The Windows 10 emoji picker has been broken for a month
August 8, 2025
On July 8th, Microsoft released update KB5062554 to the world. It contains no documented changes or features. This update broke the emoji panel’s search functionality for all Windows 10 users.
The broken grammar isn't the bug, that's just... how it is
The emoji panel (accessed with Win + .) is the official way of typing emojis on Windows. I’m sure many users don’t know it exists. It’s hardly discoverable, and most desktop apps offer their own little picker. Nonetheless, I use it a few times a week (for my sins), and each time it doesn’t work I’m wrongfooted.
It’s a really embarrassing regression, right? Without the search, you have to scroll through several thousand emoji in a postage stamp sized window to find the one you want (some designers do seem to think this is acceptable UX. I disagree).
What I find bizarre about this situation isn’t just the fact that this bug escaped, it’s that Microsoft… don’t seem to care. They didn’t acknowledge the problem till 6 days later, and only after media outlets like BleepingComputer reported on it.
A fix finally appeared in the preview update KB5062649 on the 22nd, a full 2 weeks later. We can expect it to be in the next Patch Tuesday release on August 12th - over a month after it was introduced. What the hell?
I’ve done lots of dramatic moaning to people in my life about this minor issue, and what it means for the very future of software engineering and civilization in general, etc. So I decided to look into it and understand why a fix takes so long.
Why does it take so long?
... continue reading