Windows update breaks sign‑ins
Microsoft’s March Windows 11 cumulative update is causing sign-in failures for Microsoft Teams and OneDrive, disrupting workflows for affected users while Microsoft works on a fix. The issue is widespread enough that schools relying on Teams/OneDrive should expect authentication interruptions until resolved. (cybersecuritynews.com)
The problem traces to March 10, 2026’s cumulative update KB5079473 (OS builds 26200.8037 and 26100.8037), which Microsoft published as part of that month’s Patch Tuesday release. (support.microsoft.com) (support.microsoft.com) Microsoft lists the fault under Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 and identifies Microsoft account sign‑ins failing in consumer‑facing apps including Microsoft Teams Free, OneDrive, Edge, Excel, Word and Microsoft 365 Copilot. (vpncentral.com) (vpncentral.com) Affected machines commonly show the message “You’ll need the Internet for this. It doesn’t look like you’re connected to the Internet,” and some users reporting the issue also saw error code 0x800704cf while the network remained functional. (pcworld.com) (pcworld.com) Microsoft marked the sign‑in failures as a confirmed known issue on the Windows 11 release‑health dashboard on March 20, 2026, and the company says it is working on a resolution. (bleepingcomputer.com) (bleepingcomputer.com) Short‑term mitigations noted in official channels and user threads include restarting the device while connected to the internet as a temporary restore step, and several Microsoft Q&A posts document users uninstalling KB5079473 to regain sign‑in then later reinstalling the update without recurrence. (pcworld.com) (pcworld.com) The update was part of Microsoft’s March Patch Tuesday roll‑out targeting Home and Pro editions (consumer devices are the primary impact), and analysts reported Microsoft expected to ship a fix within days after the March 20 confirmation. (support.microsoft.com) (support.microsoft.com)
