Security Update for Windows 10, 2024-11, KB5048239 getting error 0x80070643 when installing

Replied to most recent, not most relevant. My bad. Regardless...

Honestly, just wait until Windows fixes it themselves, upgrade to Windows 11 like they want you to, hack the security update to fix it yourself, or learn to accept that you won't be able to update everything while using an OS that is losing support.

This happens every time Microsoft drops support for an older OS, they make "security" updates that are only available to their newer OS that aren't backwards compatible, yet release it to their older OS to get concerned users fretting and worrying until they buy into the upgrade. They've done it with every new OS drop for decades now, with Vista, XP, 7, 8, 8.1, and likely others that I'm forgetting, and now they're doing it with Windows 10.

In the past, they've even intentionally added or left in bugs for the final few "updates" that won't get noticed or addressed until they drop the OS, at which point they can legally say "we don't support that version anymore" and leave it at that, to force more users into changing to their newest OS. When Microsoft officially drops support for Windows 10 in favour of the ad-heavy windows 11 that makes them more money, they'll say that the update was not backwards compatible and "apologise" for their internal error. It's happened before, and is happening again.

As a consumer, you've done more then your part. You and a hundred others have made the company aware of the issue, you've tried every "solution" with no resolution, you've shared tons of information and jumped through all the hoops they asked you to. But as a company that technically still supports Windows 10 (for now), they're saying it's on your end despite it very clearly being on their end to avoid liability. The fact it's identical to another issue earlier this year is just unfortunate for them, and they hope users will forget that.

At the end of the day, you and the hundred other people with this problem shouldn't have to jump through all of these hoops just to install a security update from the world's largest PC supplier. They have the money, manpower, and resources to fix it, but they won't because it's almost certainly intentional. You've done your part, and so your options remain.

1. Wait for something that may never happen.
2. Fix it yourself by hacking into the security update.
3. Upgrade to Windows 11 to "fix" the issue.
4. Accept that not all updates for Windows 10 will work going forward.

Then what is your explanation for why this problem arose and persists despite us implementing all the instructions to fix it?

Updates KB5048239 and KB5042320 are installed, but when I restart the PC or click on check for updates it downloads and installs them again. The recovery partition is 1gb with 439.02 of free space.

>>> I think the problem is that there is no one at MS who understands how the original code works, and there is no one to train new employees.

I disagree. Somebody is still at Microsoft who authorized another employee to investigate the issue, code the solution (for Windows 10 & 11), test it, write supporting documentation, pass the code to employees in the QA (Quality Assurance) Department, and to pass the code to other employees who have queued it into the Monthly Update stream. Also, the code will be passed to another employee who would review the code, to see if it is applicable to Windows 12 (or whatever the next version will be called by developers).

I really doubt that Microsoft is so short-sighted to not train new hires. That is shooting oneself in the foot. Sell your shares of Microsoft, if you think that the Evil Empire is about to implode. :-)

For KB5048239, see:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/topic/kb5048239-windows-recovery-environment-update-for-windows-10-version-21h2-and-22h2-november-12-2024-c466de00-2d33-46bf-842f-11a7c189583e

For KB5042320, see:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5042320-windows-recovery-environment-update-for-windows-10-version-21h2-and-22h2-january-9-2024-f5784a62-2b82-4522-b5b2-c31b67049526

which states: This update replaces the previously released update KB5034441

which is the earlier (January 2024) update to "WinRE".

For both updates, the only "security implications" seem to be when something is installed on your computer that exploits a vulnerability in WinRE. If you don't allow that malware to be installed, then the vulnerability won't be exploited. So, without running that malware, your computer is secure.

As I earlier wrote, after applying the other "November 2024" updates, and restarting my computer, then Windows Update successfully installed the update to WinRE. Done.

Perhaps, there were some side-effect of those other updates that caused the "failure to install" issue, until Windows was restarted ???