Microsoft issues workaround for VPN problem in Windows 11 Dev Channel build 25284

Yesterday, Microsoft rolled out build 25284 in Windows 11 Dev Channel. It contains a new widget for Facebook Messenger along with numerous bug fixes for Taskbar, System Tray, Search, windowing, and more. It also contains numerous known issues. While Microsoft is still investigating some of them, it has issued a temporary workaround for one of them.

Basically, some Windows Insiders on this build may experience problems while trying to access certain websites or other resources through a VPN connection. Since VPN connections are primarily leveraged in corporate and enterprise environments and you shouldn't really be using Insider builds for work (unless you're an IT admin testing a new build for work purposes), the problem is not expected to affect most users.

Regardless, Microsoft has documented the issue and detailed a workaround. You can see the steps below with the images courtesy of Microsoft:

1. Click the Start button or the Windows key on your keyboard
2. Search for Edit group policy and launch it to open the Local Group Policy Editor

   

    

3. In the navigation pane on the left, expand to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > DNS Client

   

    

4. In the right pane, double-click Configure NetBIOS settings
5. In the pop-up window, select Enabled at the top and in the corresponding Configure NetBIOS options drop-down, select Allow NetBIOS name resolution

   

    

6. Click OK
7. Double-click Turn off multicast name resolution
8. In the corresponding window, select the Disabled radio button

   

    

9. Click OK
10. Close the Local Group Policy Editor and restart your PC

Ideally, you should only be applying this workaround if you find yourself impacted by the VPN issue mentioned earlier. It is also important to understand that Microsoft may resolve the problem in a more permanent fashion in future builds, and then you'll have to roll back all of these changes.

Microsoft issues workaround for VPN problem in Windows 11 Dev Channel build 25284