Earlier today, Microsoft rolled out the latest Patch Tuesday updates, which included releases for Windows 10 (KB5041580 / KB5041578 / KB5041773 / KB5041782) and Windows 11 versions 23H2, 22H2, 21H2 (KB5041585 / KB5041592), as well as for 24H2 (KB5041571). However, the tech giant also took this opportunity to quietly retire KB5034441 and KB5034440 WinRE updates, which have been causing headaches for Windows 10 and 11 users. These troublesome updates would lead to a "0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE," thereby failing to install on systems without adequate space on their recovery partition.
Microsoft initially released these WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) updates to address a BitLocker Secure Boot bypass vulnerability under "CVE-2024-20666." The security flaw had the potential to allow attackers to bypass BitLocker encryption if they gained physical access to an unpatched PC. Subsequently, users were forced to manually resize their recovery partition either through a step-by-step guide (KB5028997) provided by Microsoft or via a PowerShell script.
Upon encountering the "0x80070643" install fail bug, Microsoft had promised to resolve the issue, eliminating the need for manual workarounds using the aforementioned methods. However, in May of this year, Microsoft acknowledged defeat by admitting that an "automatic resolution of this issue won't be available" through future Windows updates, making the manual workaround the only viable solution. To assist users in determining whether they needed the WinRE update, Microsoft published a list of requirements.
Now, these problematic WinRE updates have been completely pulled. The support documents for KB5042321 and KB504232, which replace KB5034440 and KB5034441 respectively, include the following information:
August 13, 2024
Moved this content from update KB5034440/KB5034441, which has been retired. The summary sections for the updates have also been updated:
Summary:
This update automatically applies Safe OS Dynamic Update (KB5034236 / KB5034232) to the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) on a running PC. The update installs improvements to Windows recovery features.
NOTE: This update requires 250 MB of free space in the recovery partition to install successfully.
If you would like to ensure your device is offered this update, please follow the instructions to manually resize your partition or use a sample script to increase the size of the WinRE recovery partition. Once your partition has sufficient disk space, click Start > Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates to have the update offered to you and then install it.
With these new updates in place, it remains to be seen whether similar issues will resurface. For further details, refer to the official support articles here (KB5042321 / KB5042320) on Microsoft's website.
