least. If you can live with broken colors in the Task Manager, you might want to install it. It delivered some changes to Windows 11 that were in testing with Windows Insiders. The ability to more easily set Windows Spotlight wallpapers from the general theme settings page and OneDrive storage settings in the system app were two new features in it.

Source: Microsoft