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Microsoft: We are working on KB5034441/KB5034440 "0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE" fix by Sayan Sen Microsoft released the first Windows 10 and 11 Patch Tuesday updates of 2024, last week, with the January updates KB5034122 and KB5034123 respectively. The updates are meant to address security issues within Windows. The one for 11 also fixes the recent Wi-Fi troubles that led to networks not connecting or the Wi-Fi icon not showing. In a separate article, the company has also detailed a fix for a WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) security vulnerability that can lead to BitLocker encryption bypass. The issue is being tracked under ID "CVE-2024-20666". Microsoft said that the security flaw could allow attackers to bypass BitLocker encryption if they are able to get physical access to an unpatched PC. However, this is not one of those WinRE updates that is seamlessly installing on PCs. Users report that the update is failing to install with the error message "0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE" which indicates insufficient WinRE partition size. The solution is to resize the partition manually. You can do so by following this dedicated guide here. Neowin forum supervisor / mod and ESET's Distinguished Researcher Aryeh Goretsky (X account) also experienced the issue which they were able to fix by increasing the recovery partition. Goretsky writes: Hello, I can confirm that the KB5034441 hotfix failed on a Windows 10 VM with a Windows Recovery partition that was 511MB in size. I decided to increase it to 1024MB in size, just in case more space was needed in the future. The hotfix installed normally afterwards. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Microsoft of course has been aware of this problem almost from the start which is why it has been recommending the manual resize workaround as soon as it published the WinRE updates. Yesterday, on its Windows health dashboard, the company has added the issue and notes that a fix is coming via a future update. Microsoft says: Devices attempting to install the January 2024 Windows Recovery Environment update ( KB5034441/KB5034440) might display an error related to the size of the Recovery Environment's partition. Resulting from this error, the following message might be displayed. "0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE" Workaround: It might be necessary to increase the size of the WinRE partition in order to avoid this issue and complete the installation. Note that 250 megabytes of free space is required in the recovery partition. Guidance to change the WinRE partition size can be found in KB5028997: Instructions to manually resize your partition to install the WinRE update. Next steps: We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release. Aside from this BitLocker encryption vulnerability, Microsoft has recently updated its Microsoft Printer Metadata Troubleshooter Tool to patch against a Remote Code Execution (RCE) security flaw.

Microsoft acknowledges it's not HP who's auto-installing printer Smart app on your Windows by Sayan Sen Towards the end of last month, users online started complaining about how their system was automatically installing HP's Smart app for printers, even when there was no printer on their PC. As the issue was fairly widespread, soon after Microsoft acknowledged it too, confirming that almost all versions of Windows were affected. Since it is HP's app that is being installed, the initial impression from many people would likely be that somehow the company may be responsible for this bug. However, after further investigation, Microsoft has confirmed that such is not the case. While the initial post about the issue on the Windows health dashboard only stated that printing processes and jobs shouldn't be affected, the tech giant has now edited that part to add that HP is not responsible for the mishap, along with additional information regarding printer functionality. Here's what the initial post stated: Note: Printing processes are not expected to be affected by this issue. It should be possible to queue printing jobs as usual, as well as other features such as copying or scanning. Printers on the device will continue to use the expected drivers for printer operations. As the symptoms are related to the automatic installation of the HP Smart app, Windows devices which do not have access to the Microsoft Store are not expected to be affected by this issue. And here's what the updated version of it is now: Note: Our investigations indicate that this issue is not caused by an HP update. In most cases, it should be possible to use the printer as expected, including queueing printing jobs, as well as other features such as copy, scan, or fax. Printers on the device will continue to use the expected drivers for printer operations. However, this issue might affect associations with other manufacturer-supplied printer apps used to extend basic printer capabilities. If this is the case, some or all of those extended functions might not work. As the symptoms are related to the automatic installation of the HP Smart app, Windows devices which do not have access to the Microsoft Store are not expected to be affected by this issue. You can view the issue on this page on Microsoft's official health dashboard website. On a somewhat related note, in case it isn't HP but you instead find Canon driver installed on your PC even if you don't have one, do leave your comment on this thread started by Neowin forum member cosrocket. We are trying to understand if this is an isolated case or more widespread.

Microsoft: Windows 10 (KB5028244) app installs via ClickOnce incorrectly nagging users by Sayan Sen Towards the end of July, Microsoft released KB5028244, its C-release non-security update for the month. The update was one which brought in multiple issues like those related to UWP and Win32, BitLocker, printers, and more. Find the full release notes of the update in its dedicated post. However, the update wasn't flawless as Microsoft confirmed a major bug that was causing video codec issues, and Windows 11 was affected too. Today, the tech giant has confirmed another bug in the update. Microsoft says that applications installed via ClickOnce are incorrectly showing as not installed. Microsoft has issued a known issue rollback for this bug. On its health dashboard, Microsoft explains the bug in detail as well as its workaround: After installing KB5028244 or later updates, apps which were deployed using ClickOnce might begin to prompt for installation even when the ClickOnce apps are already installed and marked as “trusted”. Workaround: To temporarily workaround the issue, uninstall the impacted ClickOnce Application and reinstall the application again. Resolution: This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR). Please note that it might take up to 24 hours for the resolution to propagate automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices. Restarting your Windows device might help the resolution apply to your device faster. For enterprise-managed devices that have installed an affected update and encountered this issue can be resolved by installing and configuring a special Group Policy. The special Group Policy can be found in Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> . Group Policy downloads with Group Policy name: Download for Windows 10, version 22H2; Windows 10, version 21H2 - Windows 10 20H2, 21H1, 21H2 and 22H2 KB5028244 230814_02353 Feature Preview Important: You will need to install and configure the Group Policy for your version of Windows to resolve this issue. You can find the official announcement post here on the health dashboard site.