[German]Cumulative update KB5005033, released on the August 2021 patchda,y for Windows 10 version 2004, 20H2 and 21H1 is also supposed to fix the PrintNightmare vulnerabilities in Point and Print. A blog reader who manages a number of clients in a business environment informed me a few days ago that some of his Windows 10 clients are refusing to install with error code 0x800F0988. He strongly suspects that the problem, which have been going on for some time, are related to the May 2021 SSU integration. Let me pull together his findings in a blog post.
Cumulative update KB5005033 has been available since August 10 for Windows 10 version 2004, 20H2 and 21H1 (see Patchday: Windows 10 updates (August 10, 2021)).
Update fails with error 0x800F0988
Blog reader Markus K. pointed out an unpleasant observation to me at the end of August 2021. His updates on the clients fail with the error code 0x800F0988. Markus writes that about 5% of the clients cannot install the update KB5005033 and according to cbs.log abort with the following error:.
Line 357452: 2021-08-31 07:46:57, Error CBS Exec: Failed to pre-stage package: Microsoft-Windows-Enterprise-Desktop-Shared-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~de-DE~10.0.19041.1151, component identity: amd64_microsoft-windows-i..etexplorer-optional_31bf3856ad364e35_11.0.19041.906_none_ba92fe9535e92f0c, file: iexplore.exe, sandbox: \\?\C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\d824584bd4f35f2e441877acbab6d2ce\_Windows10.0-KB5005033-x64.cab_\, file format: 0 [HRESULT = 0x800f0988 - PSFX_E_INVALID_DELTA_COMBINATION]
Line 357456: 2021-08-31 07:46:57, Error CBS Failed to pre- stage package: Package_for_ServicingStack~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~19041.1161.1.1 [HRESULT = 0x800f0988 - PSFX_E_INVALID_DELTA_COMBINATION]
Line 357462: 2021-08-31 07:46:57, Error CBS Failed to process single phase execution. [HRESULT = 0x800f0988 - PSFX_E_INVALID_DELTA_COMBINATION]
Inspection of the update package with DISM results in an optional package for Internet Explorer being listed as Not Present by Dism.
This error code stands for PSFX_E_INVALID_DELTA_COMBINATION, which I covered in the blog post Windows 10: KB4551762 causes error 0x800f0988/0x800f0900. Microsoft suggests for error code 0x800f0988 in this support post deleting the startup components via dism command:
dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup
Markus wrote that the original dism checkhealth/restorehealth does not help. Since May 2021 he gets the error PSFX_E_INVALID_DELTA_COMBINATION. He suspected that this could also be a result of the SSU integration snafu in the May 2021 cumulative updates.
Microsoft’s support article KB5005322
In a follow-up, Markus then wrote me that he suspects the issue is also the one described in MS support post KB5005322. I had addressed the issue in the blog postWindows 10: Update KB5005932 fixes install error 0x800F0984. The solution is to perform a repair installation via Inplace Upgrade, and a helper update is supposed to enable this repair. Even though the above error code differs, the guess as to the cause of the error addressed above may be correct. Markus writes on this topic:
Nevertheless, we can’t just wildly upgrade here! You can just leave the deployment and the AD and tell the people to buy what they want.
It’s disturbing that Microsoft can’t offer any other solution than upgrading. You could almost get the idea that Microsoft doesn’t know how to fix their own product, which they even broke themselves.
It is also very alarming that the task “StartComponentCleanup” is still set to “Ready” and can make the OS unpatchable at any time. The question remains how to heal the currently almost 400 machines, because all options on the table are currently anything but usable.
Any of you affected? If so, is there a solution to fix more than one client in an enterprise environment without doing an in-place upgrade to fix it?
Similar articles:
Patchday: Windows 10 updates (August 10, 2021)
Windows 10: KB4551762 causes error 0x800f0988/0x800f0900
Windows 10: Update KB5005932 fixes install error 0x800F0984
Windows 10 Update KB5005033 bricks Alt-Tab functionality