Massive Microsoft Outage Worldwide due to Windows 10 update ‘CrowdStrike’; Air traffic in chaos, social media abuzz with disruptions all around

From daily office management services to flights to supermarkets to banking operations, the global Microsoft outage is disrupting multiple sectors and threatens to lead to massive issues if it is not resolved soon.

Both the US and India reported flights being grounded and airlines facing massive disruption in their services. Almost all Indian air carriers — Vistara, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Akasa Air — are facing technical issues that are affecting booking, check-in and flight updates.

Now, these airlines are checking in passengers manually.

Global Outage Hits

Windows 10 users worldwide are experiencing massive outages following a new CrowdStrike update that causes PCs to get stuck on the recovery screen. The issue has severely impacted operations in airports, companies, banks, and government offices globally.

Social media is flooded with images of screens frozen on the recovery page, displaying the message, “It looks like Windows didn’t load correctly. If you’d like to restart and try again, choose Restart my PC below.”

CrowdStrike has acknowledged the problem in a recent support page update, attributing the crashes to issues with the Falcon sensor. “CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon Sensor. Symptoms include hosts experiencing a bugcheck/blue screen error related to the Falcon Sensor. Our Engineering teams are actively working to resolve this issue and there is no need to open a support ticket,” the company stated.

Reports from around the globe indicate that the blue screen issue is widespread and not confined to any specific region. Airports in Mumbai and Delhi have reported significant disruptions due to the global outage.

Social Media Outburst

One user on X (formerly Twitter) highlighted the widespread nature of the issue, posting, “Something super weird happening right now: just been called by several totally different media outlets in the last few minutes, all with Windows machines suddenly BSoD’ing (Blue Screen of Death). Anyone else seen this?”

Another user from shared on Reddit, “Malaysia here, 70% of our laptops are down and stuck in boot. HQ from Japan ordered a company-wide shutdown. Someone’s getting fireblasted for this!”

In the midst of the chaos, some users are finding temporary fixes. A Reddit user suggested, “Update: Can confirm the below stops the BSOD Loop. Go into CMD from recovery options, change to C:WindowsSystem32Drivers, rename Crowdstrike to Crowdstrike_Fucked, and start Windows. It’s not great but at least that means we can get some Windows back.”

The incident highlights the significant impact of software updateson global IT infrastructureand the urgency for swift resolutions in such scenarios.