The February 2024 monthly update for Windows 10 and 11 isn’t going as planned for everyone. Some users fail to install it and others encounter various bugs after applying it.
It’s a sort of tradition at Microsoft, one that we would like to get rid of, the latest monthly security and bug fix update for Windows 10 and 11 does not go smoothly for all users. Like every second Tuesday of the month, the company publishes a batch of fixes and improvements for its operating systems, called Patch Tuesday, the content of which we have presented to you in this article. This substantial update corrects no less than 73 identified security vulnerabilities and brings some (small) functional improvements, such as the appearance of a button dedicated to Copilot in the taskbar and the premises of the changes induced by the Digital Market Act (DMA), the new European regulation on digital services.
No in-depth modification of the system therefore, but as is often the case with Microsoft, the deployment of the update does not go without a hitch. The English site Windows Latestwhich rigorously monitors problems affecting Microsoft’s operating system, has just published two articles (here And here) on the difficulties encountered by several users with the February 2024 Patch Tuesday for Windows 10 and 11. For some, the update refuses to install automatically and requires a little manipulation. For others, some essential Windows components, such as the taskbar or File Explorer, experience bugs after applying it.
KB5034765 for Windows 11: update does not install
As indicated in our article on the subject, the February 2024 Patch Tuesday appears under different names in the Windows Update update manager, depending on the version of Windows installed on your computer: KB5034763 for Windows 10 22H2 and KB5034765 for Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2. This is the second reference, intended for Windows 11, which encounters an installation problem on certain devices. For affected users, cumulative update KB5034765 downloads successfully but the installation process encounters an error when restarting the computer and fails with error codes 0x800f0922, 0x800f0982, or 0x80070002. Frustrating and quite painful, especially since this update contains many security fixes that are strongly recommended to be installed as soon as they become available.
Fortunately, the Windows Latest site gives a procedure that seems to resolve the issue and allow the installation of update KB5034765 for Windows 11. The solution involves deleting a hidden folder titled $WinREAgent, which can be done in three different ways : run the Disk Cleanup tool (as administrator) on the disk containing the operating system, checking all options relating to temporary files; use File Explorer (showing hidden files) to manually locate and delete the folder; run command line rmdir /S /QC:$WinREAgent in a command prompt (as administrator).
After deleting the $WinREAgent temporary folder using one of the methods proposed above, you must restart the installation of update KB5034765 in the menu Settings > Windows Updatewhich should now complete its installation correctly… perhaps causing other problems in the process!
February 2024 Patch Tuesday: Taskbar and Explorer crash
Indeed, the Windows Latest site also reports that several users have reported problems affecting the taskbar and file explorer following the installation of Pacth Tuesday 2024. These malfunctions concern both Windows 10 and 11, and Occur after applying updates KB5034763 or KB5034765 depending on the OS version. For Windows 10 users, system status icons, normally located to the right of the taskbar, are no longer displayed correctly and applications pinned to the taskbar no longer launch when clicking on them. icon. Worse, on Windows 11, the taskbar seems to no longer work at all after loading the desktop. Fortunately, this problem seems to be easily corrected by reinstalling the offending update. To do this, on Windows 11, you must go to Settings > Windows Update > Update History > Uninstall updates then click on the button Uninstall to the right to delete the relevant update. You must then restart your computer, return to Windows Update to restart a search for available updates, and proceed with the installation of the February 2024 Patch Tuesday again.
Another problem that follows this update, but this time only seems to concern Windows 11, causes the File Explorer to crash. When restarting or shutting down the computer, some users receive an ugly error message indicating a memory address problem: “The instruction at 0x00007FFB20563ACA referred to memory at 0x0000000000000024. The memory could not be written. Click OK to finish the program“. This bug had already been spotted during an optional update in January 2024 and seems strangely linked to the presence of a gaming device, such as an Xbox controller, plugged into the computer. If Microsoft has acknowledged officially the existence of the problem, the company has not yet been able to provide a solution, and if you are concerned, you will unfortunately have to deal with the appearance of the error message until the publication of a official fix.