Windows 11 just got a new cumulative update, but Microsoft’s December patch series presents a big challenge for some students.
Windows Latest highlights reports from several academics who are readers of the technology (and from the universities themselves) about the KB5033375 solution that disrupts Wi-Fi networks on campus.
Apparently, this doesn’t happen to everyone, but it’s a big challenge for some of those who have Windows 11 and don’t have access to the internet on their laptop. As Brunel University London (UK), one of the affected universities, informs us, this is not happening with official university hardware, but it is happening with BYOD laptops (perhaps because principals have already risen to the challenge, perhaps?).
One theory put forward through a formula manager at a university, as published by Windows Latest, is that there may be a compatibility factor at play here (involving the Qualcomm QCA61x4a wireless adapter and, in all likelihood, others).
Another establishment warning its academics about the December update is the University of New Haven (Connecticut, USA). The U. S. Department of Homeland Security (US), which warns: “A recent Windows update released on 12/12/2023 has prevented users from connecting to wireless networks. This update is known as KB5033375.
Other reports are provided on Reddit about academics from European countries being briefed and the issue appears to be related to other Qualcomm wireless adapters.
In fairness to the December update, it does contain some useful fixes, including the solution to a longstanding problem with File Explorer randomly popping up on the desktop.
However, if you’re in college, the potential benefits here will probably be outweighed by the danger of not being able to access Wi-Fi, which is indeed a nasty problem.
A common thread here happens to be Qualcomm components, and the Qualcomm QCA61x4a wireless adapter mentioned above is a piece of hardware used in laptops like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, Lenovo Yoga models, and many other laptops.
This problem also affects some business users, but for students, the only realistic way of resolving the bug is to uninstall the update, as the universities in question are recommending. (To do this, go to Windows Update in Settings, and click to view the Update History – that shows all the updates installed, and you can remove KB5033375 from here).
Hopefully, Microsoft is involved in this matter and we have reached out to the software giant to check if there is an investigation underway. We’ll update this article if we hear feedback on what’s happening here.
Darren is a freelancer who writes news and articles for TechRadar (and T3) on a wide variety of IT topics, including CPUs, GPUs, other miscellaneous hardware, VPNs, antivirus, and more. He has been writing about generation for about 3 decades and writing books in his spare time (his first novel, I Know What You Did at the Last Supper, was published through Hachette UK in 2013).
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