Microsoft confirms RDS failures after September 2026 updates

Microsoft has confirmed that the September 2026 security updates can cause Remote Desktop Services (RDS) failures on Windows Server systems.

The known issue affects Windows Server 2012 and later, along with Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices. Administrators reported that the updates could prevent users from connecting and, in some cases, require a hard reset to restore functionality.

Microsoft said RDS may become unstable, causing RDP connections to fail after several minutes, sign-in problems, or servers to hang at “Please wait for the Remote Desktop Configuration.” Microsoft Management Console (MMC), RDS Licensing Diagnoser, File Explorer, and the Windows Update page may also become unresponsive.

Existing Remote Desktop sessions may not disconnect or log off properly, while new connection attempts can fail during the connection process. Microsoft has provided a Group Policy under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates to mitigate the issue on enterprise-managed devices.

Microsoft is working on a permanent fix. Users who cannot access virtual machines through RDP may temporarily restore connectivity by stopping and restarting the affected virtual machine. Rolling back the updates has also restored functionality, but removing them removes the security fixes from this month’s Patch Tuesday release.

Microsoft fixed a similar issue in March 2025 after installing Windows updates released since January 2025.