Want to fix your Microsoft outage? Follow these steps as advised by CERT-In

India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a "critical" advisory listing measures to rectify the outage of Microsoft Windows caused by the CrowdStrike agent Falcon Sensor update.

In a statement, CERT-In said that CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor was behind Windows hosts crashing and experiencing the 'Blue Screen of Death' (BSOD) due to a recent update. 

To address this issue, CrowdStrike has reverted the changes. However, if hosts continue to crash and cannot stay online to receive the update, users can try the following workaround:

1. Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.

2. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory.

3. Locate the file starting with "C-00000291" and ending with ".sys" and delete it.

4. Boot the host normally.

Additionally, users are advised to check for the latest updates on the CrowdStrike portal. This workaround will help resolve the issue until the updated patch is applied.

Earlier today, the Microsoft outage triggered global disruptions, halting flights, banking services, and media broadcasts. The widespread breakdown affected numerous companies and services worldwide, underscoring the reliance on software from a few key providers. 

While CrowdStrike ruled out a cyberattack or security incident, the issue impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services, leading to ongoing disruptions. 

DownDectector tracked outages at Visa, ADT security, Amazon, airlines, among others. Australian news outlets reported that airlines, telecom providers, banks, and media broadcasters lost access to computer systems, with similar issues reported in the UK, Europe, India, and New Zealand.