According to Microsoft, a known issue that resets mouse settings after installing the August 2026 preview update KB5120998 only affects non-English Windows 11 systems.
The bug was confirmed on Friday, a day after the release of KB5120998, which includes improvements to the Start menu, taskbar and Windows Search for devices running Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2.
According to user reports, mouse cursor personalization settings are automatically changed or reset after installing the KB5120998 update, and affected Windows 11 users cannot restore their previous mouse settings after the reset.
“After installing Windows Updates released on August 27, 2026 (KB5120998) and later, mouse personalization settings will revert to certain default settings,” Microsoft explained at the time.
“This includes cursors and cursor animations selected in the mouse properties options in Windows.”
Only non-English speaking Windows devices affected
In a Tuesday update to the Windows Release Health dashboard, the company noted that a follow-up investigation found the issue only affected non-English devices.
“Our investigation shows that this issue is caused by code components used in non-English Windows installations. In affected locales, these settings cannot be loaded, so a default setting is used instead.” Microsoft said.
Since KB5120998 is an optional, non-security update, users must click the “Download and Install” link. However, if the “Get the latest updates as soon as they are available” option is checked, the preview update will be installed automatically.
Microsoft has fixed several other issues in recent months that were causing mouse problems on Windows devices.
For example, emergency updates were released in October to address a known issue that rendered the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) unusable by disabling USB mice and keyboards.
Recently, Microsoft confirmed that it is investigating a bug that causes the mouse cursor to disappear when hovering over the interface for some classic Outlook users.
It was also confirmed on Wednesday that Windows desktop settings are lost or reset on some devices after installing the preview update KB5120998.
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