A nasty bug in Windows 11 24H2 causes confusion about how many apps are running on your PC

Important points

Windows 11 24H2 incorrectly reports active apps due to bug KB5044384.
If grouping by type is enabled, Task Manager will display ‘0’ apps.
Microsoft plans to resolve the issue soon. For now, uninstall KB5044384.

User reactions to Windows 11 version 24H2 have ranged from strong performance to reports of Office apps not working. Fortunately, however, this problem does not affect everyone. However, if you are not experiencing issues with your PC after updating to Windows 11 24H2 and want to continue to have a hassle-free experience, do not use the recently released optional update KB5044384. That’s because you can be fooled about the number of apps running on your PC.

Windows 11 24H2 can be fooled about number of active apps

Screenshot showing Windows 11 Task Manager

KB5044384, also known as the October 2024 Non-Security Preview Update, is the culprit here. This includes a bug that causes Windows 11 to incorrectly report the number of running apps in Task Manager. The Processes page in Task Manager incorrectly shows the number of apps, background processes, and Windows processes as “0” instead of the actual number. If you have few active apps or processes, this may not have much of an impact. However, a high number is certainly inconvenient.

task manager[プロセス]on the page[タイプごとにグループ化]It’s important to note that the actual number of running apps or processes will only be shown if the view is enabled. Therefore, if you disable this, you will no longer see the false reporting of these numbers. This is because disabling this automatically removes the number count for each group.

Microsoft recently confirmed the issue on its Learn website and promised to fix it in the coming weeks. Currently, the only way to get rid of this is to uninstall non-security updates. If that bothers you, you can press the button to open the Settings app. victory key + I Use your keyboard to navigate to Windows updates > Update history > Uninstall updates. Then find the KB5044384 update and uninstall option.