MS-DEFCON 4: May updates ready to go

By Susan Bradley

The May releases are once again a bit of a mixed bag, relatively quiet for consumers but a little bumpy for businesses.

For three days last week, Microsoft hosted its developer conference, BUILD. It’s an important event for developers, but the headlines are always about things to come.

On the other hand, I keep an eye on the now — what’s already been released — and how those patches, updates, and new features affect our everyday use of Microsoft’s technology. For example, Microsoft announced the Recall feature of its new line of Copilot+ PCs. That last part is important, because Recall requires AI support built into the hardware, and it will be available only with Windows 11.

Don’t panic: It’s not coming to your PC. We’ll have more coverage of this very soon.

This month’s highlights:

I am seeing reports that the new Lock screen feature is a bit buggy and certainly not editable. Want something other than the NBA? No can do. Want something other than the stock market? Sorry, not an option. It’s part of Windows Spotlight and currently provides almost no configuration options. We also have evidence that the options differ from PC to PC, probably due to dribbling (feature dribbling, not NBA dribbling).

To turn it off on Windows 10, go to Settings | Personalization and select Lock screen. Click the icon under Choose one app to show detailed status on the lock screen and then select None from the options.

To block it on Windows 11, go to Settings | Personalization | Lock screen. Click Lock screen status and select None from the drop-down. This is where confusion reigns, because some PCs will offer None as an option and others won’t. In the latter case, click the drop-down next to Personalize lock screen and choose something other than Windows spotlight.

Depending upon how you use your PC, you may see Spotlight on the lock screen rarely, or even never. When my computer locks because I’ve been away from the desk for more than a few minutes, I pay no attention to the lock screen — I usually press Enter and wait a second to type my PIN or password.

Be aware that even with the May updates installed for Windows 10 and Windows 11, you may not see the lock screen widget. In my workplace some have — and others have not — seen this offered to them. It’s dribble time!

Windows Server 2019 is the problem child of the month.

This is the first month for condensed patching for the Windows 10 code base. It’s meant to allow updates to be smaller and thus faster. But this redesign is hitting a speed bump: KB5037765 won’t install on Server 2019. As the company notes in the release health dashboard:

The installation might fail with an error code 0x800f0982. This issue is more likely to affect devices that do not have the English (United States) language pack.

In addition to users encountering error code 0x800f0982, we have received reports that devices are failing to install the May 2024 security update with the error code 0x80004005. This error can occur even if the English (United States) language pack is installed.

Some customers also reported install errors for this update on Windows 10, version 1809. Home users of Windows are unlikely to experience this issue since the Home and Pro editions of this Windows version reached end of servicing in 2020. Only Enterprise and IoT LTSC editions are under extended support.

On May 23, Microsoft released an out-of-band update, KB5039705, for Windows Server 2019, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019, and Windows Server Version 1809.

KB5037771 for Windows 11 is also reportedly triggering issues with workstations joined to Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory). In a Health Release email I received, Microsoft notes:

Microsoft has received a few reports of an issue impacting organizations where a small number of devices enrolled in Entra ID have applications failing to start after installing the May 2024 Windows security update.

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