Resolved Is A Status, Not A Fact

Microsoft marked a Windows connection problem Resolved on October 13. Eight days later it put the status back, saying the update had been marked resolved by mistake and the real fix is still coming. Everyone who checked the tracker during those eight days got a wrong answer from the vendor's own system of record.

On October 13 Microsoft marked a known Windows problem as Resolved. On October 21 it put the status back, saying the change had been made by mistake and the actual repair is still some weeks away. The problem itself is narrow. What it demonstrates is not. Our interest: if we manage your machines, this is ours to catch rather than yours, and if you have been affected and we have not told you, that is a fair question to put to us. We do not resell Windows and there is no money in this story for us either way. The technical part — you can skip this box Reported October 21, 2026 by Sergiu Gatlan at BleepingComputer, quoting Microsoft's own service alert WI1482218. That alert lives inside the Microsoft 365 admin centre, which is not publicly readable, so we are quoting a named reporter's reading of it rather than the page itself. The affected feature is Always On VPN, the Windows capability that automatically establishes an encrypted connection back to a company network. A virtual private network, or VPN, is that encrypted connection. Microsoft's description of the fault, as quoted: "When automatic protocol selection or protocol fallback was configured, affected VPN connections could remain stuck in a Connecting state or fail to connect after an initial connection attempt failed," and "In some cases, subsequent connection attempts could display the error, 'The specified port is already in use.'" A protocol here is simply the method used to make the connection; Windows can be told to pick one automatically from several. The report says the fault appears on machines running Windows 11 version 24H2 and later after the September 2026 security updates are installed, when the first connection attempt fails. On the reversal, Microsoft's wording: "This disclosure was mistakenly updated to Resolved status on October 13, 2026. We have returned its status to Mitigated," and "A resolution for this issue is planned to be included in an update to be released in the coming weeks. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion." No permanent fix has shipped. Microsoft's interim guidance, quoted: "IT administrators can mitigate this issue by changing the Always On VPN profile from automatic protocol selection to a single protocol, either SSTP only or IKEv2 only, depending on their environment and configuration," those being the names of two connection methods. No date is given for the real fix. What that actually means Some staff logging in from outside get stuck. The connection sits on "Connecting" and never completes, or fails with an error about a port already being in use. It started with September's Windows updates and affects the newer Windows 11 versions. Microsoft said it was fixed. It wasn't. The status sat at Resolved for eight days before being corrected, and Microsoft says plainly that the change was a mistake. There is a workaround now and a real fix later. The workaround is to stop letting Windows choose the connection method automatically and pick one. That is a job for whoever administers your machines, not for the person having the problem. Why a thirty-person firm should care about somebody else's tracker Because the practical version of "is it fixed" is almost never something you check yourself. You ask your IT provider, who checks a vendor's page, which said Resolved. A status field is a claim, not a measurement. Somebody typed it. Here the person typing it was Microsoft, about Microsoft's own software, in Microsoft's own system of record, and it was wrong for eight days. That is not a scandal and Microsoft corrected it plainly, which is more than many vendors manage. But it is a useful reminder that "fixed" is a word with at least three meanings: a fix exists, a fix has shipped, and a fix is installed on your machines. Those are three different facts and only the last one helps you. What to do Ask whether your remote access uses this feature. Most small firms do not. Plenty that do have never heard the name. If people have had connections hang since September, say so. That is this, not them, and the people affected have probably assumed it was their home wifi. Ask for the build number, not a yes. "Are we patched" gets you an opinion. "What version are we on" gets you something checkable. And if we manage your machines, ask us which of your systems this touches. If the answer is none, that is a thirty-second answer and worth having.