If you have Wi-Fi issues in Windows 11, you're not alone; Microsoft pulls problematic update

A number of Windows 11 users are reporting Wi-Fi connectivity issues after installing the December 2023 Patch Tuesday update. The KB5033375 cumulative update was released for Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2, and the release was followed by complaints from users unable to connect to networks.

Microsoft has acknowledged the issue in relation to not only KB5033375, but also the earlier KB5032288 preview update. There is good news in that home users appear to be unaffected, but things are less rosy for enterprise and education users.

See also:

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At the moment, Microsoft is giving nothing away in terms of what might have caused the issue, but the company has posted on the Windows health page about the problem. The issue has not only been acknowledged, but also marked as being resolved, but this is slightly open to debate. Microsoft has "resolved" the issue with a Known Issue Rollback (KIR) -- essentially recalling the update.

The company says:

Microsoft has received reports of an issue in which some Wi-Fi adapters might not connect to some networks after installing KB5032288. We have confirmed this issue was caused by KB5032288 and KB5033375. As reported, you are more likely to be affected by this issue if you are attempting to connect to an enterprise, education, or public Wi-Fi network using 802.1x authentication. This issue is not likely to occur on home networks.

The acknowledgment goes on to say:

This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR). Please note that it might take up to 24 hours for the resolution to propagate automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices. Restarting your Windows device might help the resolution apply to your device faster. For enterprise-managed devices that have installed an affected update and encountered this issue, it can be resolved by installing and configuring a special Group Policy. The special Group Policy can be found in Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> <Group Policy name listed below>

Download for Windows 11, versions 23H2 and 22H2 - Windows 11 22H2 KB5032288 231029_032011 Known Issue Rollback

More information is available here.

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