A community forum post from Microsoft (opens in new tab) explains the company is aware of this situation, wherein “some devices running the Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803) may hang or freeze when using certain apps, such as ‘Hey Cortana’ or Chrome.” MORE: 41 Best Google Chrome Extensions Microsoft says it is working on a fix that it hopes to issue on this month’s Patch Tuesday (May 8). For now, there’s no way to simply cure a system of this bug, but Microsoft shared some workarounds:

  1. On laptops and desktops with connected keyboards, use the keyboard shortcut Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B.
  2. If that doesn’t work, try closing and opening the laptop lid.
  3. On a tablet, simultaneously click the volume-up and volume-down buttons, three times within 2 seconds. There’s also a last-resort measure, reported by a thread from the r/Windows10 subReddit: Hold down the power button until your system shuts down, and then click it again to wake it up. The British news site The Register reports claims of similar freezing hitting Slack and Firefox users. Credit: Andrew E. Freedman/Laptop Mag

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