Home windows 11 and 10 customers have been hit by a bug that impacts these with Intel GPUs and causes video games (or any software program utilizing DirectX or Direct3D) to run into errors and crashes.
Neowin (opens in new tab) reviews that Microsoft has now confirmed (opens in new tab) that the cumulative updates for November 2022 (KB5019980/KB5019961 for Home windows 11, and KB5019959 for Home windows 10) triggered this difficulty. To be clear, this impacts PCs working on built-in graphics from an Intel CPU – not anybody utilizing one in every of Intel’s devoted Arc graphics playing cards.
So, for those who’ve been encountering a DLL error (apphelp.dll to be exact) that has been messing along with your PC, now you understand the rationale – however the vital factor to notice right here is that the bug is barely affecting older Intel graphics driver variations.
Microsoft tells us that the issue pertains to Intel driver variations 26.20.100.7463 as much as 30.0.101.1190, and that: “This difficulty would possibly occur intermittently and impacts apps which use DirectX or Direct3D to render half or all of their content material.”
The software program large guarantees us that it’s engaged on an answer proper now, and we should always get an replace on when it’ll be inbound quickly.
Evaluation: Newer drivers, no issues
A minimum of the bug is barely ‘intermittent’ in keeping with Microsoft, which signifies that it might not essentially happen that a lot even if you’re working one of many talked about Intel graphics driver variations. In fact, these are older drivers, so you actually ought to have up to date to a more moderen incarnation by now anyway.
It’s vital to maintain drivers at the least comparatively up-to-date, as a result of in any other case you might miss out on vital safety fixes. As time rolls on, vulnerabilities in software program and drivers are inevitably discovered – and nefarious sorts could attempt to exploit them. So tech firms repair drivers and apps as they go alongside, which is why it’s at all times a good suggestion to run the very newest model.
GPU drivers generally is a little little bit of a unique story in some respects, as for instance, efficiency ranges may probably drop in your favourite PC video games with any given new driver launch (this shouldn’t occur, nevertheless it does sometimes, notably with older graphics playing cards). So whereas avid gamers don’t at all times preserve their driver on the newest model, so long as they’re working one thing fairly current, they need to be coated simply high-quality.
Within the case of this bug, we’re speaking about Intel driver variations which can be at the least a yr outdated (or a lot additional again), and at that time, it’s positively time that folk ought to be seeking to transfer on to a more moderen driver. This simply goes to indicate that outdated drivers aren’t only a safety danger, however they’re extra more likely to run into bugs, too.
