Windows 10's 1809 update is still broken

I feel a facepalm coming on. As reported by ZDNet:

Microsoft this week rereleased the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, version 1809, after fixing its data-deletion mess. But the new build still has an old mapped-drives bug that's causing headaches for admins.

Within days of Microsoft's first release of Windows 10 1809 at the beginning of October, IT pros noticed that Windows File Explorer indicated that mapped network drives appeared to be broken. [...] Microsoft says it is working on a resolution but warns admins not to expect a fix until "the 2019 timeframe".

It's important to note that this is not a new bug; apparently it was a known issue before 1809's original release, and just not patched by MS in the five weeks between pulling and rereleasing the update. There are also compatibility issues between the 1809 update and Trend Micro's business security software, and a third issue that affects machines with Radeon HD 2000 or HD 4000 video cards.

Microsoft has temporarily blocked the update for users with affected soft- and/or hardware (at Trend Micro's request, in the former case), but the careless damage has already been done. IT pro Susan Bradley summed up the situation pretty well, in this quote from the ZDNet piece:

"I cannot believe -- well, I guess in this era of Microsoft I can believe -- that Microsoft would release an update that would impact their customer base like this. Yes, it's documented, yes there are 'workarounds', but there are possibilities that line-of-business applications will not be happy with these solutions given," wrote Bradley.

Affected non-business consumers probably won't be happy, either, and headlines like, "FAIL!!! Windows 10 October Update (1809) Still Has Multiple Flaws," are probably not what Microsoft was hoping to see within days of claiming that their testing regimen and quality control were still top-notch. That claim, incidentally, is looking more ridiculous with each passing day. Apparently MS have decided that they'd like to take a few more lumps, please, before actually addressing their QA issues.

Fortunately for Microsoft, the rereleased 1809 update wasn't being rolled out as aggressively as 1803; most users won't be offered the update until 2019 anyway, and it will be months after that before the update is pronounce ready for business, so the PR damage from this latest snafu might not be too severe.

It will be interesting to see if this latest example of Microsoft's inability to reliably deliver a product that works to consumers will cause any further slowdown in Windows 10's adoption rate. Personally, I can't wait to see the OS usage share numbers at the end of November.

Hey, Microsoft... you do know that can stop hitting yourself any old time, now. Right?