Latest Windows 11 Update May Slow SSD Performance
Windows 11 users who have applied the latest feature/bug fix update are complaining about memory performance. The impact appears to be quite severe for those affected, with some speaking of transmission performance being halved, others saying that operating systems and games are taking much longer to load. Luckily, victims of this error say that reverting the update returns their previous memory performance. Additionally, in a quick test using Windows 11 and the same update, we were unable to replicate this performance issue.
The Moment 2 update for Windows 11 arrived as a Patch Tuesday release last week, a few weeks after it was tracked on the Windows Experience blog. Microsoft Engineering has started a Reddit thread to monitor and act on feedback, but the thread doesn’t look like a happy place as a number of issues are repeatedly raised. Probably the most annoying bug discussed in the comments concerns memory performance.
At this early stage of the complaint/feedback loop, we can’t be sure which configurations are affected, how big the issue is, or what exactly is happening. However, the problem seems to affect NVMe SSD storage users most often.
Let’s look at some examples from the Reddit thread that Neowin brought to light today. Mesp21, one of the first to complain about the Moment 2 update, claimed its SSD speeds went from 7,000MB/s to 3,000MB/s after the update. Rolling back Windows update restored previous performance.
Another user, MrBigDog99, was clear enough to save before and after screenshots from storage benchmarking tool CrystalDiskMark. Here you can see that hard drive writes have been affected the most, but reads have not fared well either.
Above are screens showing the severe impact of storage performance observed by MrBigDog99 and shared on Reddit. Below you can see that our system with a similar specification NVMe SSD was not affected by the Moment 2 update (KB5023706).
Interestingly, Microsoft said it fixed a slowdown in copying files with KB5023706 (opens in new tab) Update, but the update has the opposite effect on these Reddit users. Unfortunately, it seems that the software maker fixed one problem only to introduce another. Windows 11 was particularly unfortunate in terms of storage performance and related issues.
If your Windows 11 installation is being slowed down by the latest update and you can’t bear to wait for the next patch from Microsoft to fix it (maybe), you can roll back immediately by following these steps:
- Right-click the Start button And Open settings
- Bottom left, Click on the Windows Update section
- Click Refresh History
- Scroll down to the Uninstall Updates section And click it
- Select KB5023706before confirming the action with the “Uninstall” button.
Last month we wrote a guide on how to optimize your SSD performance in Windows 10 or 11 for those looking to keep their systems in tip-top shape. We also recently reminded readers to disable VBS to speed up Windows 10 or 11 by up to 15%.