Microsoft Fixes Flawed Windows Update Causing USB Audio Issues

Microsoft has rolled out a fix for the Windows 11 update that caused several issues, including USB audio problems and broken functionality with AI tool Claude Cowork. The problematic update, KB5124008, was released on September 8, but it didn't take long for users to report malfunctions.

The update caused older USB Audio 1.0 peripherals to fail to produce sound and displayed an error message saying 'This device cannot start (Code 10)'. For enterprise customers and software developers, the update broke virtual machine functionality, which allows Windows to run another operating system, including Linux. Claude Cowork and the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) were also affected.

A warning was posted by Anthropic, the developer of Claude Cowork: 'A Windows update released September 8 has left Claude Cowork on Windows unable to run local commands, because its workspace can no longer reach your computer's drive. For most users, chat and file reading and editing still work.'

Microsoft also warned that affected virtual machines start normally but folders shared from the Windows host using Plan9 do not appear or cannot be accessed in the guest environment.