Microsoft blocks Windows 11 24H2 update on PCs with Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin's Creed
Are your games crashing or freezing after installing Windows 11 24H2? You are not alone.
Microsoft is blocking the Windows 11 24H2 update on PCs that have some Ubisoft games installed.
Gamers who had upgraded to the latest version of the operating system had reported that they had problems getting Assassin's Creed games to run on their computer. They would fail to launch, freeze on loading a save, crash to the desktop, etc. Some of these games would crash without an error message. The thing is, these are not new issues that sprang up yesterday out of the blue. Users have been reporting such crashes for nearly 4 months when 24H2 was in preview. Just to emphasize the delay, these reports started two months before Windows 11 24H2 was released for all users. Microsoft only acknowledged the issue a few days ago.
Games are crashing on Windows 11 24H2
According to a Release Health update on the company's website, the following games are impacted by crashes, loading issues, or freezing. Some users may also experience a black screen that is unresponsive.
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Assassin's Creed Origins
- Assassin's Creed Odyssey
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Microsoft says that it has blocked the Windows 11 24H2 update on PCs that have the above-mentioned games installed, and it is advising users NOT to upgrade to the latest version manually. Well, if you were wondering why you did not get the Windows 11 24H2 update, here's the answer.
Could these issues be related to Denuvo's DRM which is used in Ubisoft's games? But, those aren't the only games that are affected by crashes. Some players experienced similar crashes on Far Cry, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, Fallout 76, and Need for Speed Unbound. Not all of these have the DRM, so the issue lies elsewhere. One user pointed out that the issues seem to be caused by a file called NTDLL.DLL. Yup, there are two DLLs in the name. It uses the Windows Native API to handle memory and processor level operations. This in turn suggests that the issues are not related to games, and that the culprit may be Windows itself.
I remember when I wanted to replay Assassin's Creed Origins during the pandemic, I had experienced lag spikes in the game. It was strange because I had played the game previously without any hiccups. Then I discovered that the lags were caused by an NVIDIA driver update, and I fixed the problem by rolling back to a previous version. That doesn't seem to be the case this time around, it seems to be a more complicated problem. Currently, the only solution seems to be downgrading to Windows 11 23H2, which is terribly inconvenient.
While users await a proper fix, Microsoft has suggested a temporary workaround for the problem. Open the Task Manager, right-click on the game's exe, and select End Task. That's a great fix Microsoft, thanks for the advice. Why bother playing games that you paid for when you can experience the thrill of the latest and greatest bugs in Windows? All these bugs just seem to highlight that Windows 10 was so much better in comparison, it's a shame it is reaching end of life support next year.
Anyway, Ubisoft has acknowledged these bugs on the Steam community forums, and is working on resolving the issues. Bleeping Computer reports that Ubisoft has already released a hotfix patch for Star Wars Outlaws, update v1.4.1 fixes the problem, but the release notes warn that players may experience some performance issues, and that a permanent fix is being worked on.
Here's a completely unrelated thing that happened exactly one year ago. Ubisoft had a bit of a PR fiasco last year, when its in-game menus displayed pop-up ads, though these annoyances were attributed to a technical error.
Have you upgraded to Windows 11 24H2? If so, have you run into similar problems with games?
@Ashwin
@Martin
Have a look at my posted comment here.
You probably have already heard from people who have run into this. Realize that this is just a tiny representation of what is out there. You might want to look into what MS is doing to users of tools that were making Windows 11 better.
Somewhat off topic but … still, it’s W11 24H2 related.
For those who use ExplorerPatcher and/or QTTABBAR are not at 24h2 yet, you will be challenged when and after doing so.
I have been using QTTABBAR and ExplorerPatcher for some time without issues up to Win 11 23H2. They made W11 more pleasant.
Yesterday my PC prompted me to install 24H2 (90 days delayed from the typical release schedule by choice). The update paused and complained about ExplorerPatcher. I was aware of issues caused with this and 24H2. So I removed it and the install continued.
After the install, File Explorer had no tab features (not even the option to open a folder in a new tab). In fact, the whole panel that starts with “new” and ends with “…” is missing. It appears that I am stuck in the legacy mode. I have not found a way out of this. Did either of the two apps have something to do with this? I am sure one of them did. My bad!!!!
I have dug around and found that many people are impacted by this. Some have completely reinstalled the W11 OS from scratch (ugh!!!). And some are in total panic.
Before the update I did a full drive backup … just in case “the fecal matter impacted the air circulation device”. I could go back to that and hang on until the 2 apps are updated by the developers. However, I do believe that MS has decided to do whatever it can to prevent people from modifying the interface in any way, shape or form. The fact that they put up a window about ExplorerPatcher only supports this thought.
This is just making me believe that Linux is the way to go with this PC. I’ve already put Linux Mint on two others without issues like this.
I play on PC and don’t have any game from Ubisoft installed. I played FarCry and other games in the past, but that was on an older PC.
But Windows update won’t offer me the 24H2 update until now. I have also a portable, it’s already upgraded …
Proprietary anti-cheat software are rootkits.
What would you do if you were a government/military and wanted exclusive backdoor access to computers worldwide? (mostly running Windows, made by a convicted monopoly)
You get several thousand or even millions to run a popular proprietary “game” which requires the use of a proprietary “anti-cheat” rootkit!!! Bingo – you have easy access and at the level enough to sweep your system and probably perform other rootkit type of operations.
But hey, who cares about that when you can mindlessly consume mindless entertainment while munching on your chips and soda?
After all, it’s just a game, it’s just all for fun, right?
That’s it people, keep consuming and sleeping.
While you’re at it, watch the movie, “They Live.” The lead actor said it was actually a documentary.
I wonder if this affects pirated version of Ubisoft AC games since the DRM is cracked or removed in those versions.
Windows 11 is a complete plague made by complete unuseful people. Crap, crap and crap.
I had two of my games crash constantly, Hitman WoA and Star Wars Outlaws. Hitman had always run flawlessly, until I installed the KB that optimises 3D V-Cache performance in Windows 11 23H2.
Star Wars Outlaws was crashing every 5 to 10 minutes right from the start.
The only other thing in the last quarter that had changed in my software environment were driver updates along the way. Checking those I realised that with the last chipset driver update I accidentally installed AMD’s 3D V-Cache Optimizer service. I run a Ryzen 7800X3D and don’t need that service.
I deactivated the service. The crashing of the aforementioned games stopped instantly.
My best guess is that MS’s optimisation and AMD’s service don’t play nice together.
I bet this happened because of anti-cheat programs that Ubisoft installs with their games. They load them on Kernel level, and it can interfere with everything.