With KB5000842 Microsoft is finally fixing Explorer crashes and Windows 10 performance issues

While Windows 10 version 21H1 -- which is due for release soon -- may not bring much to the table in terms of new features, it's still an important release because of the number of problems it addresses.

If you have been following the development of Windows 10 21H1 here on BetaNews, you'll know that it is currently undergoing beta testing. There are already a decent number of bug fixes in the new release, but Microsoft has just pushed out a new cumulative update to beta testers that patches even more problems. Included among these are issues with Explorer using large amounts of memory, crashing, and reducing performance.           

See also:

• Microsoft releases Windows 10 Build 21337 with big changes to Virtual Desktops and a new Auto HDR preview
• Microsoft issues official fix for blue screens and printing problems in Windows 10
• Microsoft's decision to hide KB identifiers from some Windows update support documents is unhelpful madness

The performance enhancements and crash fixes come in the KB5000842 update -- or Windows 10 21H1 Build 19043.89. Released earlier this week, this update includes an impressive range and number of fixes for problems that have been affecting large numbers of Windows 10 users. Among the issues addressed by this update are the recently acknowledged printing problems introduced by another update for Windows 10; Microsoft has released a standalone patch for non-beta versions of Windows 10, but this will soon be baked into the operating system.

But this is far from being the only fix to be found in the cumulative update.

In a post on the Windows Insider Blog, Microsoft reveals a number of important bug-fixes, including those affecting Explorer and general performance:

• Fixed an issue that displays nothing or shows "Computing Filters" indefinitely when you filter File Explorer search results.
• Fixed an issue with a heap leak that might cause explorer.exe to consume high amounts of memory.
• Fixed an issue that causes multiple instances of explorer.exe to run on a system when AppLocker is enabled and the system is not on the internet.
• Fixed an issue that might cause File Explorer and other applications to stop responding for several minutes. This issue occurs after a client reconnects to the corporate network and attempts to use mapped drives to access file shares on the corporate network.

And there is, of course, the all-important printer fix too:

• Fixed an issue that might cause a blue screen when attempting to print to certain printers using some apps and might generate the error, APC_INDEX_MISMATCH.

The full list of improvements can be seen in the blog post.

Image credit: tanuha2001 / Shutterstock