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

>>> 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 ???

Ramesh, please see my post of Nov 13. I listed everything you asked for and more.

We might have to worry about the security implications. Now Windows Update keeps fetching 2024-11 Security Update, and 20224-08 Update for Windows (KB5048239 and KB5042320), so they are not getting installed, apparently. Is my machine secure without those updates?

The first time for these symptoms, Microsoft, a few months later, issued a different update that updated the "Restore" partition, without the need for the 250 MB of "free" space within the partition.

Curiously, today, when I applied this month's updates, with the one "failure", and then restarted, then Windows Update successfully installed the "failed" update.

There is proof within the Windows Update list of changes, and in the amount of "free" and "in-use" bytes in that "Recovery" partition, that the update has been installed. Weird.

My recovery partitions in Windows 10 have as follows: 990MB (1st partition), 15.83GB (2nd partition) and 1.33GB (3rd partition). All well within the requirements of the recovery environment for this update to successfully install. I, too, believe this is once again an oversight on the part of Microsoft in checking their updates before release. Exactly the same thing happened earlier this year, i.e. same error and same type of update. So, someone at Microsoft missed the problem and sent it out as an update again. With this much negative feedback I hope that Microsoft owns up to it and rescinds the update as it is not working.