Microsoft blocks Windows downloads in Russia
Was it a deliberate move or just a mistake?
Without warning, Microsoft has apparently blocked the ability for Russians users to download the ISO files and installation tools for Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Russia's TASS news agency first reported the news this weekend.
According to TASS, users who attempted to download either operating system were met with Error 404 warnings, indicating the file or directory could not be found.
Microsoft has not commented on whether it blocked Windows downloads in the country on purpose yet.
Users within Russia are reportedly unable to download copies of Windows 10 and Windows 11 from official Microsoft servers, but downloading over a VPN with an IP address outside Russia enables the download to proceed.
Surprisingly, the download of the Media Creation tool works as intended. However, it, too, ultimately fails, with the error 0x80072F8F-0x20000.
"For some unknown reason, this tool failed to run on your computer," says the warning accompanying the error.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Microsoft has been gradually removing services from Russia, beginning with the suspension of all sales in March.
Microsoft-owned GitHub started banning developers' accounts connected to sanctioned organisations in April, even if the individuals no longer worked there.
Microsoft said earlier this month that it will be cutting down its operations in Russia, affecting around 400 people.
The company has pledged millions of dollars in humanitarian relief to Ukraine, as well as increasing all employee contributions.
"Like the rest of the world, we are horrified, angered and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine and condemn this unjustified, unprovoked, and unlawful invasion by Russia," Brad Smith, president and vice chair at Microsoft, said at the time.
Many prominent tech firms, including Apple, AMD, Intel, SAP, Cisco and others, have openly announced their withdrawal from Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Meta, Twitter and Google announced in March that they were revoking ads for Russian state media websites.
Intel said in April that it was halting all business operations in Russia, effective immediately. The move followed Intel's decision in March to halt all shipments to clients in Russia and Belarus.
AMD and Nvidia, two of Intel's key rivals, ceased Russian sales in March.
On March 7th, IBM suspended business operations in Russia. The company has since made the decision to carry out an orderly wind-down of IBM's business in Russia.
Analysts believe Russian firms will soon start running out of equipment and will have to close operations if new CPUs, as well as servers from the big vendors, are not available in coming months.