New Bug In Windows 10 Anniversary Update Brings Wi-Fi Disconnects (infoworld.com)

Some Windows 10 PCs are now experiencing sudden drops in their Wi-Fi connections, with the Network Diagnostics tool reporting "Wi-Fi doesn't have a valid IP configuration." An anonymous reader quotes InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard: I've heard from many people who blame the Wi-Fi disconnect on Friday's KB 3201845, the patch (which still isn't documented on the Win10 update history site) that brings version 1607 up to build 14393.479. It's unlikely that the new patch brought on the bug because the large influx of complaints started on December 7 -- two days before the patch...

Speculation at this point says the disconnect results when a machine performs a fast startup, setting the machine's IP address to 169.x.x.x. It's an old problem, but somehow it's come back in spades in the past two days. I have no idea what triggered the sudden outbreak, as there were no Win10 1607 patches issued on December 6, 7 or 8.
Microsoft acknowledged the problem Thursday, recommending customers try restarting their PCs (or performing a clean start). Woody writes that it looks like Microsoft's latest Windows 10 patch "didn't cause the bug. But the patch didn't fix it, either."

Comments

Microsoft is killing the business use of Windows

[Anonymous Coward]

Forced Windows updates must bring constant excitement to business people at travel. You never know, if the machine works after connecting it to network. And nobody in IT is there to help them.

Instability is the new normal?

[ErichTheRed]

I've been on the Windows 10 Insider program for quite a while, and keep one work machine on a stable build and the other in the Fast ring. For a lot of our production machines, we're going to go with the next spin of Long Term Servicing Branch for just this reason. I'm not happy that you have to give up all feature updates for years in order to get an OS they're not going to be changing behavior on every month.

Having seen both the stable and super-new builds running similar application loads, it's obvious that Microsoft is skimping on code quality in both, sacrificing it for fast feature releases. However, very few "breaking" bugs make it into their stable (CBB) builds. I'm not happy that the home consumers have to deal with these though...they have no choice. And when it's something like breaking wireless, that's a big deal -- most users are at least on laptops now if not tablets.

On balance I think they made the right decision for the overall market on patching. Unpatched Windows home machines are just asking for ransomware or a botnet takeover, and consumers have no clue how to manage their machines. For business, I think they made an OK compromise, but wish they would make the updates not be all-or-nothing. The user population I support runs hundreds of applications from sources we don't control, and right now on Windows 7 we get a few security updates a year that break them, some in ways we can't fix without getting the vendor to make a change. In the old pick-and-choose model, we would figure out which monthly updates didn't break the application set and apply them, then wait for a time we could apply the "bad" ones when an application drops off the radar or gets fixed.

This is what you get...

[Chas]

When your OS vendor tosses their Q&A and basically uses their user base for testing out their shitty product.

Still very happy with Win7, and there's ZERO need to upgrade at this point.

20 years

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"Microsoft acknowledged the problem Thursday, recommending customers try restarting their PCs"

Almost 25 fuckin' years after releasing Win 3.1, and their trouble shooting advice is still "have you tried restarting it?"

On the other hand, I have a Linux server that just passed 1015 days uptime with no restarts or reboots. It hosts about 50 websites and runs 24/7 with constant activity. Windows couldn't even dream of that kind of service.