Don't install KB5003214 if you want to avoid taskbar errors

As with every update that Microsoft brings forward for its operating system, some issues are expected to surface and break the system one way or another.

Windows 10 is now dealing with new problems, after the KB5003214 update for May 2021 Update (21H1), October 2020 Update (20H2), and May 2020 Update (2004) has been applied.

KB5003214 causes major taskbar errors

It seems that this issue is affecting users that are running Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 2004), as well as newer versions, after KB5003214 was installed.

Interestingly enough, some users reported that when the News and Interests feature is enabled, their taskbar icons are appearing as blank and are totally unresponsive, according to the Microsoft answers post.

Also, with the same new feature turned on, some users pointed out that the notification center, as well as network icon stopped working, after this cumulative update was applied.

Another issue that Windows 10 users were upset about is that the system tray icons would randomly move, disappear or hide, after the installation of KB5003214.

Some users have flagged other problems that started after the patch, such as the search box not appearing on the taskbar, while others have flagged display scaling issues, which could also be related to the system tray bug.

How do I fix the taskbar issues?

Unfortunately, for the moment, the only way that users can totally eliminate these taskbar errors is to roll back the cumulative update in question.

For those of you who still want to keep the update, the only known workaround is to disable News and Interests feature from the settings. Or you could try the quicker way, which is right-clicking on the weather icon, and select Disable.