Windows 10 Status Report: September 2020 Update issues and fixes (2023)

This Windows 10 Health Report provides an overview of the issues people are encountering in September 2020 due to new cumulative updates or changes to the operating system.

Every month, Microsoft releases new Windows updates on the second Tuesday of every month, known as Patch Tuesday, to fix operating system bugs and security vulnerabilities.

In addition to the Patch Tuesday updates, Microsoft will also release an optional Windows 10 cumulative update towards the end of the month for all supported versions of the operating system.

This second update is known as a "preview" update, as it contains the fixes that will be included in next month's Patch Tuesday and allows administrators and consumers to test the fixes before they are released globally.

Unfortunately, when new Windows 10 updates are released, it is very common for users to encounter bugs that cause crashes, performance issues, and visual issues which we will describe in this report.

So far, Microsoft has released Windows 10 2004 this month.KB4571756update and Windows 10 1909KB4574727yKB4577062cumulative updates.

The problems of Windows 10 September 2020

Here are the known issues that affected Windows 10 in September 2020.

The trim command is used on unsupported drives.

Since the May 2020 Update was released, Windows 10 has Optimize Drives featurestarted executing the TRIM commandon hard drives that do not support this function.

Although this does not affect the drives themselves, it will show up as an error in the event log.

Windows 10 crashes on Lenovo ThinkPad laptops

Windows 10 on 2019 and 2020 Lenovo ThinkPad laptop models started crashing with Stop errors due to a change introduced in Windows Updates.

After installing Lenovo ThinkPad usersWindows 10 2004 KB4568831and later updates, Windows 10 would start crashing with "SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED" (on the stop error message screen) and "0xc0000005 Access Denied" errors.

Lenovo warnedThis is because the "Enhanced Windows Biometric Security" setting is enabled in a laptop's UEFI settings.

This weekMicrosoft has acknowledged the problemand they claim that they are working with Lenovo on a solution.

For those who do not want to wait for the solution, they can disable the Lenovo feature by going to the laptop's UEFI settings and disablingEnhanced Windows Biometric Securitysettings belowSecurity>virtualizingmenu.

New Windows updates force you to install Microsoft Edge

Microsoft is installing two new mandatory updates that force the installation of the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.

Microsoft has stated for some time that it will replace Microsoft Edge Legacy with its new Edge browser and will continue to release new updates every month.

When these updates are installed, they install the new Microsoft Edge and remove Microsoft Edge Legacy from Windows 10.

This month's updates have been published asKB4576754for Windows 10 versions 1809, 1903, 1909 and 2004 andKB4576753for Windows 10 1803.

If you want to block the new installation of Microsoft Edge, you can follow itthese instructionsto prevent the update from installing.

WSL2 not working for some Windows 10 2004 users

After installing Windows 10 update 2004KB4571756, users are usingbegan to reportthat the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 was broken when they tried to boot a Linux distribution.

When trying to start a distribution, they were getting errors saying "Item not found" and "Process terminated with code 4294967295".

The only way to fix this issue would be to uninstall the KB4571756 update.

microsoftannounced this weekA fix for this bug will be released in a future version of the service.

MMC security configuration in gpedit shows wsecedit.dllerror

BornCityreportsWindows Server 2016 administrators receive a wsecedit.dll error when they try to open the Security Settings MMC in Group Policy Editor.

This error seems to have started after installing theUpdate KB4577015.

Compatibility error when upgrading to Windows 10 1903 and 1909

In the release notes for Windows 10 version 1903 and 1909 cumulative update KB4574727, Microsoft states that users may receive a "What needs your attention" error when trying to upgrade from a previous version.

"When you upgrade to Windows 10, version 1903 or Windows 10, version 1909 from any earlier version of Windows 10, you may receive a compatibility report dialog with "What needs your attention" at the top and the error "Continue with Windows Setup." removes some optional features. You may need to add them back in Settings after Setup is complete." You may receive this compatibility warning when LOCAL SYSTEM accounts are locked in a firewall from accessing the Internet via HTTP. This is because Windows 10 Setup Dynamic Update (DU) is unable to download the necessary packages," Microsoft said in theKB4574727 Release Notes.

As a workaround, they offer the following solution:

Report that the Start menu is crashing or not responding

Windows latestreportsSome users are unable to open the Windows 10 Start menu or it stops responding after installing the September updates.

"W10 version 1909 user here (KB4574727). I had to uninstall the update because Windows Explorer is holed. Start menu closes abruptly when something is clicked, search doesn't work either (Start menu: closes; Windows Windows Windows Explorer: Window stays open but won't let me search for anything.) There is something wrong with this build.", areported userand Reddit.

Only a few users have reported this issue, but enough to indicate that something might be up.

Various installation issues, crashes, and performance issues

As is typical when new cumulative updates are released, users encounter issues installing the updates or performance issues and crashes after installing the updates.

Most of these issues are caused by changes made to Windows 10 through updates that conflict with existing drivers.

A perfect example of this is Lenovo's downfall caused by a change introduced by Microsoft.

For those of you experiencing issues with this update, you should update your hardware and computer drivers and see if it resolves the issues you are having.

Focus especially on graphics, sound and chipset drivers when updating drivers.

Problems solved this month

Below we've outlined the most concerning issues Microsoft fixed this month.

Microsoft fixed a bug that caused excessive defragmentation of SSD drives

After the release of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update,we informthat a bug caused Windows 10's 'Automatic Maintenance' feature to not remember when an SSD was last optimized.

This error would cause Windows 10 to attempt another drive optimization, including a defragmentation, of the SSDs every time Windows 10 was restarted.

With Windows 10 version 2004KB4571744cumulative Update,Microsoft has fixed this bugAnd now automatic maintenance features remember the last time a drive was optimized.

Unfortunately, as described earlier in this article, the TRIM function is still used on hard drives that don't support the command.

Microsoft is removing Windows Defender's ability to download files

With the release of Windows Defender Antimalware Client version 4.18.2009.2-0, Microsoft hasremoved the ability to download arbitrary filesusing the MpCmdRun.exe utility.

Last week we reported that Microsoft turned Windows Defender into a LOLBIN by allowing it todownload files.

When this was discovered, there were concerns that this feature could allow attackers to use Microsoft Defender to download malware to Windows.

Just as they silently added the download feature, they removed it without explaining why it was added in the first place.

Notable changes in Windows 10 in September 2020

Below are the changes introduced in Windows 10 in September 2020.

Internet Explorer warns that Adobe Flash will soon reach the end of support

With the cumulative update KB4577062 for Windows 10 v1909 and v1903, Internet Explorernow it will display a warning messagethat Adobe Flash support will soon be terminated.

When you visit a website that hosts Flash content in Internet Explorer 11, the browser displays a message that says:

"This site uses Adobe Flash Player, which will not be supported after December 2020."

This notice will be displayed to the user every 60 days until December 31, 2020, for each website they visit that hosts Adobe Flash content.