Is there a workaround for KB5034441 install failure that doesn't require partition modification?

Apologies as I have not read all 11 pages of the thread, I'm only here to add and not investigate so wasn't going to punish myself.

We were not going to resize RE partitions of our server estate so when this update and issue came out I logged a call with MS Support, this is the fix they provided and (to date) it has worked on all affected servers:

As scoped issue, we got to know that you are getting WinRE partition on deployed devices to address security vulnerabilities.

but this update is particularly meant to the server which have WinRE partition. 

a.   If the System just don’t have Recovery partition but WinRE is still enabled on OS, it should not prevent the device from receiving the updates for WinRE.

i.          Instead, the WinRE servicing should succeed without any additional steps since we have more space to use on OS

b.  If the System is having a Recovery partition but WinRE is disabled, you need to try run “reagentc /enable” to enable the WinRE onto the Recovery partition.

i.          If the enable failed as Recovery partition is not big enough, you will need to extent the Recovery partition.

c.   If the System didn’t have a Recovery partition and WinRE is disabled (as cannot be install onto OS partition due to BitLocker), you need to manually create a Recovery partition first.

Else :

1.   Ignore installation errors on devices that do not have WINRE partitions.

2.   or fallow the below AP to bypass the updates:

Action Plan:

1. Registry key workaround that can be fallowed when installing KB5034439, KB 5034440 and KB5034441 on systems where WINRE has been disabled, or on devices with no WINRE:
   reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" /f /v WinREVersion /t REG_SZ /d "10.0.20348.2201".

here it is, 9th of April ... PC just did updates ... this update STILL fails .. I am NOT messing with bios or partition sizes ... I am an everyday user, not a technician!

My recovery was 500mb and I had to increase it by 250mb.

I followed the instructions on: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/how-to-fix-the-kb5034441-update-fail-to-install-on-windows-10/ar-BB1hYieK

Using "Option 5.1"

This isn't for the faint at heart. Even with my "knowledge and skill" I was holding my breathe. It WAS successful and the update WAS able to install after I performed those steps BUT do at YOUR OWN RISK! If you have hesitations I suggest not doing it.

Hope this helps!

I won't tell anyone not to follow those guidelines being they're from "Microsoft" but "hiding the update" seems silly other than you just don't have any notification of it, otherwise users could just ignore the update anyway. As for that long drawn-out process for resizing the "RP", again let me just propose using Windows Disk Management and downloading/installing the basic version of "Partition Wizard" which is free & can be uninstalled after using.... Even though "Partition Wizard" can be used solely, to reduce confusion this is how I did it.

Open Window's "Computer Management" then select "Disk Management."

Select the "System" drive typically C:, right click on it and select "shrink."

In the highlighted box "Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB" enter a number like 250.

Click "Shrink."

It will complete the process and display the newly "Unallocated...." space of ~250MB.

Close "Computer Management." (How simple was that....)

(After downloading/installing "Partition Wizard basic free version")

Open it and find the "Recovery Partition" listed. Right click on it and select "Extend".

You will be prompted to "Take free space from...." and it should actually preselect the "Unallocated" space you created in "Disk Management" just confirm it's the correct one.

There is a slider you must use to adjust how much of the "Unallocated" space you want to use so just MOVE IT TO THE RIGHT to select the full unallocated space of "250MB" in this case.

Once you move the slider all the way to the right, click "OK."

THEN click the "Apply" button in the lower left of the window to apply the changes, OTHERWISE your changes will NOT have taken effect. If you try to close the program before clicking "Apply", it will warn you. (There's even an "Undo" button next to it.)

It will complete the process quickly, then you can close the program and restart the computer.

You can now try reinstalling the update.

That IMO is far simpler & safer, it worked perfectly for me and avoided all of the, "not for the faint of heart - command line interface" nonsense.

I think Linus Torvalds has a solution.

Mine was already at 508MB. I increased to 1024MB and the update succeeded.