Windows Update KB4571756 Triggers Error 3221227010 for Ansys Electronics Products

On September 7, 2020 Microsoft released a Windows update KB4571756, which may cause the Ansys electronic products to fail with the Error:

3221227010 at ‘reg_ansysedt.exe’ and ‘reg_siwave.exe’ registration.

This is the error message, users would see if they right-mouse-click and run the following file as administrator:

C:\Program Files\AnsysEM\AnsysEM20.2\Win64\config\ConfigureThisMachine.exe

To resolve this issue, here are the steps we recommend users take:

1. Revert the updates.
   1. If the issue is not resolved or something your IT won’t let you do, continue to the next steps.
      
2. Set an environment variable that turns off the driver that is causing the error. 
   1. Use windows search and type “system environment” and click on “Edit the system environment variables”
   2. This opens the “System Properties” tool
   3. Go to the “Advanced” tab
   4. Click on “Environment Variables…” at the bottom
   5. In the System Variables window click on “New…”
   6. Create the following variable:
      
      Variable Name: ANSYS_EM_DONOT_PRELOAD_3DDRIVER_DLL
      Variable Value: 1
      
   7. Click OK 3 times to exit out of the tool and save your changes. 
      
3. If the issue is still not resolved, there is one more step:
   1. Go to C:\Program Files\AnsysEM\AnsysEM20.2\Win64\config\
   2. Right-Mouse-Click on “ConfigureThisMachine.exe” and run as Admin. 

If these steps helped to resolve the issue, you will see the following info message when ‘ConfigureThisMachine.exe’ is run:

If this does not work, please contact your Ansys support provider.