Microsoft's latest attempt to fix Windows 10 has broken the media player

Chris Merriman
@ChrisTheDJ
26 November 2018

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IT'S ONLY Monday morning and we're already having to address another bork in Microsoft's impossibly shite October Update to Windows 10.

The bi-annual update of Windows 10 "as-a-service" is already at full laughing stock status, and yet it seems we're not done yet.

This time, its an issue with media playback, and specifically the "seek bar", which we're given to understand is the bit that lets you find the specific bit of a song. This only applies to the default player. That iTunes borkage? Separate bug.

In short, it got broken, and seemingly in the process of trying to fix the last cavalcade of bugs.

Microsoft has formally acknowledged the problem, stating that it "is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release."

There's currently no timeframe for the fix.

Of course, compared with something like causing BSOD, chewing up files, refusing to associate programs with files, or not being able to keep track of networked drives it has mapped, then not being able to get to your favourite bit of Rick and Morty doesn't seem that big a deal, but Microsoft is still introducing more errors than it fixes with this update, and if Microsoft isn't able to manage its own bug fixes, then who?

What's particularly galling is that if this wasn't "Windows-as-a-Service" then the problem wouldn't be as impacting as it has turned out to be.

Why? Because Windows 10 is the first version of Windows that has only ever known the "roll-up" of multiple fixes into a single download. In the old days, it could have just withdrawn the bad bits and left them in their "last known good" version.

But in this age where we download a single monthly update, and a new version of the OS twice a year, without being able to cherry pick, customers are continually being force fed "slightly borked" versions of Windows 10 and invited to take part in what is a seemingly never ending game of Whack-a-Mole.

Unfortunately, a change in policy will require a climbdown on the issue from Microsoft, and they're not historically brilliant at them until the user base has suffered quite a bit more than this. μ