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Windows-10

Final week, Microsoft pushed an update to Windows 10 that broke DHCP and knocked some users offline until they rebooted their systems. The update is believed to have been part of cumulative update KB 3201845, which was released on Dec 9. Later on information technology was released, multiple European users reported existence kicked offline. It'south not articulate if the problem was isolated to Europe or not, just Microsoft is displaying a global banner that declares all users with Internet connectivity problems should restart (non close downwardly) their hardware.

Windows-Update-1

Yesterday, Microsoft released KB3206632, which Ars Technica believes might have fixed the issue. The new patch contains the following notation: "Addressed a service crash in CDPSVC [Connected Devices Platform Service] that in some situations could lead to the machine not being able to acquire an IP accost." If yous expect upwardly the CDPSVC, it's described every bit follows: "This service is used for Connected Devices and Universal Glass scenarios." Continued devices is self-explanatory, merely nosotros haven't been able to notice a definition for what "Universal Glass" is.

Either way, the update broke Windows 10's ability to configure DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). DHCP is the protocol that distributes network configuration information to all the relevant devices on the network and handles automatically assigning IP addresses, for example. You lot don't demand a DHCP server to access the Internet, only virtually dwelling networks are configured to expect one, and the boilerplate user probably isn't comfortable with the process of mapping out static IPs to each device on the network.

In this case, the problem tin exist solved with a elementary "ipconfig /release" command, followed by "ipconfig /renew". Some users are also reporting that this is fix is bereft, and a separate set of commands are as well needed, specifically: "netsh int ip reset" followed by "ipconfig /flushdns". Combined, these should resolve any issues y'all experience, and allow an affected organisation to reconnect to the Internet and download the appropriate patch.

The larger issue here, of class, is that these kinds of mistakes accept go a regular part of the Windows 10 update process. In the by 12 months, nosotros've seen multiple updates that variously bricked systems, broke Cyberspace connectivity, or caused random crashes when ordinary USB devices (Kindles, in this instance) were plugged into the organisation. That'south non fifty-fifty counting the malware-like activity of the last few months of the "Become Windows 10" campaign and the ill-volition that caused towards Microsoft.

Every operating organization has these kinds of problems from time to time, including previous versions of Windows. This isn't the first time Microsoft has had to push a patch to resolve problems it caused for itself with a previous update, and this kind of trouble occasionally hits Linux and Apple users too. But even afterwards allowing for all of those factors, Windows 10 seems to take had more than problems with weird corner cases, random bugs, and issues cropping up that the visitor's Fast Band / Slow Ring early adopter update organization only hasn't been able to resolve.

I potential reason for this is the type of Bone testing Microsoft encourages its early adopters to engage in. If yous're in the fast ring, Microsoft recommends you not exam your primary organisation and that yous test inside a virtual machine when possible. At that place'southward a lot of things that can be checked that way, just certain bug — like USB device verification, for instance — probably don't happen when users are running within a VM.

To date, Microsoft has nevertheless to announce whatsoever substantive changes to its policies that would close these gaps.