Windows 10 Had a Thanksgiving Weekend Stuffed With Update Bugs

Nothing is certain in life but death, taxes, and Windows 10 update bugs. While we were enjoying the holidays, Microsoft acknowledged it broke everything from Windows Media Player to the sound output on some PCs.

More Broken Intel Driver Updates

At exactly 5 PM eastern time on November 21—the day before Thanksgiving— Microsoft updated the Windows 10 Update History page to note a new problem with the October 2018 Update. On some systems with Intel graphics, audio playback from a monitor or television connected via HDMI, USB-C, or DisplayPort is broken.

Microsoft says this is because Intel released the wrong versions of its display drivers to PC manufacturers. Those PC manufacturers accidentally turned on unsupported features in Windows. Microsoft then released those driver updates and didn’t catch the problem before now. In other words, Microsoft, Intel, and PC manufacturers all messed up.

Windows 10 won’t install the October 2018 Update on systems with this hardware, as an “update block” is now in place. Microsoft is working with Intel to “expire” these drivers. If the update has installed on your system and broken your sound, here’s how to fix it.

Note that this is different from the bad driver update that broke the Intel sound on some PCs back in October. Thanks to Woody Leonhard for noticing this.

Windows Media Player Can’t Seek

Microsoft broke Windows Media Player on the October 2018 Update, too. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Microsoft updated a support document to note that an update released on November 13 broke the seek bar in Windows Media Player. The document says “Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.” In other words, who knows when this will be fixed. We hope you don’t use Windows Media Player!

That same document says the default application bug we reported still hasn’t been fixed, either. Microsoft still says the fix “will be available in late November 2018,” but it’s running out of time.

More Recent Microsoft Update Bugs

Those are just the Thanksgiving weekend bugs, but some smaller issues have flown under the radar recently.

On November 16, Microsoft MVP Sumit Dhiman said on the Microsoft Answers website that he’s seen several PCs fail to install the October 2018 Update because they had Developer Mode enabled. His recommended fix is that Windows users should disable Developer Mode before updating. If you don’t, the upgrade process may always fail partway through.

And it’s not just Windows 10. Microsoft recently released an update to Outlook 2010 named KB 4461529. On November 16, Microsoft admitted this update caused many 64-bit Outlook 2010 applications to crash on startup, as Woody Leonhard spotted. Thankfully, this problem has already been fixed.

Windows 10’s Development Process Is Clearly Broken

This is getting absurd. Mapped network drives and Apple’s iCloud are still broken on the October 2018 Update, too. Microsoft promised to talk more about quality, but announced no concrete changes to Windows 10’s development process. Rather than pursue serious quality changes, Microsoft just keeps experimenting with adding more advertisements to Windows and working on cute little features like a light theme.

Let’s say it again: Windows is not a service; it’s an operating system. It’s long past time Microsoft slowed down.

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