I seem to have resolved the problem. It seems that the new update doesn’t work with realtek audio drivers, both older and most recent.
So after checking out this link: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-fix-sound-problems-in-windows-10/, the section “using a generic high definition audio driver” fixed the sound on my laptop. I went ahead and reinstalled the windows update and switched to the generic driver and it is also working normally on my desktop.
When I have the time and motivation I will look into switching to linux.