Microsoft released updates for Windows over the weekend to resolve a site access issue. Specifically, users of Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge were unable to access some GOV.UK sites .
With the release of the May 2019 Patch Tuesday update, Microsoft added the GOV.UK top level domain to the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) list, which resulted in browsers like Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge being unable to connect to them, as they only connect to GOV.UK websites using HTTPS.
Some GOV.UK websites that do not support HTTPS prevent Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer from connecting to them.
In an effort to resolve this issue, Microsoft released updates over the weekend for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and various versions of Windows 10 to enable access to these websites.
The update for Windows 7 and 8.1 is KB4505050 and is named “Cumulative update for Internet Explorer: May 18, 2019”, while the corresponding version for Windows 10 Version 1809 is KB4505056, named “2019-05 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1809”.
Once these updates are installed, you will need to restart your computer for the fixes to take effect.
