Update KB5034441 fails to install

I had a problem with this update KB5034441 for a long time. Few days ago one update appeared in the list of updates. I don't remember the number, but it had the word "Review" in it. There was also one .NET update. I installed these two updates. Thereafter it showed several Updates along with KB5034441. I clicked on Download & Install. All including KB5034441 installed and the problem has since gone away. Posting this hoping it might help some if not all having this problem.

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So... it seems point is getting lost in seas of comments, so I would like to propose one long ultimate comment, collecting all the answers, that if lost to time, or needs an update or clarification, can be remade here again. I'm also not the one who should be doing it, so please, if you find a way to write it better, or more correctly, feel free to copy parts that are useful and upload your version.

To start, let’s summarize what KB5034441 does. It plugs a hole in BitLocker, that is possible to expose, only if you have physical access to the computer. So if you have Windows 10 Home, or nobody has physical access to your computer, there is no need for this update. But this update was forced on everyone and failure to install this update led many computers to experience issues and even fatal system errors. I personaly had too many people come to me, that after attemting to install this update, they were no longer able to boot into Windows. Solution mostly involved backups, concluding in hours to days of lost data. Also even ignoring this update can lead to some inconveniences. Without this update, Windows is marked as 'not up to date', which is problem with any software requiring maximum security. Many banking, economic and research software (not running on linux) view this as potential risk.

Solutions:

Ignore: If this update is in no way aimed at you, you do not experience any issues connected to this update, and you do not mind update just sitting there, you may just ignore it. Just to be clear, Windows might still try to install it in the background everytime you turn on the computer, slowing your computer by tiny bit. Also it has been noticed, that sometimes this update error can prevent other updates from installing. To solve that you need to hide it.

Hide: This is option, if you want to ignore this update more efficiently. To do so, you need to download wushowhide - https://download.microsoft.com/download/f/2/2/f22d5fdb-59cd-4275-8c95-1be17bf70b21/wushowhide.diagcab . This will stop Windows from attempting to install this update, eating up your memory, halting other updates from downloading and as a bonus, it will no longer show in Windows update window.

Official way (Partiton Solution): Official way is to make your WinRE partiton bigger by what they say is at least 250MB (better to do at least 500MB). This is easier said than done and requires some knowledge about how partitions work. Microsoft didn’t make it easy on us, for every time you reduce partition, this reduced space shows to the “right“ of partiton, and to increase partiton, it needs to “neighbour“ such free space. So to enlarge WinRE partition, you need to have partiton that you want to reduce on the left of WinRE, which is mostly not the case.

There are third party programs, that solve this like MiniTool Partition Manager/Wizard (first suggested by MarkSquires1), Easeus partition manager (first suggested by CRICKBITS_1), NUIBI Partition Editor (first suggested by Theresa Nesbitt) and AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard (first suggested by Jack40Melb) .

There is also manual way described as solution for KB5028997 - https://support.microsoft.com/help/5028997 , but this one is very interpretive. There is chance that this solution is not exactly suited for your computer and you need to change line or two, which is for users that understand what each line does.

ReAgent.xml and Winre.wim:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/1bjq3w1/fix_for_kb5034441_regarding_the_repartition_that/

First suggested by corellian in this forum, but solution is by u/Hot_Spray_6496 on reddit. Solution requires bit advanced knowledge, but is well documented step by step.

Windows Media:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

First suggested by ZEKRI Abdelhafid. Possibly simple solution for average user, but bit time consuming. IMPORTANT: In point 9 of the tutorial you must check the box "Download updates, drivers and optional features (recommended)".

Thanks Hallvard. Clicking a button that says 'Subscribe' to unsubscribe, is unintuitive and a very bad design. Not surprised though, it is MS after all! 😃