Microsoft Issues Windows 10 Version 1809 Update To Address Mapped Drive Glitch
Microsoft would probably like to take a mulligan on the October 2018 Update for Windows 10, which has been plagued by bugs that should have been squashed prior to its eventual roll out in November (it made a brief appearance in October, but Microsoft quickly hit the pause button for several weeks to address a file deletion bug). Instead of a do-over, however, Microsoft has been fixing numerous issues one at a time, post release. Along those lines, the newest patch finally addresses an issue with mapped drives that's been driving some IT professionals bonkers.
This specific issue dates back to at least early October, when complaints started to appear following the October 2018 Update's initial release.
"Testing the new 1809 update, and everything seems to be fine except all mapped drives to Windows 2012 file servers show disconnected (red x) after reboots or logoff/on," an IT pro stated on October 5. "Everything is fine if user opens the mapped drive. This causes problems when user opens a file located in map drive A but links to another file in mapped drive B."
Now several weeks later, Microsoft claims to have fixed the issue and has rolled it into its cumulative update KB4469342. It's the last entry on a long bullet list of bug fixes.
"Addresses an issue that may cause mapped drives to fail to reconnect after starting and logging onto a Windows device," Microsoft states.
In total, the latest update addresses 20 wide-ranging bugs, such as an issue that displays a black screen on some servers when waking a display from sleep, and another that would present a black screen in Edge when trying to view live TV content on Hulu. If you've noticed that your Bluetooth headset stops receiving audio after several minutes, the update addresses that as well.
I haven't analyzed the data with a fine-tooth comb, but at a glance, it seems the October 2018 Update has suffered more annoying issues than any of the past ones since Windows 10 was released. If that's true, it could be due to Microsoft's aggressive release schedule—the company has committed to releasing two major upgrades to Windows 10 every year. Depending on how many features and improvements Microsoft tries to build into each biannual upgrade, there just might not be enough time ensure a mostly smooth roll out. That's certainly been the case this round, anyway.
