Microsoft emits more Win 11 fixes for AMD speed issues and death by PowerShell bug

Names November as the month for Win 10 H2 update – then reveals major new feature won’t arrive on time

Microsoft has released a build of Windows 11 that it claims addresses performance problems the new OS imposed on some systems.

Redmond's announcement of OS Build 22000.282 lists over 60 "improvements and fixes" on top of a lucky 13 "highlights".

One of those highlights is described as fixing "an issue that causes some applications to run slower than usual after you upgrade to Windows 11 (original release)".

Another addresses an issue that could cause Bluetooth mice and keyboards "to respond slower than expected". A third "improves the time estimate for how long you might wait to use your device after it restarts".

Some of the improvements and fixes offer meatier fare – among them addressing "an L3 caching issue that might affect performance in some applications on devices that have AMD Ryzen processors after upgrading to Windows 11 (original release)".

AMD users have, quite reasonably, been rather miffed at being singled out, and more miffed still that their concerns weren't addressed in the first bundle of Win 11 fixes issued last week.

Another fix prevents PowerShell from eating a PC alive by creating an infinite number of child directories. "This issue occurs when you use the PowerShell Move-Item command to move a directory to one of its children. As a result, the volume fills up and the system stops responding," Microsoft explained.

If Server Manager has disappeared while you use Windows 11, Microsoft has found the cause for its absence: silly you, for installing Server Manager using the Remote Server Administration Tools and then using it to remove some features from Hyper-V.

Distorted fonts for Asian alphabets have been clarified, Microsoft Office has been restored to operability after Windows Defender Exploit Protection prevented it from running "on machines that have certain processors," and an issue that could prevent successful printer installation with Internet Printing Protocol has been erased.

Microsoft's Windows teams appear to be rather busy. On the same day as the new Windows 11 fixes were delivered, the IT giant also announced the all-but—picked cut of Windows 10 it will use for the Windows 10 November 2021 update.

"We believe that Build 19044.1288 is the final build for the November 2021 Update," wrote Brandon LeBlanc, a senior manager on the Windows Insider Program.

Insiders can get their hands on the November update in the Release Preview Channel on Windows 10 via Microsoft's "seeker" experience in Windows Update.

"This means Insiders currently on Windows 10, version 21H1 (or lower) in the Release Preview Channel will need to go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and choose to download and install Windows 10, version 21H2," LeBlanc explained.

Microsoft previously teased a modest set of additions to Windows 10 in this update, headlined by Wi-Fi security improvements and GPU compute support in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows (EFLOW) environments.

Another major feature the 'softies previously promised would appear in the update – a Windows Hello for Business deployment method called "cloud trust" – has dropped out of the release.

LeBlanc described it as "still under development" and now due to appear "in a future monthly update to the November 2021 Update".

We will provide more information as this feature gets closer to availability. Information on exactly when the 21H2 update will make its mainstream debut is also in the "coming-real-soon-now-we-promise" bucket. ®