Windows update KB5034441

[pleiadians]

Happy new year. Microsoft's first update Tuesday brought issues with update KB5034441. It required the windows Recovery partition to be increased in size by at least 250mb to install. It won't affect many computers as most are vanella and will be ok but custom installs like mine had a problem. Thank you microsoft for the new years gift, glad I'm not in active support any more. Just a heads up for anyone else here that has issues.

 

[testament]

Windows updates brings very often issues to several users when install them.
I was able to install updates for about a year without problem. After that something breaks the updates and it wasn't by my side because i had never make any changes from the begin. I can't install updates even a standalone installer.

I don't know why microsoft need the recovery partition to install updates but everytime i delete this with

MiniTool Partition Wizard​

 

[Wichestery2k]

I had no issues with it... have you try removing it??

 

[pleiadians]

KB5034441 installs into the Windows Recovery partition and because I cloned the drive to to a new larger drive, somewhow the recovery drive resized to a smaller size as part of the clone operation (my fault I know I should have paid closer attention) there was no room in the recovery partition to install this updated. I used Easeus partition to increase the size of the recovery partition and that sorted the problem. Updates can be a pain for sure especially if you run custom stuff.
Testament, language and feature packs /date and time are the most common issues I find for strange update issues. After that, dot net stuff. Try changing your language to american english then reboot and try the updates again, this has worked for me a few times. This year, I will only run windows live on one pc any more, the rest can be virtual.

 

[testament]

I had tried these for a couple of time with no luck. Unfortunately for me didn't works.
And i install Windows updates with the hard way. I use MSMG Toolkit to integrate the newer updates and i apply them with an in-place upgrade. It takes time... especially when i have to do all the changes i had made.

 

[Cyler]

Thank you @pleiadians for bringing this up. I am sure many people will face issues and they better be warned as this affects windows 10 21H2 and up.

Just for information accuracy and since @testament brought it up, there is an exploit that can help bypass BitLocker protection by using WinRE, and in order to protect people Microsoft "rewrote" parts of WinRE which sadly now uses more space and that is why there is a need for larger partition (there are some other reasons too but not as important). If MS didn't do that a lot of laptops and PCs mainly business ones, that use BitLocker would be vulnerable to this and I think safety comes first.

Note here that the update can do this on auto... assuming one hasn't disabled or removed WinRE, if they did, they need to re-enable it, or... good luck with installing Windows again.
If someone wants to re-enable (if possible) and resize WinRE Ms has some instructions on how to manually resize, or create a recovery partition in case they don't have a partition software (note it depends on how WinRE was removed/disabled and may not work for all windows versions).
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5028997-instructions-to-manually-resize-your-partition-to-install-the-winre-update-400faa27-9343-461c-ada9-24c8229763bf
Not for the faint of heart.

 

[pleiadians]

It is hard on the up and coming support people, less control over everything. One day you'll walk into the server room, thinking "I'm going to have to reboot" only to hear Copilot say "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

 

[Anarch]

It's laughable what Microsoft has been trying to push intrusively on its users for years.

First, the "mega great windows 8" with functionality that no one wanted. Then the reheated chop "Windows 10" which fixes the problems of the 8, so hardly anyone uses the 8 anymore.
Not to mention that 10 was supposed to be supported for life and was supposed to be the ultimate system. - Soon it runs out of support and we have windows 11, which has been given so many installation problems that some people wondered if they should buy a new computer because their board doesn't support microsoft requirements. Which is complete nonsense, because windows 11 I installed and use on one of my computers without any problems, and my motherboard was also not "supported" Of course patches were required. Crows are crowing about the upcoming windows 12, supported by AI, and let me tell you frankly that I see it blackly. If indeed we will not be able to manually go to folders, copy and paste on our own, because we will have to tell the AI to do it, you understand. No usefulness, just another level of surveillance of the user to know everything about us.
The corporation is going in the wrong direction for users. I hope I'll live to see a stable Linux that will open exe files directly, because that's actually the biggest problem of Linux.

 

[pleiadians]

What Broadcom has done to Vmware is another example of how big tech just doesn't care about the end user, it's like it or lump it. Learning to use linux can be a steep learning curve, especially to replace your most used software but it is getting to the stage where people need to start learning if they care at all about control over data and systems. It's not fair to blame the linux distro's, they can only do so much, it's demand led. They are free after all.

 

[monty cristo]

What Broadcom has done to Vmware is another example of how big tech just doesn't care about the end user, it's like it or lump it. Learning to use linux can be a steep learning curve, especially to replace your most used software but it is getting to the stage where people need to start learning if they care at all about control over data and systems. It's not fair to blame the linux distro's, they can only do so much, it's demand led. They are free after all.

All too true. I do find it interesting that the successful linux appliances with the most users all seem to be closed source - steam deck, chromebook OS, fire stick. Maybe if some distros were more plug and play they would attract more windoze users. I have been struggling with getting NFS bind mounts working on proxmox - keep getting the feeling "it shouldnt be this hard" lol. All part of the learning curve like you said.

Makes me wonder what abomination M$ will release as win12?

 

[pleiadians]

All too true. I do find it interesting that the successful linux appliances with the most users all seem to be closed source - steam deck, chromebook OS, fire stick. Maybe if some distros were more plug and play they would attract more windoze users. I have been struggling with getting NFS bind mounts working on proxmox - keep getting the feeling "it shouldnt be this hard" lol. All part of the learning curve like you said.

Makes me wonder what abomination M$ will release as win12?

Proxmox not as easy as youtube /forums would have you believe, which is often the case in the linux world. I still uses vmware as much as I disklie the company, it's product works well. I don't think people realise how well virtualization works now, especially if you have good hardware that supports full passthrough. For example, my virtual windows 10 boots faster and runs faster on kvm than real. Like it or not, it's time to diversify.

 

[Hotrod11]

I had the same issue. I simply used AOMEI partition assistant to expand the recovery partition on my system drive. I doubled its size from 500MB to 1 GB and Windows update was then able to install the update.

 

[pleiadians]

Yes that works for an able user. Not fair on an average user. A lot can go wrong as oem os can have extra partitions and different partition structures. The idea that "all you need to do is......" is ok for confident and competent users and we can take if for granted, but it's very arrogant and "take it or leave it" from microsoft. It's clear that microsoft don't care about the end user as their profit now comes from the cloud and industry. The home user is of no concern anymore. What's saddest of all is the closing down of the hobbiest, the kind of person who likes to "get under the hood" and likes to take control and shape the system to their needs and likes. They have a "developer" channel and even that is locking down. I notice myself being more frustrated than ever in dealing with the simple tasks as you have to turn off / uninistall so much junk just to get an idea of what is really going on on a system. Putting adds and games on a system that may be used in business is just stupid. The old windows phone junk that still stinks up windows 10 is typical of the layers of fat that bloat windows. I put thee macs into a businness sixteen years ago and I pass that business most days since and they haven't had a problem in all that time, hardware and software are all still sufficent for their needs. The only job I had to do was to update the certificates to keep the browser going. I doubt if any pc built today will be in daily use in sixteen years. Sorry if it's a bit of a rant, I do love working with all electronics.

 

[Xploit Machine]

KB5034441 installs into the Windows Recovery partition and because I cloned the drive to to a new larger drive, somewhow the recovery drive resized to a smaller size as part of the clone operation (my fault I know I should have paid closer attention) there was no room in the recovery partition to install this updated. I used Easeus partition to increase the size of the recovery partition and that sorted the problem. Updates can be a pain for sure especially if you run custom stuff.
Testament, language and feature packs /date and time are the most common issues I find for strange update issues. After that, dot net stuff. Try changing your language to american english then reboot and try the updates again, this has worked for me a few times. This year, I will only run windows live on one pc any more, the rest can be virtual.​

All Windows updates work fine with my system. At earlier stages I merged the unused ~800MB to the active Windows partition. After a while checking with some other Windows forumsand they gave advise not to merge or touch the recovery partition which will make updating newer releases of KBXXXXXX troubled. Nowadays I just leave the ~800MB partition as it is.

There are in some cases if anyone mistakenly delete and merge partitions, the only way is to use Windows Media Creation tool burn the latest ISO from Microsoft and re-install (by keeping files and application as it is) .. this method will actually adjust and re-create the needed partition as per original previous Windows original installation. So .. there wont be any failed KB releases installations in future.

​

 

[pleiadians]

The how is fine, it's the why that bothers me.