KB5034123

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On my Windows 11 laptop Windows RE is disabled, there is no WinRE partition and no Recovery partition.  Will KB5034123 install?

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I can honestly say I have not seen issues on Windows 11.

I can’t guarantee, as I don’t have a 11 without a Recovery partition, but the KB does not list that side effect on the Windows 11 patch.

Bottom line I don’t think so.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Bottom line is that it will not install?  Then how do I install it? Do I need to create a recovery partition or a WinRE partition? Do I need to enable WinRE?

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I’m running Windows 11 22H2, and have not had an issue installing the monthly Cumulative Updates, but I have noticed that the Recovery Environment servicing has consistently failed since the August 2023 (please see my post from last week for the details: Windows 11 22H2 “Recovery Environment servicing failed”).

At this point, I’m not certain that the failure is due to the Recovery partition only having 84 MB of free space, or due to the WinREAgent file corruption found by sfc /scannow after successfully installing December’s Cumulative Update. It does feel more likely that free space on the Recovery partition is the issue, as the Critical event logged indicates “Windows Recovery Environment servicing failed” and the details show a system ErrorPhase 2, which exactly matches KB5028997 (Instructions to manually resize your partition to install the WinRE update).

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Do not install it. There is no downside because RE is disabled.
Wait for MS to fix it.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

Do not install it

But KB5034123 includes 35 vulnerabilities, 2 critical and 33 important updates.

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b

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I honestly don’t think it will fail on 22H2. When I give the go-ahead, do it and report back.

I have not seen issues on Windows 11 22H2 like I have with 10.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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SteveIT

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Ok, will do.  I started this post because I thought KB5034123 for Windows 11 22H2 has the partition issue included in it that KB5034441 and KB5034440 has so asked if it will fail because WinRE is disabled and I don’t have a WinRE partition nor a Recovery partition.

 

I ask because of thread ‘KB5034441 and KB5034440’:

‘For Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2, the vulnerability noted in  CVE-2024-20666 is being patched as part of the cumulative windows update of KB5034123.’

I don’t know if I need to do anything regarding partitions.

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I don’t know if I need to do anything regarding partitions.

you don’t, redknight! so don’t worry about that.

don’t mess around with the partitions on your machine – leave them alone

edit – just wait until Susan gives the green light to install the KB5034123 update and not worry about the partition issues with the other updates like KB5034440 & KB5034441 as they may not apply nor concern you if using Win11 22H2

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Following up on this, I installed KB5034123 (2024-01 Cumulative Update). The update seemed to be stuck at 70% installing, and took 30 minutes before it completed and was ready to reboot (never had an Update take that long). Before rebooting, the Event Log was already showing Event ID 4502 – Recovery Environment servicing failed. So the Cumulative Update successfully installed (OS Build is now 22621.3007), but the Recovery Environment servicing again failed. I note that PKCano observed the same behaviour on one of his Win11 22H2 desktops (#2627190).

I ran dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth and sfc /scannow both before and after the Update (no corruption or integrity violations found).

I checked the Recovery Environment both before and after the Update with reagentc /info, Dism /Get-ImageInfo /ImageFile …, and fsutil volume diskfree … The results were identical before and after the Update completed.

At this point I will follow PKCano’s advise and resize the Recovery Partition prior to attempting next month’s Cumulative Update (using either Microsoft’s command line method or by learning to use Mini Tool Partition Wizard).

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SteveIT wrote:

resize the Recovery Partition prior to attempting next month’s Cumulative Update

I see no point doing this unless you have a BitLocker encrypted disk and have data that is very valuable. The lack of recovery servicing does not affect daily use.

Wait for MS to fix the issue.

cheers, Paul

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SteveIT

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I do not have BitLocker enabled, and agree that the lack of Recovery servicing does not affect daily use, but would it not be prudent to have an updated Recovery Environment just in case it did become necessary? My Recovery Environment currently shows ServicePack Build 1, so servicing has never succeeded (it should show the current OS Build 3007).

In addition, what makes you think that MS is going to provide another fix for this issue? They published KB5028997 back in September, and have not provided any other fix that I am aware of.

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It may be prudent, but have you ever used it to do anything other than restore an image? For that I’m happy to boot from USB.

SteveIT wrote:

what makes you think that MS is going to provide another fix

They now have a major hole that allows you to bypass BitLocker and need to update all machines.

cheers, Paul

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SteveIT

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Agreed, I would boot from a Macrium Reflect USB if I needed to restore an image, but it does vex me when something in my environment is not working properly.

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Paul T

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Please see follow up post under Windows 11 22H2 “Recovery Environment servicing failed”.

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A bootable Windows ISO is a good replacement for a Recovery Environment.

It’s always prudent to make a disk image backup before making changes such as Windows Updates…in case something goes sideways.

Done frequently, it often is the only way to recover from a ransomware attack.

 

 

 

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