Microsoft Windows 10 Preview Build 14942: skip it if you like your antivirus suite on your Windows PC
Over the last weekend, Microsoft has released Windows 10 Preview Build 14942 to fast ring insiders, and with it, has introduced a number of improvements and features that break the cycle of under-the-hood work which has characterized several of the latest builds since this Summer. Some of the features introduced with this build include an address bar for the Windows Registry Editor, touchpad improvements, and memory performance improvements..
One thing that is oddly common about builds featuring updates to the interface or universal apps, is that most often they seem to affect systems in a way that is near-debilitating, and once again, this seems to be the case with Build 14942, which has caused a number of fast ring insiders PCs to suffer from random symptoms.
In the list of antivirus software apparently clashing with this particular build of Windows 10 Preview, Avast, Norton and BitDefender are some of the most notable examples, although reports of these occurrences are still spotty at best. Incidentally, two of our systems set up receive preview builds, were affected at the same time and in the same way, while being protected by BitDefender Total Security 2016.
On one Intel based laptop, the build installed smoothly with no apparent issues, while on an AMD FX workstation the new build refused to install, by getting stuck at 8% while updating on reboot. The only viable workaround we found was to remove BitDefender completely, which allowed for a smooth upgrade to the newest build.
Once the upgrade was complete, we decided to reinstall BitDefender, and that’s when the real trouble started. Internet connectivity became erratic and web browsing stopped working altogether on Microsoft Edge, while Google Chrome could not even start. Other web browsers however, including Firefox, Opera and Safari functioned normally, although loading websites appeared to have slowed down to a crawl.
Other symptoms appeared to affect the interface as well, with the Start menu no longer working, and the Action panel being unresponsive.
As soon as we removed BitDefender, and enabled Windows Defender, all issues disappeared.
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