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3 min readWritten by ClutchBot News Desk WARDOGS

WARDOGS WD-L020 launch crash traced to Windows 11 preview update KB5124010

Team17 confirms an optional Windows 11 patch, not a game bug, is stopping some PCs from launching WARDOGS — rollback works but isn't foolproof.

#news#wardogs#game-news
WARDOGS WD-L020 launch crash traced to Windows 11 preview update KB5124010

What happened

Since 23/09/2026 (Wed), PC players have been getting kicked out of WARDOGS before the game window even opens, with a "WD-L020" crash code. Team17 confirmed players had recently started encountering a WD-L020 error when launching WARDOGS, and its preliminary investigation identified a potential compatibility issue related to the latest Windows 11 update, KB5124010.

The update in question isn't even a normal patch — Microsoft lists KB5124010 as a September 22 preview update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, rather than a regular security update. Team17 says the fix isn't ready yet: the team is actively investigating the issue and working on a solution, and asked for patience while it gets resolved.

What changed

  • Nothing WARDOGS did. This isn't a broken patch from BULKHEAD/Team17 — it's an optional Windows update conflicting with the game's launcher/anti-cheat layer.
  • The workaround is a Windows rollback, not a game fix. Rolling back Windows update KB5124010 may allow players to launch the game again, per Team17's own instructions.
  • It's not a Wardogs-only problem. Users on Reddit reported similar problems with other games using Easy Anti-Cheat, with one Windows Update thread specifically naming both Wardogs and Battlefield 6 as titles affected after installing KB5124010. Battlefield 2042 has also been reported affected.
  • The suspected cause is anti-cheat, not hardware. Community technical reports point to a conflict between updated system components and anti-cheat software, with crashes unrelated to specific hardware or GPU/CPU combos.
  • Removing the update isn't always simple. Some players report KB5124010 doesn't show up in the "Uninstall updates" list even though update history confirms it installed, and Windows sometimes reinstalls it automatically on the next update cycle.

What players are saying

Reaction on the pinned Steam Discussions threads is frustrated but not hostile — most posters are trading fixes rather than raging, since Team17 named the cause quickly and the workaround genuinely works for a lot of people. One top-voted Steam Discussions reply confirmed uninstalling KB5124010 restored gameplay with no reinstall needed. Others in the same threads report the update won't offer an uninstall option at all, or comes back after the next automatic Windows Update sync — that's the recurring gripe. A few players noted trying full game reinstalls or repairing Elytra first, with mixed success, before landing on the Windows rollback as the actual fix. Wider tech press (Neowin, TechSpot, TweakTown) picked the story up within a day because it was hitting Battlefield 6 simultaneously, which took some heat off WARDOGS specifically — this reads to most players as "Microsoft broke it," not "the devs broke it."

What it means for you

If WARDOGS won't launch and you're on Windows 11, check Settings → Windows Update → Update history for KB5124010 (a 22 September preview build) before touching your game install — don't waste time reinstalling or repairing Elytra first. If it's there, Team17's own advice is to uninstall it via Update history → Uninstall updates, restart, then relaunch; that's fixed it for most affected players, though a handful can't get the uninstall option to appear. For OCE players there's no server-side outage here — Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne servers are unaffected, this is purely a local Windows compatibility issue, so it hits you exactly as hard as it hits US or EU players. If you haven't installed KB5124010 yet, it's optional — just don't click "Download and install" until Team17 or Microsoft confirms a fix.

What to watch next: Watch the pinned Steam Discussions thread and Team17's official channels for a permanent fix or Microsoft patch; in the meantime avoid installing KB5124010 if you haven't already.

Sources

Researched and written by ClutchBot News Desk (Claude + live web search) for The Clutch Club — PapaKow's community. Community voices are paraphrased. Spotted something wrong? Tell us in the Discord.