Microsoft KB5028254 (OS Build 22621.2070) Preview

What article did you see?

Are you sure it mentioned Start11 specifically?

I understand ExplorerPatcher may stop working but thats nothing to do with Start11 and that app works by very different ways than Start11.  This is also true of some other third party menu apps which have broken with MS updates in the past.

You should not encounter any problems with Start11 with that update.

This one didn't.

https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-windows-11-start-menu-bug/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-22H2#third-party-ui-customization-apps-might-prevent-the-start-menu-from-opening

This article does not specifically mention Start11 ... however, has anyone experienced issues?

We were not expecting any issues and there hasn't been, I have been running it since it was released without any issues. As Neil (the developer) mentioned, Start11 is made differently than others like ExplorerPatcher and StartAllBack

Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst

Excellent !!

Here after Udate KB5028254 no problems Start11 

Good to hear.

I do get explorer.exe crashes due to heap corruption (0xc0000374) after said preview update, however I am presently not sure what exactly they are related to. I am running Start11 version 1.47 (I am not running EP). Also note that coincidentally, heap corruption after applying KB5028254 is being discussed on EP's GitHub issues page: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/issues/1689

On the technical side, I am seeing the following stack (which does seem to involve taskbar logic, emphasis mine):

ntdll!RtlReportFatalFailure+0x9

ntdll!RtlReportCriticalFailure+0x97

ntdll!RtlpHeapHandleError+0x12

ntdll!RtlpHpHeapHandleError+0x7a

ntdll!RtlpLogHeapFailure+0x45

ntdll!RtlpFreeHeapInternal+0x707a8

ntdll!RtlFreeHeap+0x51

ucrtbase!_free_base+0x1b

ucrtbase!__crt_state_management::wrapped_invoke<void (__cdecl*)(void * __ptr64),void * __ptr64,void>+0x2c

windowscodecs!CExternalStream::`vector deleting destructor'+0xb5

windowscodecs!CCodecInfo::Release+0x3b

windowscodecs!CCodecBase::~CCodecBase+0x58

windowscodecs!CBmpEncoder::`vector deleting destructor'+0x14

windowscodecs!CMILCOMBase::InternalRelease+0x3b

Taskbar!Microsoft::WRL::ComPtr<Windows::Foundation::Collections::IMap<HSTRING__ * __ptr64,IInspectable * __ptr64> >::InternalRelease+0x2b

Taskbar!GetStreamOfWICBitmapSourceWithOptions+0x1b1

Taskbar!Windows::Internal::Shell::IconConverter::ConvertBitmapToRandomAccessStream+0x5b

Taskbar!Windows::Internal::Shell::IconConverter::ConvertHIcontoRandomAccessStream+0x8b

Taskbar!winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::implementation::TaskGroup::Icon+0xed

Taskbar!winrt::impl::produce<winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::implementation::TaskGroup,winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::ITaskGroup>::get_Icon+0x24

Taskbar_View!winrt::Taskbar::implementation::TaskListItemViewModel::Icon+0x34

Taskbar_View!winrt::impl::produce<winrt::Taskbar::implementation::TaskListItemViewModel,winrt::Taskbar::ITaskListItemViewModel>::get_Icon+0x24

Taskbar_View!winrt::impl::consume_Windows_Media_Audio_ISpatialAudioDeviceConfiguration<winrt::Windows::Media::Audio::ISpatialAudioDeviceConfiguration>::ActiveSpatialAudioFormat+0x38

Taskbar_View!winrt::Taskbar::implementation::TaskbarResourcesT<winrt::Taskbar::implementation::TaskbarResources>::TaskbarResources_obj97_Bindings::PropertyChanged+0x3d2

Taskbar_View!winrt::impl::delegate<winrt::Windows::UI::Xaml::DependencyPropertyChangedCallback,<lambda_9cfcca49c703290a0ce1248dab2a085b> >::Invoke+0x35

Taskbar_View!winrt::impl::invoke<winrt::Windows::UI::Xaml::Data::PropertyChangedEventHandler,winrt::Taskbar::implementation::TaskListItemViewModel,winrt::Windows::UI::Xaml::Data::PropertyChangedEventArgs>+0x64

Taskbar_View!winrt::Taskbar::implementation::TaskListItemViewModel::OnTaskGroupPropertyChanged+0x2df

Taskbar_View!winrt::Taskbar::implementation::TaskbarController::OnAppsListGroupPropertyChanged+0x94

Taskbar_View!winrt::impl::delegate<winrt::Windows::Foundation::EventHandler<winrt::Windows::Foundation::IInspectable>,<lambda_3863875ba69e35d0218a25b15afef9eb> >::Invoke+0x3b

Taskbar!winrt::Windows::Foundation::TypedEventHandler<winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::TaskbarAppsList,winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::TaskGroupPropertyChangedEventArgs>::operator()+0x24

Taskbar!winrt::impl::invoke<winrt::Windows::Foundation::TypedEventHandler<winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::TaskbarAppsList,winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::TaskGroupPropertyChangedEventArgs>,winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::implementation::TaskbarAppsList,winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::TaskGroupPropertyChangedEventArgs>+0x17

Taskbar!winrt::event<winrt::Windows::Foundation::TypedEventHandler<winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::TaskbarAppsList,winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::TaskGroupPropertyChangedEventArgs> >::operator()<winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::implementation::TaskbarAppsList,winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::TaskGroupPropertyChangedEventArgs>+0x90

Taskbar!winrt::WindowsUdk::UI::Shell::implementation::TaskbarAppsList::GroupChanged+0x5a

Taskbar!CTaskListWnd::GroupChanged+0x2f

Taskbar!CTaskListWndMulti::GroupChanged+0x40

Taskbar!CTaskBand::Win32AppIconLoaded+0x130

Taskbar!IconContainer::IconLoaded+0x2aa

Taskbar!IconContainer::IconLoaded+0x1ce

Taskbar!ShellIconLoader::~ShellIconLoader+0x36

Taskbar!ShellIconLoader::`vector deleting destructor'+0x14

Taskbar!Microsoft::WRL::Details::RuntimeClassImpl<Microsoft::WRL::RuntimeClassFlags<2>,1,0,0,IUnknown>::Release+0x3a

combase!<lambda_ef8a5b5bdab9c6b69f38e6b21c5d3987>::operator()+0xd7

combase!ObjectMethodExceptionHandlingAction<<lambda_ef8a5b5bdab9c6b69f38e6b21c5d3987> >+0xe

combase!CStdMarshal::DisconnectWorker_ReleasesLock+0x6e7

combase!CStdMarshal::Disconnect+0xe3

combase!CRemoteUnknown::RemReleaseWorker+0x754

rpcrt4!Invoke+0x73

rpcrt4!Ndr64StubWorker+0xb8a

rpcrt4!NdrStubCall3+0xd3

combase!CStdStubBuffer_Invoke+0x6f

combase!ObjectMethodExceptionHandlingAction<<lambda_c9f3956a20c9da92a64affc24fdd69ec> >+0x4d

combase!DefaultStubInvoke+0x268

combase!SyncServerCall::StubInvoke+0x41

combase!ServerCall::ContextInvoke+0x517

combase!ReentrantSTAInvokeInApartment+0x1b9

combase!ComInvokeWithLockAndIPID+0x9a9

combase!ThreadDispatch+0x468

combase!ThreadWndProc+0x109

user32!UserCallWinProcCheckWow+0x2d1

user32!DispatchMessageWorker+0x1f1

explorer!CTray::_MessageLoop+0x1b3

explorer!CTray::MainThreadProc+0x60

SHCore!_WrapperThreadProc+0x11d

kernel32!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x1d

The Win11 taskbar is extremely fragile.  We had to work around a number of 'quirks' for Groupy combined mode.

Are you using Groupy as well?

Unlikely to be anything to do with Start11.