Update KB5034441 fails to install

What I read somewhere & appears to be true, if KB5034441 is not installing & throwing an error, then any future updates will not install. For 5 days when KB5034441 tried to install but could not, I did not receive any Defender updates, the ones I get almost every day.

After I hid KB5054441, the KB2267602 Defender Definition updates started coming in again almost right away. Maybe a coincidence, but I don't recall ever having a 5 day lapse of Definition updates. I am notified of these (and all updates) but have to click in order to install them, so am pretty much aware of their frequency.

If KB5034441 keeps failing to install, can anyone confirm this stops other updates from installing?

I repeat it was not lazy and worked on W11, but as a W10 user I don’t care how careful and wonderful it worked on W11, they just ported lazily from to w10, knowing it was not going to work.

This guy is no a “hater”, and self proclaimed techie Windows “enthusiast”, always pushing people to patch for security, still this is one of the few occasions he rants:

And this is one of his lasts, he comments they could script it to show the error once or not offer the update if you don’t have a WinRE partition, if you don’t use BitLocker, or if you are in Home Ed. But nooooo, they lazily pushed universally for everyone even when most don’t need, making  a lot of people worry and pulling the hairs when they see they should “contact support”, not everyone comes here and for what you see here not even people in the chat or support is helpful, because is an unnecessary problem created by W update people, call it lazy or not but is  screw up.

I said the patch is lazy, not that the engineers are lazy, perhaps on contrary they are over worked and unmotivated people, as shown in some reports from MS; but still there seems to be a poor leadership and management there.

But the argument really doesn't hold as only the same small percentage of Windows 11 will have the Pro edition so it is the same percentage of the tiny population with Windows 11 that will be affected by this security vulnerability as well. EVERYBODY on Windows 11 Home were offered their version of this security patch.

So it comes down to my interpretation of the event. Microsoft decided to do a "phase" launch which created the problem. It is the "SAME" port. There is no different port. If Microsoft decided to do a blind dive without a phase launch, then it wouldn't have this problem.

Microsoft told people in the release notes that you don't have to worry about it if you don't have a winre partition. Only the busybodys on tech forums insist that they have to block the update. Even if you have a winre partition, wait for a permanent fix, you don't have to do all the blocking stuff.

Also end-users can upgrade to the Pro edition at any time, which would create a security hole for them if the patch is not offered to everyone.

Since the beginning you keep referring about W11, that is irrelevant.

I don’t care if they did a wonderful and dedicated work in this patch as the Manhattan or Apollo project on W11, as a W10 user if they ported it lazily from there (because the partition systems is very different), knowing it will not work,  is a screw up:

1. Assuming is true what you say W update can detect when you upgrade to PRO that you don’t have and need the patch and install it.
2. Upgrading to PRO doesn’t mean you’ll use BitLocker, actually I have PRO, but I don’t have a WinRE partition nor I use BitLocker, is double irrelevant for me. Is not that a hacker in a banana country is going to take on your device online, it requires physical access to your PC. So I only can imagine some corps, big or tiny, using BitLocker, and distrust of their own employs accessing their devices may be worry for this. Totally irrelevant for Average Joe.
3. Ok let’s give you right for a second, the patch is super important to have it in everyone, then with a more reason a major screw up if it doesn’t works if 1) average users has to do experiments their drives partition until it works 2) or as it is happening now, most people ended up hiding this "super important" update

So in anyway, as you want to see it, it’s a mayor screw up, stop defending their incompetence and bad decisions, is not the first one, they just did it this month again.

For what I have read, W11 had the same vulnerability, they also had this patch and worked fine there, so it's done for W11, But since a very tiny minority uses BitLocker in W10 too, they decided to make a rushed and lazy port forcing the irrelevant update on everyone /facepalm

The problem is that in W10 as you have noted partitions works very different, some PCs don’t even have a WinRE partition (in such case the update is not needed but still pushed); so for these lazy nerds in their bubble was easy “they just need to resize their partition” /facepalm

The reason why most Windows 11 computers are not affected is because Windows 11 made the WinRE change 9 months ago. Remember that it is a monthly cumulative WinRE update. So those Windows 11 computers didn't need a whole 250 MB of extra space at once. It needed an 50 MB of extra space in June 2023, maybe 50 MB of extra space in July... So they never trigger "running out partition space" limit and require you to do the manual resize. Windows 10 computers got all those "cumulative" update to the WinRE all the once --- so we need the whole 250 MB of extra space.

And the Windows 11 computers are only on computers made after 2018. All the edge cases like WinRE partition in front of the hard drive or no WinRE partition at all are on Windows 7 and Windows 8 era computers that upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

It was just made during the Christmas holidays when the senior people gets the longest holidays so the whole process was not monitored by the senior staff.

My system is not upgraded, a fresh W10 install in a new PC with no previews OS (my install is from 2019 BTW).

Yet i have not a WinRE partition.

Precisely that article confirms what i said, they were lazy porting something designed for W11 to W10.

No, the bug just got more complicated by the minute.

1. So Microsoft started working on this in December for the January patch Tuesday release.
2. Christmas got in the way of testing things. The top guys have extended holidays.
3. Bug reports came and they released the cmd line fix
4. cmd line fix is overly complicated so they went back to the drawing board
5. they released a "script" fix for the general public for easier deployment without telling people how to lower the security gate to run the script
6. their fixes don't work if the winre partition is in the front of the drive
7. They got a bunch of zero day vulnerabilities they need to patch in the meantime. So the bug fix was in the back burner.
8. They released those zero day vulnerabilities patches but the February patch Tuesday fixes were blocked for some computers with the kb50344441 error. So now they have to release another work around.

So it is just a cascading series of problems starting with the top people having extending Christmas holidays.

For what I have read, W11 had the same vulnerability, they also had this patch and worked fine there, so it's done for W11, But since a very tiny minority uses BitLocker in W10 too, they decided to make a rushed and lazy port forcing the irrelevant update on everyone /facepalm

The problem is that in W10 as you have noted partitions works very different, some PCs don’t even have a WinRE partition (in such case the update is not needed but still pushed); so for these lazy nerds in their bubble was easy “they just need to resize their partition” /facepalm

I would suggest you just to use the tool to hide it and forget about it, most surely you don’t need it, is irrelevant (is not that a hacker in X country online is going to take control of your system, it requires BitLocker and physical access to your PC)l

For the people wanting to jump to W11 o buy a new PC, for what I see in forums also W11 is plagued with annoying bugs and I see people also complaining now and then for faulty updates, you may jump from the bad to the worse.

Besides: Good Windows-Bad Windows-Good Windows- Bad Windows. W11 is a flop and W12 is going to arrive soon, perhaps at the end of the year, if you want to spend money in a new PC, wait and see the requirements for W12. I don’t see the point wasting money to jump to the “bad windows” for a screw up in an update when MS is doing that all time in both Windows versions