Preview update replaces your desktop taste with factory defaults

The optional August preview update taught Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 that personalization is merely a suggestion. On non-English installations, cursor choices and animations can fail to load and fall back to defaults; on some devices, desktop backgrounds instead become solid black, with slideshow and contrast-theme settings potentially joining the retreat. Manually restoring the affected choices does not stick because Windows keeps failing to load their saved values. Microsoft confirmed both defects and is working on a future update, leaving affected users with an unusually authentic retro cursor and a desktop dressed for mourning.