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Ice to see you! Windows 10 fix for freezing PCs finally flung at folks
If the update doesn't work, you'll have to co
Microsoft has finally patched its Windows 10 Anniversary Edition to hopefully stop it from freezing some PCs.
A bunch of unlucky folks hit the rocks as soon as they installed the anniversary upgrade, and duly lit up Microsoft's support boards. It appears if you have multiple logical drives with app data stored on one of them, the system gets super confused when you try to log in.
Initially, people thought this was triggered if you had a solid-state drive fitted, but it turns out one isn't required to run into trouble. It's just that lots of people have a fast SSD to boot from and a fat slower spinning disk to store their documents – and that's what upsets Windows 10.
At the time, Microsoft suggested a couple of workarounds. This week it issued an update (KB3176938) to address the issue.
To install the fix on an afflicted machine, you'll either have to log in using a second administrator account and pull in the latest OS updates, or use the Recovery Console or Settings app from Safe Mode to roll back the anniversary edition and then reinstall the upgrade with the included fix.
And if you can't manage that, you'll have to contact Microsoft directly for help.
"After the launch of the Anniversary Update for Windows 10, Microsoft received a small number of reports of Windows 10 freezing when signing into Windows after installing the Anniversary Update," a Microsoft rep said on Wednesday.
"With the help of users and MVPs who posted on this [support board] thread, an investigation determined that a small fraction of users who had moved app information to a second logical drive could encounter this issue.
"The Windows Update released on August 31st for Windows 10 includes a fix for this issue. This update is automatically applied when installing the Anniversary Update."
Microsoft doesn't say if the update will fix the other issues caused by the anniversary edition – notably kernel-level crashes when Kindle Paperwhites are plugged in, or the problems that have bedeviled PowerShell. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
