14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 April 2018 Update, also referred to as Windows 10 version 1803, is far from providing flawless experience to users, and the number of bugs that are being reported by early adopters is increasing every day.
Microsoft itself has acknowledged some of these bugs, like the one causing Google Chrome to freeze or a compatibility issue with Intel and Toshiba SSDs, but until now, the company hasn’t been exactly in a rush to fix them.
One of the most recent problems hitting Windows 10 April 2018 Update computers concerns the Settings app, which appears to crash all of a sudden when clicking certain sections or options. This obviously isn’t expected behavior and what’s even worse is that some people complained of the same bug in Windows Insider builds.
This means that somehow, this problem has escaped unfixed, and now that the April 2018 Update is available for systems in the production ring as well, more and more users struggle to deal with it.
I’ve also experienced this bug, and after searching the web, it’s pretty clear that it’s a compatibility issue. While in my case the Settings app crashed at random points and I couldn’t exactly find a pattern, others say it most often happens when trying to change the default apps in Settings.
In other words, when you go to Settings > Apps > Default apps > Set defaults by app, the Settings app crashes in a few seconds, making it possible to access the default app screen afterward.
Even though most users rushed to blame Microsoft for shipping a buggy update, it looks like the problem is actually caused by a compatibility issue with specific apps installed on each system. Up to this point, early adopters of Windows 10 April 2018 Update have identified several apps that might be causing such issues, though only one name has been confirmed to be leading to crashes of settings every time: SumatraPDF.
Unfortunately, without an update from the developing company, the only workaround to get everything working in Windows 10 April 2018 Update is to remove SumatraPDF from your system.
To do this, go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features > SumatraPDF > Uninstall and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the process. Once the app is removed, reboot your system and try to access the section crashing Settings to see if everything has returned to normal.
By the looks of things, there are several other apps that are causing similar issues in the April 2018 Update, so if you’re hitting related problems and SumatraPDF isn’t installed on your computer, the only option is to take third-party apps one by one and uninstall them to determine the one crashing Settings. I’d suggest removing apps that haven’t been updated in a long time first, as these are the most likely to hit this kind of bugs due to compatibility issues because of the code changes Microsoft made in version 1803.
If you’re looking for an alternative to SumatraPDF, the PDF reader that comes in handy is none other than Microsoft Edge, the browser/PDF viewer which Microsoft now offers as pre-installed in Windows 10.
Bugs like these typically disappear after a while as more developers add support for new Windows 10 versions in their programs. As to how long this is going to take, nobody can tell for sure, and it all depends on how fast devs want to make their projects run flawlessly on the new Windows 10 version. Most of them typically rush to address compatibility issues and Microsoft itself is working with developers to make things happen faster, but there are cases when updates land later than expected.