An interesting bug was found in the latest Windows 11 image: if you open the Task Manager, it will… block the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media function in the system tray. When trying to remove the “flash drive” in this case, the system will issue a standard error message “Windows can’t stop your device because a program still using it”.

This was reported by the Ghacks with reference to German colleagues from Deskmodder. Ghacks‘ journalist notes that the only solution to the problem for him was to close the Task Manager, while the author from Deskmodder was able to get rid of the error simply by switching from the default tab (“Processes”) to the next tab (“Productivity”).

Windows 11 Task Manager blocks safe removal of  USB-devices

As of now, the bug is still not fixed – it plays without problems on Windows 11 22H2 (build 22621.675). Microsoft has not yet acknowledged its existence, and in the list of known problems on official page it is missing. Of course, this bug is not critical at all, but it can make the user puzzle for a long time trying to find out which program “does not let go” of the flash drive.