The Microsoft patch to correct Windows Search must now also apply an audio fix

The Microsoft patch to fix the Windows Search fix will need to be "patched" again, at least before it goes into production. Microsoft has canceled the changes to its Windows 10 problematic patch KB4515384 in order to undo the changes made to allow multichannel audio.

Users began to complain that multichannel audio in PC games sounded worse than usual last week. Microsoft has since acknowledged the problem on its Windows 10 page of known issues. Microsoft said users have reported a "quieter or worse than expected" sound.

"At the request of some of our audio partners, we have implemented a compatibility change allowing some games to query the support and render multi-channel audio," Microsoft said. "Due to customer feedback, we are canceling this change because some games and devices do not render multi-channel audio as expected," Microsoft said in a note released Friday afternoon. "This can result in games that sound different from those that customers are used to and missing channels."

Not really a solution

There is a workaround, although it does not really solve the problem. To deal with the problem of missing audio, Microsoft asks users to turn off their multichannel audio, through a search in the Windows Control Panel to search for third-party audio device control panels. Then users must turn off multichannel audio or virtual surround sound, if these options are available, Microsoft said.

The problem only affects users of the Windows 10 May 2019 (version 1903) update. A fix is ​​expected by the end of September, announced Microsoft.

Microsoft has also reported a problem with the Windows Input Method Editor (IME), which can translate keystrokes from an American-style keyboard to foreign languages. In this case, the relevant IMEs include CHS (Simplified Chinese) and CHT (Traditional Chinese) with Changjie / Quick keyboards. In this case, the use of keyboards can lead to intensive use of the processor, or they may simply no longer respond. The problem affects many versions of the Windows client, including the May 2019 update and its predecessor, the October 2018 update.

Last week, Microsoft announced that patch KB4515384, released to deal with a problem with processor spikes associated with Windows Search in a previous patch (KB4512941), had actually broken Windows Search. Microsoft is formally pursuing its investigation of these issues and has not issued any guidance on when an update will be available, the company said in an update released Friday night.