First look at 26H2: MS broke Win32k.sys, quality continues to degrade


My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 25H212th Gen i9 -12900K64GBIntel UHD Graphics
OS
Windows 11 25H2
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
Dell
CPU
12th Gen i9 -12900K
Memory
64GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel UHD Graphics
Monitor(s) Displays
Dual Dell U2717D
Screen Resolution
2560x1440
Hard Drives
2TB Lexar SSD, 2TB Crucial SSD, 2TB Kingston SSD
I also see no difference.

Snipaste_2026-10-01_19-13-51.webp
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two

  • At a glance

    Win 11 ProAMD Ryzen™ 7 7730U24GB Dual-Channel DDR4 @ 1596MHz (22-22-22-52)512MB ATI AMD Radeon Graphics (ASUStek Comput...
    OS
    Win 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen™ 7 7730U
    Motherboard
    M1605YA
    Memory
    24GB Dual-Channel DDR4 @ 1596MHz (22-22-22-52)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512MB ATI AMD Radeon Graphics (ASUStek Computer Inc)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor (1920x1200@60Hz) - P1 PLUS (1920x1080@59Hz)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1200
    Hard Drives
    953GB Western Digital WD
    PSU
    45 Watts
    Mouse
    Lenovo Bluetooth.
    Internet Speed
    500 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender

  • At a glance

    Windows 11AMD Ryzen 7 5800H / 3.2 GHz32 GB DDR4 SDRAM 3200 MHzNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6 GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Operating System
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ACER NITRO
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 5800H / 3.2 GHz
    Motherboard
    CZ Scala_CAS (FP6)
    Memory
    32 GB DDR4 SDRAM 3200 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6 GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek Audio. NVIDIA High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6" LED backlight 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) 144 Hz
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080 (Full HD)
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB NVMe M.2
    PSU
    180 Watt, 19.5 V
    Mouse
    Lenovo Bluetooth
    Internet Speed
    500 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
Fabler2 said:
I also see no difference.

View attachment 184937
Click to expand...
The scrollbar is themed while the rest of the app is not. It is inconsistent. The global issue is, the MS broke the unthemed scrollbars, so has to force themes on them even if the app requested not to be themed (like CPU-Z).
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11
OS
Windows 11
Perhaps some developers care...

13484.webp


...and others don't... I know I don't!

13485.webp


I used to be an OCD WindowBlinds user, now I don't give sh*t anymore!!! 🤷‍♂️
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two Other systems

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS ROG Strix

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS VivoBook
  • ASUS VivoBook 'Lite' ~ Windows 11 Home
pseymour said:
We’ve seen this movie before.
Click to expand...

Yup. And the best thing I do is wait, imo.

I'll probably upgrade a little while before 25H2 isn't supported anymore. Just like I did with 24H2, 23H2, 22H2, etc...etc...
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 25H2 build: (26200.7623)32GB
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 25H2 build: (26200.7623)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro
    Memory
    32GB

  • At a glance

    Microsoft 25H2 ProIntel Core Ultra 764GBIntel Integrated Graphics
    Operating System
    Microsoft 25H2 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Pro 14 - PC14250
    CPU
    Intel Core Ultra 7
    Memory
    64GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Integrated Graphics
    Hard Drives
    Micron 1TB SSD
Edwin said:
Perhaps some developers care...



...and others don't... I know I don't!

View attachment 184965

I used to be an OCD WindowBlinds user, now I don't give sh*t anymore!!! 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
It is not the developers (of the app) to blame here. CPU-Z faithfully requests not to be themed but Windows breaks the promise.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11
OS
Windows 11
I also get cpu-z properly displayed.

cpu-z.webp


But then I happened to go by NVidia and came across this page:
Download the latest official NVIDIA drivers

Other than the first and last dropdown, the others show some sort of compressed display (e.g. "Product" dropdown in the attached image).
Good thing there are other ways to check for their drivers...

nvidia_drivers.webp
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Pro for Workstations 26H2 26300.95506C+4c Intel 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-134...64 GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, Intel UHD Graphics 730
OS
Windows 11 Pro for Workstations 26H2 26300.9550
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
ASRock
CPU
6C+4c Intel 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13400, 4100 M
Motherboard
ASRock B660M-HDV
Memory
64 GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, Intel UHD Graphics 730
Sound Card
Realtek
Monitor(s) Displays
AOC 24V2W1G5
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
Samsung SSD 990 Pro with Heatsink
Keyboard
Logitech
Mouse
Logitech
Internet Speed
1GB
Antivirus
Windows Defender
Anixx said:
It is not the developers (of the app) to blame here. CPU-Z faithfully requests not to be themed but Windows breaks the promise.
Click to expand...
So you're saying that Windows 11 is broken and 'quality continues to degrade' because a scroll bar is themed and it's not supposed to be?

1790977563310.webp
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 25H212th Gen i9 -12900K64GBIntel UHD Graphics
OS
Windows 11 25H2
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
Dell
CPU
12th Gen i9 -12900K
Memory
64GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel UHD Graphics
Monitor(s) Displays
Dual Dell U2717D
Screen Resolution
2560x1440
Hard Drives
2TB Lexar SSD, 2TB Crucial SSD, 2TB Kingston SSD
HTA said:
So you're saying that Windows 11 is broken and 'quality continues to degrade' because a scroll bar is themed and it's not supposed to be?
Click to expand...
The opposite. It's themed because it is broken.

{3AF40F12-FD1D-4720-841F-65CD850F8A0A}.webp


{6DAA9504-3E9D-4641-9DA5-03712CCFBC01}.webp


They broke the kernel.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11
OS
Windows 11
Anixx said:
I't not properly. The app requested to be not themed. But your screenshot shows themed scrollbar.
Click to expand...
You lost me there or my eyesight is worse than I thought.

You say that the image I posted is themed but since I didn't do it, the new Windows version must have done it.
I don't trust Windows enough to claim that this is not possible but nevertheless I don't see what is supposed to be messed up in this case.
Not that I care as long as it works, but how can I tell that it's themed?

Your previous post shows two screen captures. Are they supposed to be themed vs non-themed? They look the same to me.

Curiosity killed the cat, but she went back for more...
I just opened up my old laptop with Win 10 22H2 build 19045.6466 on it. It already had an old cpu-z (v2.08.0 installed back in 2023).
Same screen like the one I posted above except different processor is shown of course.

Cheers.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Pro for Workstations 26H2 26300.95506C+4c Intel 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-134...64 GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, Intel UHD Graphics 730
OS
Windows 11 Pro for Workstations 26H2 26300.9550
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
ASRock
CPU
6C+4c Intel 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13400, 4100 M
Motherboard
ASRock B660M-HDV
Memory
64 GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, Intel UHD Graphics 730
Sound Card
Realtek
Monitor(s) Displays
AOC 24V2W1G5
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
Samsung SSD 990 Pro with Heatsink
Keyboard
Logitech
Mouse
Logitech
Internet Speed
1GB
Antivirus
Windows Defender
kanenas said:
You lost me there or my eyesight is worse than I thought.

You say that the image I posted is themed but since I didn't do it, the new Windows version must have done it.
I don't trust Windows enough to claim that this is not possible but nevertheless I don't see what is supposed to be messed up in this case.
Not that I care as long as it works, but how can I tell that it's themed?

Your previous post shows two screen captures. Are they supposed to be themed vs non-themed? They look the same to me.

Curiosity killed the cat, but she went back for more...
I just opened up my old laptop with Win 10 22H2 build 19045.6466 on it. It already had an old cpu-z (v2.08.0 installed back in 2023).
Same screen like the one I posted above except different processor is shown of course.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
I was talking only about the scrollbars.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11
OS
Windows 11
Okay, so it turned out that the newer Windows in a weird way takes all the metrics from user's registry except the dimensions of titlebar buttons and the scrollbar buttons, which it takes from the default user's registry. Absolute bonkers.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11
OS
Windows 11
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

25H2 - Windows quality continues to degrade
2
Replies
24
Views
3K
Anixx
A

Latest Support Threads

Latest Tutorials

Back
Top Bottom