2017-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 (KB4040724) breaks IE

2017-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1703 for x64-based Systems (KB4040724) breaks Internet Explorer immediately after the update.

After first discovering this I verified by testing on 2 different Macrium backups, the oldest dating back to July 22.

I then tried uninstalling and reinstalling IE, with no effect.

Can someone please conform this, and have you found a fix?

I hope that's all the problems this update brought

kitpzyxmsir said:

2017-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1703 for x64-based Systems (KB4040724) breaks Internet Explorer immediately after the update.

Not for me it hasn't (I'm posting this with IE). This update includes an update to IE that was first seen in the Sept. 12th Cumulative Update KB4038788 Windows 10 v1703 Build 15063.608

Key changes include...
Updates to Internet Explorer 11’s navigation bar with search box....

Most of us survived that with only a minor cosmetic change, it put IE back to having tabs and the address box on separate bars, easily put back to a single bar. A few had problems with IE not opening though. See this (Solved) thread for descriptions and some solutions.
Internet Explorer 11 won't launch after Sept 13, 2017 Windows update

Bree said:

Not for me it hasn't (I'm posting this with IE). This update includes an update to IE that was first seen in the Sept. 12th Cumulative Update KB4038788 Windows 10 v1703 Build 15063.608

Most of us survived that with only a minor cosmetic change, it put IE back to having tabs and the address box on separate bars, easily put back to a single bar. A few had problems with IE not opening though. See this (Solved) thread for descriptions and some solutions.
Internet Explorer 11 won't launch after Sept 13, 2017 Windows update

Thanks Bree. Glad you ran across that because a google search came up with nothing. According to that thread, "IE only works if the tab settings are NOT set to be on a seperate row". I'm pretty sure that's how I had it.

I'll restore that Macrium backup and change the setting before the Update is installed, see what happens and report back.

Bree said:

Not for me it hasn't (I'm posting this with IE). This update includes an update to IE that was first seen in the Sept. 12th Cumulative Update KB4038788 Windows 10 v1703 Build 15063.608

Here is what I came up with

1) You are right, I was wrong. Going on your info, further testing for me showed "Cumulative Update KB4038788" is the cause.

2) Beyond that, reading the explanations, I was a still little confused about what the outcome would be. I was under the impression that once you reversed the "put tabs and the address box on separate bars" setting, and then applied the windows updates, you would be able to go back and safely separate the address box and tab bars.

For me, the bottom line is that, even after the updates, I cannot separate the address bar and tab bars without having a disabled IE as the outcome.

3) That said, as long as you can do without separating the 2 bars, it is a simple fix that I will re-post.

If you are comfortable with going into the registry, use the registry tweak from How to Hide or Show Search Box in Internet Explorer 11

to alter

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MINIE

by changing the value

ShowTabsBelowAddressBar

from "1" to "0", either manually, or far easier by employing the .reg files available there to do the job.

No need to restore the OS to a time previous to the windows update, or even to reboot the system after the reg tweak. The fix is immediate. It's all about reversing the IE setting, which would be exactly same thing as doing it within the launched IE browser, excepting that you cant open the browser to do it.

kitpzyxmsir said:

For me, the bottom line is that, even after the updates, I cannot separate the address bar and tab bars without having a disabled IE as the outcome...

I'm afraid I can't be much more help as I can't reproduce the problem. I can change mine at will, from within IE or in settings. There must be some other factor at work here. Font sizes have been suggested by some affected users.

Bree said:

I'm afraid I can't be much more help as I can't reproduce the problem. I can change mine at will, from within IE or in settings. There must be some other factor at work here. Font sizes have been suggested by some affected users.

Apparently altering icon font size has an effect for some, but it still does not solve the issue of IE not opening if you have the address/tab bar separated. Besides, I value my custom Winaero generated font settings far more that the IE setting.

C'mon Bree, give up that magic spell you put on IE

kitpzyxmsir said:

C'mon Bree, give up that magic spell you put on IE

I seem to be blessed with apparently trouble-free upgrades. My system started as OEM Win7, took the free upgrade in August 2015 and all subsequent upgrades in its stride. I've never felt the need for a clean install, my system has been a progressive evolution from Win7 to Creators Update.

There's no magic to it - I put it down to me adopting the new ways of Windows 10 rather than trying to tweak it into something it wasn't designed for. I would never use Winaero or Classic Shell, for example. I always worry that some obscure registry setting may come back to bite me further down the line.

Bree said:

I seem to be blessed with apparently trouble-free upgrades. My system started as OEM Win7, took the free upgrade in August 2015 and all subsequent upgrades in its stride. I've never felt the need for a clean install, my system has been a progressive evolution from Win7 to Creators Update.

There's no magic to it - I put it down to me adopting the new ways of Windows 10 rather than trying to tweak it into something it wasn't designed for. I would never use Winaero or Classic Shell, for example. I always worry that some obscure registry setting may come back to bite me further down the line.

Well, I can't argue with that kinda success, but are you sure your real name isn't Harry Potter?

We are having issues with sites not displaying properly in IE11 after the recent updates. A site named qualifacts.org is not displaying the flash content in the middle most of the time and it seems to be erroring out. This is after we had 4 updates installed recently. The updates that were installed recently when we start noticing the problems is kb4038783, Security Update for Flash Player, kb4035632 and kb3150513.

Is anyone else having issues as well? Also, we are opening IE11 and a bunch of tabs are opening with our home page. I checked internet options and they don't have multiple home pages listed.