Microsoft's carefully crafted Surfaces are having trouble with its carefully crafted Windows 10 May 2020 Update

It's only the second week of Windows 10's May 2020 Update and things are going... about as well as one might expect. Which, sadly for Microsoft hardware owners, is not ideal.

The release popped up last week and we noted that it had its issues. Ten, to be precise. The bork count currently stands at 11 and, worryingly for owners of Microsoft's pricey Surface devices, now includes features the company's fancy fondleslabs.

Microsoft is keen to brag about the "Always Connected" nature of its devices but it appears that some have come unstuck with the update. "Compatibility issues" might surface for gear with "more than one Always On, Always Connected capable network adapter" so Microsoft has slammed the brakes on update attempts.

It also admitted that some of the newest products in the Surface line, such as the Pro 7 and Laptop 3, might "receive errors or unexpected shutdown or restart."

The newest OS not working on Microsoft's own hardware is obviously a little awkward. If only there was someone leading both the Windows and Devices groups to ensure the two talked.

Oh wait, there is. Although chief product officer Panos Panay seems to have been a little more preoccupied with creating vaguely toe-curling product launch videos than ensuring the company's carefully crafted hardware can actually run its own equally carefully crafted software.

Even the recent ARM64 release of Visual Studio Code struggled a little as team members waited for a Surface Pro X to arrive in order to test the updated developer darling.

We've got mad issues

Problems with new releases (or patches) of Windows 10 are hardly without precedent, although after the lessons learned from the deleterious October 2018 Update and the sheer length of time the May 2020 Update (aka 20H1) has spent in testing (as well as Release Preview), one might have hoped that somebody would at least have thought to fire up the update on a spread of Surface kit, but here we are.

The latest issue added to the big pile of delight is the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool reporting corruption after using /restorehealth to fix things.

Microsoft has wisely placed a block on updates for affected kit for many of these concerns. Fixes are expected in June or in "an upcoming release."

There are ways and means of forcing a Windows 10 May 2020 Update install if it has not been offered via Windows Update, but if you're in the growing crowd of those with compatibility issues we'd have to recommend hanging fire a little longer. ®