Microsoft is working to fix a weird Open With bug in Windows 10 caused by KB5036979 update

If you uninstalled the recently released KB5036979 update for Windows 10, you may have experienced unwanted Open With dialogs appearing. While first spotted in Outlook for Windows, Snip & Sketch, and Teams, the problem affects other apps as well.

While there is not yet a fix for this irritating, semi-random pop up, Microsoft has acknowledged the issue. The company is working on a patch for the bug, and offers up some insight and advice in the meantime.

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The strange bug can, in theory, affect any app. Microsoft says that the problem has been reported by Teams, new Outlook for Windows, and Snip & Sketch users, but adds that "this issue can also affect other applications attempting to right-click on its icon to find a context menu with a list of tasks".

In an update to the Windows release health page, Microsoft acknowledges the problem by saying:

Following installation of the Windows update released April 23, 2024 (KB5036979) and updates released after that, certain apps might display an "Open With" dialog box asking, "How do you want to open this file?". You might experience this issue when you place your mouse on an app icon shown in your Taskbar or Start menu and right-click on the app to execute a task in that app. Resulting from this, you might see the "Open With" dialog box instead of the execution of the selected task.

So what can you do if you are plagued with this unwanted dialog? You'll need to wait an unspecified length of time before Microsoft produces a fix, but in the meantime the company notes:

Although the "Open With" dialog prevents the use of the tasks available from the right-click context menu, it's likely that those same operations can be performed by making the application interface visible, and navigating the application interface and menus.

You can keep track of progress on the issue here.

Image credit: Monticelllo / Dreamstime.com