OS-busting bug so bad that Microsoft blocks Windows Insider release

The Windows team has come up with a bug so bad that Microsoft has had to postpone some Insider builds until the issue is dealt with.

The problem affects the Canary build and, according to the Windows Insider Program, "impacts a lot of functionality that makes using your PC to do even basic things difficult."

While making "even basic things difficult" might sound like a mission statement for the Windows team nowadays - the company just recently tipped several AI "enhancements" into the formerly pristine Notepad - the mystery bug is sufficiently severe that even Canary channel Windows Insiders were spared. Typically, the users who sign up for the Canary channel of Windows Insider builds expect the bleeding edge preview builds they receive to be quite rough around the edges and with plenty of bugs.

One of the head honchos of the Windows Insider program, Brandon LeBlanc, posted: "This new bug is really bad." He did not, however, elaborate exactly what it was, only saying "it impacts functionality across the OS ranging from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to connecting USB accessories and even your onboard camera (which impacts Windows Hello on PCs too)."

According to LeBlanc, the bug hasn't made it out in any recent Windows Insider flights. He said, "It is a specific bug that is impacting builds we have not released to Windows Insiders based on a code change we made in newer builds."

The timing of the issue, coming a week before Microsoft's developer shindig, Build, is unfortunate. However, it demonstrates that Microsoft has quality gates to stop severely broken Windows releases from reaching Windows Insiders (let alone the broader user base) with bugs so bad that the operating system is rendered unusable.

Microsoft has a fix in the works for the problem, and LeBlanc noted that validation efforts were underway to ensure that a new build would reach Windows Insiders in the Canary channel by the end of this week, should all go well.

The Canary channel is where Microsoft tries out its latest builds of Windows, and there's no guarantee that anything in the Windows Insider program will ever see the light of day. Bugs and instability are par for the course, unless something so bad crops up that even the Windows behemoth doesn't want to let the code out into the wild. ®