Groundhog Day comes early as Intel Display Drivers give Windows 10 the silent treatment

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update woes continued for Microsoft last night with the announcement that Redmond had slammed the brakes for users of certain Intel display drivers.

Microsoft appears to have confused Groundhog Day with Thanksgiving, as issues with Intel drivers contributed to the fiasco that was the original attempt to unleash 1809. And here we are again.

This time around the problems are less severe, but the Windows gang has stopped the update for affected users, just in case.

In the support article, the Windows maker blamed silicon wrangler Intel, saying Chipzilla had "inadvertently released versions of its display driver (versions 24.20.100.6344, 24.20.100.6345) to OEMs that accidentally turned on unsupported features in Windows".

The Register contacted Intel for comment and were told: "We are investigating feedback that in some instances customers who have installed the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) are experiencing issues with certain versions of Intel Graphics and Display Audio drivers. We are working with Microsoft to verify these reports and will share more information when it is available."

So there you go. Significantly, Intel is still in the verification stage while Microsoft is so sure that the problem lies with Chipzilla that it said so on its support page.

The problem borks audio from affected PCs, with playback from screens connected via HDMI, USB-C or Display Port silenced for some users.

Microsoft has thrown up a block to stop the cursed 1809 build being rolled out to them until it and Intel can come up with a solution "in an upcoming release".

But lets (Out)look on the bright side

It has, of course, been a double Thanksgiving treat for users as Microsoft also emitted a patch to patch the patch that caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth within the Outlook 2010 community.

After last week'’s 4461529 security update left 64-bit users experiencing what Microsoft described as "Outlook may crash on start-up", the Windows vendor emitted a fix last night.

The 4461585 update fixes the specific crashing, according to Microsoft. As yet it has no known issues of its own.

In the meantime, you'll find us humming the Pennsylvania Polka to ourselves. Only a few more months until Groundhog Day. ®