Microsoft says it mistakenly flagged a bug causing Always On VPN connection issues as fixed in the October 2026 Windows 11 cumulative updates.
Always On VPN replaced the legacy DirectAccess technology and supports domain-joined, non-domain-joined, and Microsoft Entra ID–joined devices running Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server.
It runs in the background and establishes secure tunnels back to the user's corporate network whenever their device connects to the internet.
Microsoft first acknowledged the issue in a service alert sent to IT administrators in late September, saying it was triggered on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and later after installing the September 2026 security updates when the initial Always On VPN connection failed (e.g., when using automatic protocol selection with IKEv2 and SSTP).
"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," it said. "In some cases, subsequent connection attempts could display the error, 'The specified port is already in use.'"
Mistakenly marked as resolved
After releasing the October 2026 Patch Tuesday Windows 11 cumulative updates, Microsoft marked the bug as resolved, but in a Tuesday update it said the issues weren't actually addressed and that a fix would ship later.
"This disclosure was mistakenly updated to Resolved status on October 13, 2026. We have returned its status to Mitigated," it said in a service alert sent to IT admins. "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."
While Microsoft continues working on a permanent solution, it shared a temporary fix that requires affected customers to choose one of two VPN tunneling protocols to work around the issue.
"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," it said. "Organizations should select the protocol based on their environment, security, and deployment requirements."
The September cumulative updates have been linked to multiple other problems affecting both home and enterprise Windows users. Days after last month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released emergency out-of-band updates to fix Hyper-V issues, Remote Desktop Services failures, and USB audio problems.
It also shared a temporary workaround for an issue that blocked some Windows 11 users from logging in with valid domain credentials and announced that it is working to address another bug that broke the Windows built-in File History backup feature.
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