Intel Driver Issues Force Another Windows 10 October 2018 Update Delay

Thanksgiving is supposed to be about gratitude. While much of the world celebrates the capitalistic aspects of the holiday by swooping on Black Friday deals, we want to take a moment to celebrate the holiday's intended purpose and express how thankful we are not to work at Microsoft. Why? Because the company is delaying the Windows 10 October 2018 Update for even more systems because of Intel driver compatibility issues.

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update's rollout has been a comedy of errors. First, it had to be pulled because of a file system flaw and incompatibility with Intel audio drivers. Then, while it was still exclusive to members of the Windows Insider Program, an issue with compressed folders was discovered. The update finally debuted in mid-November...but only for people whose systems don't run certain software or hardware.

The first set of delays arrived for people using Trend Micro's OfficeScan and Worry-Free Business Security software or certain AMD GPUs. Those were followed by another delay for people using the latest version of iCloud, which has problems with Shared Albums on the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. Now, according to Myce, systems with Intel display driver versions 24.20.100.6344 and 24.20.100.6345 have also been excluded.

There is some good news for Microsoft, though, which is that the latest delay appears to be Intel's fault. The company explained on its website:

"Intel 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. [...] After updating to Windows 10, version 1809, audio playback from a monitor or television connected to a PC via HDMI, USB-C, or a DisplayPort may not function correctly on devices with these drivers." (This is separate from the other Intel issues.)

Microsoft said it's "working with Intel to expire these display drivers, including coordinating with OEMs, and will provide an update on the resolution in an upcoming release." It's not clear exactly what features Intel rushed to support with the drivers, or if the fix will involve releasing those features to Windows 10 users, but right now the issue's just the latest in a string of problems with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update.

But, as we noted at the top, Thanksgiving is about gratitude as well as eating copious amounts of turkey, gravy, and carbs. It's not about beating a dead horse. So, we'll just leave this by being thankful that Microsoft has at least responded to issues with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update instead of simply releasing it and fixing the problems later. Maybe if we're really good we'll get a proper release in time for Christmas.