New warning for Home windows customers.
Replace: Republished on April 17 with Microsoft’s affirmation that ineligible PCs are mistakenly upgrading to Home windows 11 and information that it’s not solely Home windows 10 that shall be retired in October, customers should now brace for one more improve drawback.
Microsoft is having a second. April’s updates have brought on as many issues as they’ve resolved, at the very least from a person perspective. Mysterious folders have appeared on PCs together with dire warnings. And now a brand new error pushes customers to redo an replace. However Microsoft has now warned that’s not the case — no new replace is required. The widespread theme is that Microsoft is warning customers they need to do nothing.
As I reported final week, the primary and most innocuous of those points is the empty “inetpub” folder that appeared on units publish April’s replace. As tempting because it is likely to be to delete this folder, don’t. Per Windows Latest, “you’re not alleged to take away the folder… That’s as a result of it’s linked to a safety patch for a bug titled CVE-2025-21204, which is a flaw that enables attackers to change the system information or folders.”
Now we have now one other do nothing warning. Neowin experiences that “typically, coping with Home windows Replace points is far less complicated. So simple as simply ignoring the error. In not too long ago up to date documentation, Microsoft notified customers that Home windows PCs would possibly expertise error 0x80070643 with an “ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE” message when making an attempt to put in an replace for the Home windows Restoration Setting or WinRE.”
This hits when putting in the April 2025 KB5057589 WinRE replace and makes it appear as if the replace has failed and wishes a redo. That’s not the case.
Microsoft says that “this error is noticed when the gadget installs the WinRE replace when there may be one other replace in a pending reboot state. Though the error message suggests the replace didn’t full, the WinRE replace is usually utilized efficiently after the gadget restarts. Home windows Replace would possibly proceed to show the replace as failed till the following each day scan, at which level the replace is now not provided and the failure message is cleared mechanically.”
Windows Latest explains that “many customers couldn’t set up the replace due to the partition dimension for the Restoration disk, which brought on the error. However the catch is that the error affected even those that shouldn’t have low storage. And that’s the place issues acquired tricker as a result of no person might go previous the error message.” However based on Microsoft, “WinRE replace is ‘usually utilized efficiently’ regardless of the failure message.”
All of which suggests after getting utilized the April updates, don’t replace once more whatever the error messages you’re seeing, at the very least till you will have restarted to see if that clears the difficulty. And don’t delete that “inetpub” safety folder both.
There’s an opportunity the inaccurate WinRE error is likely to be a bit of persistent. However once more, says Home windows Newest, “simply ignore… Microsoft has formally really useful customers to disregard the errors.” Or to place it much more starkly: “When you run into Home windows Replace error code 0x80070643, don’t attempt to repair it as a result of you may’t do this.”
Microsoft’s has additionally confirmed a blue display of demise (BSOD) threat for Home windows 11 customers with its latest updates. Per Windows Latest, “a latest Home windows 11 24H2 replace bug is inflicting BSOD with cease error code ‘SECURE_KERNEL_ERROR.’ This impacts the final three releases: KB5055523, KB5053656, and KB5053598.” The specialist web site says it first noticed “the BSOD SECURE_KERNEL_ERROR when Microsoft launched the March 2025 updates. At the moment, Microsoft didn’t acknowledge the complaints, as the issue seemed to be an remoted case. Nevertheless, extra customers are actually reporting Blue Screens following the Home windows 11 April 2025 updates.”
Microsoft warns that “after putting in this replace and restarting your gadget, you would possibly encounter a blue display exception with error code 0x18B indicating a SECURE_KERNEL_ERROR.” The corporate says customers can mitigate the difficulty “utilizing Identified Difficulty Rollback (KIR),” albeit “it’d take as much as 24 hours for the decision to propagate mechanically to shopper units and non-managed enterprise units and enterprise units that aren’t managed by IT departments. Restarting your Home windows gadget would possibly assist the decision apply to your gadget quicker.”
Home windows Newest says “it seems just like the BSOD isn’t just restricted to March 2025 updates since you’ll additionally run into it if you happen to set up Home windows 11 KB5055523 (April 2025 Replace, and sure – it’s the identical patch that created the inetpub folder out of nowhere). Primarily based on our assessments, this BSOD challenge impacts the next three releases of Home windows 11 24H2: KB5053598, launched on March 11 as a Patch Tuesday; KB5053656, launched on March 27 as an elective replace; KB5055523, launched on April 8 as a Patch Tuesday replace.”
To this you may add the Home windows Hiya bug that additionally follows the newest set of upgrades. Per Windows Central, “Microsoft confirmed a problem with Home windows 11 that may forestall some individuals from signing in to a tool utilizing Home windows Hiya. The issue impacts utilizing facial recognition to unlock a tool. Fortunately, the difficulty solely impacts a subset of Home windows 11 customers. Microsoft refers back to the challenge as an “edge case” and notes that it solely seems after putting in a selected Home windows 11 replace and performing a Push button reset or utilizing the Reset this PC function whereas choosing Hold my Information and Native set up.”
Past these points, Microsoft additionally provides its ordinary reminder: “On October 14, Home windows 10 will attain finish of help. After this date, units working Home windows 10 will now not obtain fixes for recognized points, time zone updates, technical help, or month-to-month safety and preview updates containing safety from the newest safety threats.”
That’s the a lot larger challenge, and does require you to update your Windows 10 PC.
However even right here, it’s not at the moment clean crusing for Microsoft. With a lot consideration centered on the {hardware} hurdles to be eligible for an improve to Home windows 11, which have included Microsoft clamping down on varied workarounds, Neowin experiences that Microsoft has now admitted that Home windows 11 “is obtainable to ineligible units”
It seems that “in case your Home windows 10 PC was provided to improve to Home windows 11 despite the fact that it shouldn’t have, blame Microsoft. The corporate admitted that its techniques ignore Intune replace insurance policies and provide Home windows 11 to ineligible techniques (PCs the place IT admins block the updates), inflicting confusion amongst customers and directors.”
Bleeping Computer explains that “Microsoft is working to repair an ongoing challenge inflicting some customers’ Home windows units to be provided Home windows 11 upgrades regardless of Intune insurance policies stopping them. This recognized challenge has impacted Home windows desktop units since Saturday, April 12, and is brought on by what the corporate describes as a ‘latent code challenge’. Redmond added earlier immediately in an replace to the Microsoft 365 admin middle (IT10561350) {that a} focused code repair is now being deployed to forestall extra influence on different techniques.”
The variety of PCs that fail to make the reduce for the improve stays as a lot guesswork as science, however is at the moment regarded as round 240 million units, albeit that quantity will seemingly change as October approaches. Microsoft doesn’t actually have a very good Plan B for these with older {hardware}, which can hit enterprises particularly exhausting. You may recycle these machines or consign them to landfill, however there’s no technique to repurpose them as Microsoft Home windows machines. There’s the Linux choice, although.
And whereas analysts examine the accelerating improve numbers, which at the moment present Home windows 11 installs quick method the identical quantity as Home windows 10, we’ll quickly get a greater sense of how huge a cybersecurity nightmare shall be in place come mid October, with doubtlessly a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of PCs falling off safety help.
October shall be a redline for Microsoft customers for extra than simply Home windows 10 and the exhausting slog to push customers to Home windows 11. Per XDA Developers, “Microsoft will finish help for Workplace 2016 and 2019 merchandise on October 14, 2025, the identical day Home windows 10 reaches end-of-support. After this date, affected Workplace apps like Phrase, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook will now not obtain safety updates, bug fixes, or technical help. Microsoft recommends switching to Microsoft 365 for continued entry to up to date, cloud-backed apps and options like Microsoft 365 Copilot.”
