Disabling Windows 10 experiments blocks Known Issue Rollback fixes

As Microsoft begins to utilize its Known Issue Rollback feature to release Windows 10 fixes quickly, users are discovering that modifying privacy settings may prevent these fixes from being installed.

Microsoft routinely conducts experiments with Windows 10 users to determine if a feature is commonly used, if a change in a feature makes it more useful, or to introduce features to a small test population.

However, some users find these experiments a breach of privacy and wish to disable them by creating the ‘AllowExperimentation‘ value and setting it to ‘0‘ under the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\System

After Microsoft recently used the Windows 10 Known Issue Rollback (KIR) feature to fix performance problems while playing games, users learned that disabling experiments prevents the KIR fixes from being installed.

Microsoft’s Known Issue Rollback feature uses Windows 10 telemetry and diagnostics to determine if many people are affected by a particular issue after a new update is released.

If a large audience is detected to be suffering from a specific issue, Microsoft analyzes their recent change code for what may be causing the problem.

After the problematic code is found, Microsoft releases a Known Issue Rollback (KIR) update that disables the new code on affected devices to resolve the issue.

However, for those who disable Windows 10 experiments using the Registry Editor, it will prevent KIR fixes from being installed.

A recommended setting in ShutUp10

A popular freeware utility called O&O ShutUp10 allows Windows 10 users to manage various operating system and software settings that increase privacy on their computers.

After installing ShutUp10, Windows users are presented with a long list of recommended privacy settings that can be enabled.

To make it easier to get started with the program, users can click on the Actions > Apply only recommended settings option to enable all of the recommended settings in the program.

One of the recommended settings is ‘Disable conducting experiments with this machine by Microsoft,‘ which prevents Microsoft from running experiments on your device.

As ShutUp10 is a fairly popular program, this setting causes many people to no longer receive KIR fixes until they enable experiments again.

Therefore, ShutUp10 users should disable this setting when Microsoft announces a new KIR has been released so that they can receive the update. Once the KIR is installed, they can enable the setting again.

In the recent KIR released for the gaming issues, Windows 10 users can confirm if the fix is installed by checking if the following Registry key exists:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FeatureManagement\Overrides\4\1837593227

If it does not exist, you should enable experiments again and perform a ‘Check for updates’ in Windows Update, followed by a reboot, to install the KIR update.

Windows 10 users can keep an eye on the Windows 10 Health Center to determine when Microsoft releases new updates using the Known Issue Rollback feature.

Thx to Big_Beetle_Bert for the tip!

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/disabling-windows-10-experiments-blocks-known-issue-rollback-fixes/