Database connections using Microsoft's SQL ODBC server driver can now fail after a recent Patch Tuesday update.
According to an update from the Windows Health Dashboard - opens in a new tab, users who installed the database tool update, which was part of an update called KB5019980, are getting an error message in the application or through your SQL server.
This message might look like this: "EMS system has encountered a problem" accompanied by "Message: Protocol error in TDS stream" or "Message: Unknown token received from SQL Server."
What now?
Microsoft promises that it is working to provide a fix for broken updates and will provide an update in a future release.
The update - opens in a new tab - was originally intended to fix a problem affecting File Explorer, which meant the tool couldn't locate folders, as well as security issues within the Windows operating system.
If you're not sure if you're using one of the affected apps, Microsoft recommends that you open all apps that use a database, and then open a command prompt.
Users should then select Start, then type Command Prompt and select it, then type the following command: task list /m sqlsrv32.dll.
This isn't the first time in 2022 that we've seen a Patch Tuesday update cause problems.
Updates KB5002112 and KB5002121 would have affected access to MS Access runtime applications.
Another Patch Tuesday update, called KB5018410, is said to have caused problems for OneDrive and OneDrive for Business users, reportedly causing OneDrive to "quit unexpectedly" for some Windows 10 users.
But soon we could see the end of the patch on Tuesday as you well know.
In July 2022, Microsoft released a tool that Windows Update for Business will use to automatically deploy important updates.
Dubbed Microsoft Autopatch, the tool for Windows 10 and 11, and Microsoft Edge and Microsoft 365 is now available to users with Windows Enterprise E3 and E5 licenses.