14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, Microsoft shipped a mysterious driver update to Windows 10 systems which, besides the fact that it didn’t include any information about its contents, caused problems on a number of computers where it was installed, with most of the users deciding to roll back and remove the drivers completely.
In a post today, Microsoft finally acknowledges the problem and says that it was all because of an “incorrect driver” which has already been pulled and should no longer land on new Windows 10 systems.
As we told you when we first reported the issues, the driver was linked to Windows 10 Mobile phones and portable devices, and the botched update blocked them from being accessed from the computers it was installed on.
Drivers pulled the same day they were released
Microsoft says it pulled the drivers from the Windows Update servers the same day it was released, but it still reached some computers that received the update in the first minutes after being published.
“An incorrect device driver was released for Windows 10, on March 8, 2017, that affected a small group of users with connected phones or portable devices. After installation, these devices are not detected properly by Windows 10, but are affected in no other way,” Microsoft explains.
“We removed the driver from Windows Update the same day, but if the driver had already installed, you may still be having this issue.”
To check whether you received the drivers, all you have to do is access the Windows 10 update history in Settings > Update and security > Windows Update > Update History and look for an entry called Microsoft – WPD – 2/22/2016 12:00:00 AM – 5.2.5326.4762. If the update is already there and is causing issues, you can proceed to remove it and then restart the computer to address the issues.
Since the new drivers are no longer on Microsoft’s Windows Update servers, it won’t be reoffered to your system, so you’re safe. For now.