14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft confirmed it was aware of reports pointing to a bug breaking down the Windows Update service on Windows services, and judging from the latest feedback to users, the issue has already been fixed quietly.
The lack of details regarding this new bug hitting Windows Update is painful for users across the world, as the service stopped working earlier this week due to what appeared to be a bad DNS configuration.
At that point, it was believed that some ISPs, including Comcast and BT Broadband, used DNS settings that failed to connect to Microsoft’s update servers.
While for some people switching to Google’s public DNS server did the trick and restored Windows Update, this temporary workaround failed to resolve the problem for others, signaling that the issue might after all concern Microsoft’s own servers.
A number of users suggested that the Windows Update outage might be caused by Windows Defender updates, but this doesn’t seem to be the case either, as other applications appear to be affected as well, including the Microsoft Store and pre-installed Windows 10 apps.
Oddly enough, some tried to install other operating systems, like Linux Mint and Ubuntu, only to discover that they were experiencing update issues as well, which once again potentially signals a network issue caused by the ISP and not by Microsoft’s servers.
Fix quietly rolled out?
In a post on reddit a few hours ago, a company engineer confirmed “Microsoft is aware of this issue and is investigating, we’ll provide more information as it becomes available.”
While additional details haven’t been shared, it looks like Microsoft has quietly rolled out a fix, as I’m seeing reports from users that the Windows Update service is up and running once again.
Users who have previously switched to Google’s DNS server can return to their original DNS settings to see if Windows Update can check for updates.
We’re still waiting for more information from Microsoft on what exactly happened in this new mysterious outage, so we’ll update these posts when it becomes available.