Has your VPN failed to connect recently? Microsoft says the latest Windows security update may provide a fix
If you've been experiencing VPN issues, Windows may have been to blame up until now.
Microsoft's April security updates for Windows 11 and Windows 10, KB5036893 and KB5036892 respectively, were previously identified by the company as causing VPN disconnection issues for some users, leaving some without a way to hide their IP address or change locations. Now Microsoft has released security update KB5037771 for Windows 11, which is said to fix the issue alongside some other known bugs.
In a post detailing the changes made in the May 14 update, Microsoft notes that the VPN issue was resolved and recommends users install the latest security update for all Windows devices, which to be honest is just good advice in general even if you've not been experiencing any VPN problems yourself.
For Windows 10 users, update KB5037768 appears to fix the same issue.
The bug was originally said to affect Windows 11 (versions 23H2, 22H2 and 21H2) and Windows 10 (versions 22H2 and 21H2), although looking at the Windows forums and subreddits it didn't appear to be a particularly widespread problem.
However, it wouldn't be a surprise if most users didn't notice that Windows may be the cause for frequent VPN disconnects, as some VPN providers can often experience outages and connection issues of their own without an immediately obvious cause.
Also listed in the notes is a fix for a Bitlocker error, and an as-yet unresolved issue wherein updates to Microsoft Edge may incorrectly install a package that results in the Microsoft Copilot app appearing in the installed apps list in the settings menu.
While the Copilot bug may be an annoyance, a Bitlocker fix is perhaps unsurprising given that Windows 11's upcoming 24H2 update is rumoured to be enabling the encryption setting by default during reinstallation—a move that's caused a fair amount of controversy, as Bitlocker has been known to reduce SSD performance by up to 45% depending on the workload.
Still, I suppose we'll cross that encrypted bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, those of you who have experienced VPN issues will want to install the security update immediately, and for those who haven't, keeping your Windows install up to date is always the best practice regardless.