Microsoft fixes home-network bug – but does it work?

M icrosoft has released a temporary fix for a problem with the April 2018 Update (version 1803) that stops users from connecting devices on a home network.

Several people complained on Microsoft’s forum ( www. snipca.com/28240). One user, called Jestoni Mac, said: “When clicking the Network tab in File Explorer, other devices on the home network running version 1803 do not appear, and thus I’m not able to perform file sharing or access files on other devices on my home network”.

In reply, a Microsoft ‘agent’ said the company was “investigating” the problem. They suggested fixing it by setting “some services to Automatic (Delayed Start) and restarting Windows”. This will delay some Windows tools from starting when you boot your computer.

To do this, press the Windows Key+r, type services.msc in the box that appears, then press Enter. This will bring up the Services list.

Microsoft suggests turning on Automatic (Delayed Start) for eight services (see box below). Right-click each one in the list, select Properties, set the Startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start) and select Apply (see screenshot). Finally, restart Windows.

However, it appears this workaround isn’t guaranteed to solve the problem. One frustrated user on the forum wrote: “I still have computers not showing up in the network folder and of those that do show up, several cannot access the other computers’ shared folders. Some work both ways between computers.”

Microsoft hasn’t said whether it will release an update fixing the error.

‘More reliable’ update

Many Computeractive readers have told us they’ve suffered

similar problems, despite Microsoft saying it used artificial intelligence to “greatly improve the quality and reliability of the Windows 10 April 2018 Update rollout”.

It said in its blog ( www. snipca.com/28241) that it collected data about which computers have had a “great update experience”, and updated similar devices first.

Microsoft said: “With over 250 million machines on the April 2018 Update, we are seeing higher satisfaction numbers, fewer known issues, and lower support call volumes compared to previous Windows 10 releases”.