Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 3: A bumpy start to 2024

  Posted on January 30, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.05.1 • 2024-01-30

  

  By Susan Bradley

  The partition-sizing problem that emerged earlier this month is not yet fixed.

  Fortunately, our deep examination of this bug has revealed nothing of a dangerous nature. Therefore, I am lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 3. It’s now time to carefully install the January updates.

  We continue to monitor the problem, described in KB5034441 for Windows 10 22H2 and in KB5034440 for Windows 11. Some, but not all, Windows 10 PCs are affected. I have urged you to check your partitions for issues with installing this update. We have written extensively about the problems, and the forums have been very active (see the From the Forums article in yesterday’s newsletter).

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.05.1, 2024-01-30).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, InControl, KB5034234, KB5034440, KB5034441, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 3, Patch Lady Posts, Recovery Partition, WinRE, WUShowHide

• KB5034441 has led us astray, in a horrible way

  Posted on January 22, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.04 • 2024-01-22

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  What’s with this Windows recovery partition thing?

  If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve been discussing the update associated with a BitLocker vulnerability (described in KB5034441) that may require a resizing of the Windows recovery partition to resolve.

  Microsoft’s handling of this problem has been so terrible that I was driven to raise the MS-DEFCON level to 1, just the fifth time I’ve considered it necessary.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.04.0, 2024-01-22).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Patch Watch CVE-2024-20666, Disk Management, KB5034441, KB5034957, MiniTool Partition Wizard, MS-DEFCON 1, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, REAgentC, Recovery Partition, Windows Recovery Environment, WinRE

• MS-DEFCON 1: Partition size blocks update

  Posted on January 10, 2024 at 14:28 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.02.1 • 2024-01-10

  

  By Susan Bradley

  KB5034441 fails to install with error code 0x80070643.

  This failure is very unusual, so much so that I feel compelled to raise the MS-DEFCON level to 1. Do not install the update for KB5034441 unless you have BitLocker and are vulnerable to the risk of direct physical attack. If you have a system that doesn’t have the enough space in the recovery partition, the update will fail.

  I don’t want you to attempt to install it until you are confident it will have no effect on your system or until you have addressed the underlying problem.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.02.1, 2024-01-10).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, CVE-2024-20666, KB5028997, KB5034441, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 1, Patch Lady Posts, Recovery Partition, Windows Recovery Environment