Windows 10 October Update has been riddled with issues since re-release

Vaughn Highfield October 15, 2018

Microsoft has not had an easy time with its Windows 10 October Update. After having pulled the Windows 10 October update after users reported it was deleting some of their files, it re-released the update back to Insiders for further testing.

Windows 10 October Update has been riddled with issues since re-release

However, since then, Microsoft has found itself tackling new issues left, right and centre. Now users are reporting issues with Windows Task Manager, incompatibility issues with Intel drivers, apps being barred from connecting to the internet, audio drivers no longer working and even the dreaded blue screen of death rearing its head.

That’s certainly a lot of problems to tackle in a single update. At one point in time, it seemed like the most dramatic thing to come to Windows 10 as part of this update was the removal of the Disk Cleanup Utility. How wrong we were.

It’s expected that new updates will also come with some issues, which is why Microsoft sends these things out to its Insider testing circles before releasing into the wild. However, for so many issues to arise, and for them to be as serious as they seem to be, it’s definitely not a good look for the tech giant – especially as it gears up for the launch of its new set of Surface devices later this month.

In terms of the individual problems, Microsoft is said to be working on fixes for many of them. The Task Manager bug, which saw it incorrectly reporting CPU usage (generally underestimating it) has slipped through and should be patched out by now. Incompatibility with Intel drivers seems to simply be a problem Microsoft isn’t going to address itself, requiring Intel to step in instead and issue a set of fixes.

The issue with non-connecting apps turns out to be related to those who have IPv6 disabled on their device. While Microsoft is working on a wider fix, a current solution is to turn on IPv6 in settings and – if that doesn’t fix the problem – turn your network profile settings to public. Failing that, you’ll need to reinstall your network adapters and reset your computer’s network. Not ideal.

Blue screen of death woes seem to be isolated to a select set of HP and Dell computers and is down to incompatible keyboard drivers. It’s not clear if this problem has actually been fixed or not, but Reddit users discovered their own fix by deleting the HpqKbFiltr.sys file in system32/drivers.

Microsoft has fixed the latest issue around no audio, stating that it was caused by Windows Update incorrectly pushing Intel Audio Controller version 9.21.0.03755 to users. This has been fixed by installing Microsoft’s new KB4468550 driver, which you can download manually from Microsoft.

If you’re wondering why so many issues seem to be cropping up with Windows 10’s October Update, it’s likely because Microsoft changed how it tests and rolls out updates to Windows 10. Having started rejigging the process back in April, Microsoft has now decided it’s time to remove the initial early preview ring before passing it off to Insiders. For the October release, Microsoft has skipped the “Release Preview” ring and is now just distributing directly to Insiders with only a week or two before going completely live.

Perhaps all of these issues will make Microsoft think twice about what it should be doing with future releases of Windows 10.