Another frustrating reason to upgrade to Windows 11

By Judy Sanhz Published January 14, 2025 2:53 PM

Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating system logos are displayed on laptop screens. — Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto/Getty Images

As if you didn’t already need plenty of reasons to finally upgrade to Windows 11, here’s yet another.

The latest Windows 10 update, version KB5048239, isn’t just failing to install — it’s actually updating successfully over and over again. This is the update that Microsoft first released in November 2024 on 21H2 and 22H2. As TechRadar reports, the software giant is rereleasing it again this month.

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This installation loop affects various users and is part of Microsoft’s patching for January 2025. Microsoft created the patch to cure problems with the WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment), but things didn’t go as planned. The installation failed because some users didn’t have the 250MB required on their Windows 10 recovery partition.

Users have expressed frustration about the various installation attempts on Microsoft Answers by saying, “Hi to you all. I checked my updates this morning and KB5048239 was waiting to be installed again! I run the troubleshooter and it installed again, I checked ‘View updates’ and it had changed the date from yesterday to today! It is like a Merry-go-round. I can feel a migraine coming on!” from Brian Lofthouse.

That wasn’t the only complaint. Dean Wortmier on Answers.com wrote: “This particular update installed successfully for me in November 2024, and is trying to install again today — over and over and over… — each time ‘successfully.’” Three-hundred and fifty-three other users with the same issue backed up those comments. As if this wasn’t as frustrating as it is, what makes it even worse is that there is no official word from Microsoft about fixing the issue soon.

Nothing seems to be working since users who have tried removing previous versions of the update before installing this one are still experiencing the issue. Even users whose WinRE setup is good, even if the portion is big enough, experience this issue. There isn’t a workaround for it, either. With the Windows 10 end-of-life coming later this year, add this one to the list of reasons to finally get off Windows 10 for good.

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Computing Writer

Judy Sanhz is a Digital Trends computing writer covering all computing news. Loves all operating systems and devices.

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