When Microsoft announces a Windows update, you should know your second monitor is likely to die

I am not trying to beat a dead horse, I promise. It’s simply that this Microsoft bug which dates back to 2017 (!) continues to recur with almost every Windows update. And every time an update rolls out and it recurs again and again, Microsoft pulls the same nonsense. They blame the user. Your monitor must not be working. Test your cables. Do an advanced reinstall of Windows 11.

When all along they know it’s their bug. Eventually they will do a silent little fix that takes three seconds when you turn your computer off. Meanwhile, you’ve been working with a tiny laptop screen or something else that is horribly inconvenient. Your productivity is at 50% or less from trying to work close to a laptop monitor while juggling general ledgers or research.

Today, I did everyone who is still (for now) a Microsoft user a favor: I documented this issue dating back to January 2017. Microsoft knows, is fully aware, and does not care that updates regularly include disabling of your monitor driver or whatever specific form it takes in that update.

Which cannot be uninstalled, because it’s a (quote) “security update.”

Since my last documentation about this issue, I have gone through two more days of Microsoft hell. They now make it nearly impossible to post a query to their support page. A rare good tech support person logged on remotely to help me. Even he seemed aghast at the maze. When their own people don’t know how bad it is--!

I also learned yesterday that unless you can get a tech support person on a remote session WITH AUDIO, the odds are high you are talking to a bot. I copy-pasted the second of yesterday’s chats and it was transcribed as “Bot named Rohan.” That would explain a lot!

The only way that this known, recurring issue is fixed: Microsoft has to issue a new update to fix that bug. Every. Single. Time.

So……….

As a defensive measure, I collected twenty-five search results related to this issue. I screenshotted short results and saved longer discussions as PDFs. Everything is backed up to not-SharePoint and to an external hard drive. Prevents a reputation manager from deleting the evidence.

We should be able to safely assume that when their updates continue to disable monitor drivers and they do nothing about it, they never will, absent legal action or legislation that gives consumers rights regarding SaaS. These rights currently do not exist. Hence, recurring known issues with every update.

If you have Microsoft Windows 11, save this—documentation regarding this known issue: Documentation for the known and recurring Microsoft issue (SaaS): January 11, 2017 - June 15, 2026. Do not let a Microsoft tech support person bully you!

You can also read the other posts in AI section of Policies, Not Politics.

Worth noting from the documentation linked above—January 11, 2017. Microsoft’s latest Windows update breaks multi-monitor gaming | ExtremeTech, by Joel Hruska. “With Windows-as-a-service, you never need to worry about installing a patch because every Microsoft patch is guaranteed, 100%, to always work, never cause problems, and certainly never break previous functionality. That, at least, is the official corporate line. Microsoft’s ability to deliver on that promise is highly questionable to nonexistent, as evidenced by a new problem baked into the January 10, 2017 build (KB3213986 (OS Build 14393.693)).”