Windows users given steps to fix PCs after IT outage

Businesses and users in the UK and around the world who use Microsoft have been experiencing major outages with laptops and systems not working this morning (Friday, July 19).

The outage has impacted banks, IT firms and airlines.

Sky News was one of the companies that were affected, being unable to broadcast its morning show at 6am, with viewers being left with a static message apologising for the 'disruption' to the service.

Good morning. Stay in bed today. Early reports suggest Crowdstrike Falcon - a computer threat checker used by lots (and lots and lots) of businesses pushed out an update that might have broken a lot of computers. Airlines, businesses etc affected https://t.co/amhNIqe1Ss

— Chris Stokel-Walker (@stokel) July 19, 2024

Train services - including Govia Thameslink Railway, GP surgeries and pharmacies have also been affected by the IT outage.

Windows users urged to follow these steps to fix PCs after IT outage

A number of cybersecurity experts are reporting that a faulty update from CrowdStrike could be the cause of the major IT outage.

The outage has wreaked havoc on computers this morning with many Windows users reporting crashes.

Here is the fix put out by #Crowdstrike to resolve the global IT outage, if you’re a customer. pic.twitter.com/QCKSCRQ1uV

— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) July 19, 2024

A post on X (formerly Twitter) said CrowdStrike was aware of reports of "crashes on Windows" with symptoms including hosts experiencing a "bugcheck\blue screen error".

CrowdStrike Engineering added it has "identified a content deployment related to this issue and reverted those changes".

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But people still experiencing problems were urged to use the following workaround to help fix their PC:

• Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment
• Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory
• Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys”, and delete it
• Boot the host normally

In its most recent update at the time of writing Microsoft 365 Status on X posted: "Multiple services are continuing to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress."