Microsoft is rolling out an out-of-band update for various supported versions of Windows, addressing a variety of newly-introduced issues with last week's Patch Tuesday. Among the problems fixed with this update, Windows users were reporting that they were unable to connect to VPN devices, use Hyper-V, or use ReFS drives, among other problems. On the Windows release health dashboard, Microsoft has acknowledged all of these problems following the Patch Tuesday updates released last week.

The fixes are coming in the way of an optional update, and it looks like almost every supported version of Windows is affected by some kind of issue. The fixes issued today go back all the way to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. For Windows 11 the new update is labeled as KB5010795, and it can be downloaded manually here. It includes the following fixes:

• Addresses a known issue that might cause IP Security (IPSEC) connections that contain a Vendor ID to fail. VPN connections using Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) or IP security Internet Key Exchange (IPSEC IKE) might also be affected.

• Addresses an issue that might prevent removable media that is formatted using the Resilient File System (ReFS) from mounting or might cause the removable media to mount in the RAW file format. This issue occurs after installing the January 11, 2022 Windows update.

Older versions have different updates, which contain some of these fixes, as well as others. Not every issue reported affected every version of Windows, so the fixes are also not the same for everyone. For example, not every Windows version needs the VPN fix. The other two fixes you might find are as follows:

• Addresses a known issue that might cause Windows Servers to restart unexpectedly after installing the January 11, 2022 update on domain controllers (DCs).

• Addresses an issue that prevents Active Directory (AD) attributes from being written properly during a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) modify operation when you make multiple attribute changes.

To know which fixes apply to the version of Windows you're running, check the changelogs using the table below, where you can also find download links if you want to install the updates manually. For most users, you'll likely only care about Windows 10 version 20H2 or newer, as those are the only ones still supported for Home and Pro SKUs.

It's worth noting that many of these versions of Windows are no longer supported for the majority of users. Many are long-term service channel (LTSC) releases, and others, like Windows 7, are only for businesses that are paying for extended security updates (ESU). As a side note, we're now one year away from the end of ESU services for Windows 7, so more businesses are likely to transition to Windows 10 or 11 by next year.

While we provide download links for all the updates above, all versions of Windows except Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 should also show you these updates in Windows Update. They'll be labeled as optional updates, but considering the wide impact of these issues, you probably want to download them as soon as possible.