The recent IT outage has had a widespread impact on various sectors, including banks, IT firms, and airlines. Sky News, for example, was unable to broadcast its morning show at 6am, leaving viewers with a static message apologizing for the disruption to the service. Train services, GP surgeries, and pharmacies have also been affected by the outage, causing inconvenience to many individuals and businesses.
Windows Users Urged to Follow These Steps to Fix PCs After IT Outage
A number of cybersecurity experts are pointing to a faulty update from CrowdStrike as the potential cause of the major IT outage. Many Windows users have reported crashes on their computers as a result of the outage. CrowdStrike has acknowledged the issue and has identified a content deployment related to the problem, reverting those changes to address the issue.
For those still experiencing problems, a workaround has been suggested to help fix their PCs:
- 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
Microsoft 365 Status has reported that multiple services are seeing improvements in availability as mitigation actions progress, offering some hope for those affected by the outage.