Windows 11's Chaotic March Update: Install Fails, BSOD Crashes And More Issues
Are you having trouble installing Microsoft's Patch Tuesday update for March? You're not alone. The newest update is reportedly brimming with issues running the gamut from minor annoyances, like running into installation errors, to show-stopping blue screen of death (BSOD) crashes that will make you want to yank your hair out by the fistful.
The dilemma for end users is balancing the risk of grabbing the latest security updates versus battling any bugs that may have slipped through. That's always the challenge, though typically, a buggy Windows update might introduce just one or two main issues. For example, an update at the end of 2023 made headlines for breaking certain HP printers.
In this case, Microsoft released it cumulative update, KB5053598, last Tuesday with fixes for multiple zero-day vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited in the wild, and dozens of bug fixes in all. Given the number and severity of the flaws, it's not the kind of update you want to put off for very long.
Be that as it may, there are reports of numerous issues with the newest Patch Tuesday update, according to the folks at Windows Latest. In some cases, users report installation failures with various error codes, such as 0x800f0993, 0x800F081F, 0x80070032, and 0xC004F211. The site says that in its own tests, it observed failure points at 6%, 20%, and 38% completion.
Other users have reported getting a "Something didn't go as planned" error message, followed by an automatic attempt to reinstall the update. This can happen even after running SFC /Scannow to make sure nothing is corrupted.
In other cases, users have reported headache-induce RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) disconnects, sometimes as often as every 4-10 minutes. The only known workaround so far is to manually uninstall the patch.
Blue screen crashes appear more rare this round, but there are still reports of those, too. Users have reported seeing "Critical Process Died" and "Kernel power failure" error messages. And in some cases, users say the update has rendered their PC unable to boot with a "No bootable device found" error message.
Moral of the story? There's really isn't one, other than to be sure you have a good backup routine in place just in case things go awry. All that said, this author recently applied March's Patch Tuesday update and, so far, it's been smooth sailing (knock on wood).
