Release Date:

12/14/2021

Version:

OS Builds 19041.1415, 19042.1415, 19043.1415, and 19044.1415

EXPIRATION NOTICE

IMPORTANT As of 9/12/2023, this KB is only available from Windows Update. It is no longer available from the Microsoft Update Catalog or other release channels.  We recommend that you update your devices to the latest security quality update. 

11/9/21 IMPORTANT Because of minimal operations during the holidays and the upcoming Western new year, there won’t be a preview release (known as a “C” release) for the month of December 2021. There will be a monthly security release (known as a “B” release) for December 2021. Normal monthly servicing for both B and C releases will resume in January 2022. 

UPDATED 12/14/21 REMINDER Windows 10, version 2004 has reached end of servicing as of this release on December 14, 2021. To continue receiving security and quality updates, Microsoft recommends that you update to the latest version of Windows 10.

To update to one of the newer versions of Windows 10, we recommend that you use the appropriate Enablement Package KB (EKB). Using the EKB makes updating faster and easier and requires a single restart. To find the EKB for a specific OS, go to the Improvements and fixes section and click or tap the OS name to expand the collapsible section.

11/17/20

For information about Windows update terminology, see the article about the types of Windows updates and the monthly quality update types. For an overview of Windows 10, version 2004, see its update history page

Note Follow @WindowsUpdate to find out when new content is published to the Windows release health dashboard.

Highlights

  • Updates security for your Windows operating system. 

Improvements and fixes

Note To view the list of addressed issues, click or tap the OS name to expand the collapsible section.

Important: Use EKB KB5003791 to update to Windows 10, version 21H2.

This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include: 

  • This build includes all the improvements from Windows 10, version 2004.

  • No additional issues were documented for this release. 

Important: Use EKB KB5000736 to update to Windows 10, version 21H1.

This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include: 

  • This build includes all the improvements from Windows 10, version 2004.

  • No additional issues were documented for this release.

Important: Use EKB KB4562830 to update to Windows 10, version 20H2.

This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:

  • This build includes all the improvements from Windows 10, version 2004.

  • No additional issues were documented for this release.

Note: This release also contains updates for Microsoft HoloLens (OS Build 19041.1173) released December 14, 2021. Microsoft will release an update directly to the Windows Update Client to improve Windows Update reliability on Microsoft HoloLens that have not updated to this most recent OS Build.

This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:

  • This update contains miscellaneous security improvements to internal OS functionality. No additional issues were documented for this release.

If you installed earlier updates, only the new fixes contained in this package will be downloaded and installed on your device.

For more information about the resolved security vulnerabilities, please refer to the new Security Update Guide website and the December 2021 Security Updates.

Windows 10 servicing stack update - 19041.1371, 19042.1371, 19043.1371, and 19044.1371

  • This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates. Servicing stack updates (SSU) ensure that you have a robust and reliable servicing stack so that your devices can receive and install Microsoft updates.

Known issues in this update

Symptom

Workaround

Devices with Windows installations created from custom offline media or custom ISO image might have Microsoft Edge Legacy removed by this update, but not automatically replaced by the new Microsoft Edge. This issue is only encountered when custom offline media or ISO images are created by slipstreaming this update into the image without having first installed the standalone servicing stack update (SSU) released March 29, 2021 or later.

Note Devices that connect directly to Windows Update to receive updates are not affected. This includes devices using Windows Update for Business. Any device connecting to Windows Update should always receive the latest versions of the SSU and latest cumulative update (LCU) without any extra steps. 

To avoid this issue, be sure to first slipstream the SSU released March 29, 2021 or later into the custom offline media or ISO image before slipstreaming the LCU. To do this with the combined SSU and LCU packages now used for Windows 10, version 20H2 and Windows 10, version 2004, you will need to extract the SSU from the combined package. Use the following steps to extract the SSU:

  1. Extract the cab from the msu via this command line (using the package for KB5000842 as an example): expand Windows10.0-KB5000842-x64.msu /f:Windows10.0-KB5000842-x64.cab <destination path>

  2. Extract the SSU from the previously extracted cab via this command line: expand Windows10.0-KB5000842-x64.cab /f:* <destination path>

  3. You will then have the SSU cab, in this example named SSU-19041.903-x64.cab. Slipstream this file into your offline image first, then the LCU.

If you have already encountered this issue by installing the OS using affected custom media, you can mitigate it by directly installing the new Microsoft Edge. If you need to broadly deploy the new Microsoft Edge for business, see Download and deploy Microsoft Edge for business.

After installing the June 21, 2021 (KB5003690) update, some devices cannot install new updates, such as the July 6, 2021 (KB5004945) or later updates. You will receive the error message, "PSFX_E_MATCHING_BINARY_MISSING".

For more information and a workaround, see KB5005322.

After installing this update, text input using a Japanese IME might be entered out of order or the text cursor might move unexpectedly in apps that use the multibyte character set (MBCS). This issue affects both the Microsoft Japanese IME and third-party Japanese IMEs.

This issue is resolved in KB5009543.

After installing the November 22, 2021 or later updates, recent emails might not appear in search results in the Microsoft Outlook desktop app. This issue is related to emails that have been stored locally in a PST or OST files. It might affect POP and IMAP accounts, as well as accounts hosted on Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft 365. If the default search in the Microsoft Outlook app is set to server search, the issue will only affect the advanced search.

This issue is resolved in KB5010342.

Alternate resolution if you have not installed updates dated February 8, 2022 or later

 This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR). Please note that it might take up to 24 hours for the resolution to propagate automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices. Restarting your Windows device might help the resolution apply to your device faster. For enterprise-managed devices that have installed an affected update and encountered this issue, you can resolve this by installing and configuring a special Group Policy (preferred).

Important Verify that you are using the correct Group Policy for your version of Windows.

Group Policy: Windows 10, version 20H2, Windows 10, version 21H1 and Windows 10, version 21H2

When attempting to reset a Windows device with apps that have folders with reparse data, such as OneDrive or OneDrive for Business, files which have been downloaded or synced locally from OneDrive might not be deleted when selecting the “Remove everything” option. This issue might be encountered when attempting a manual reset initiated within Windows or a remote reset. Remote resets might be initiated from Mobile Device Management (MDM) or other management applications, such as Microsoft Intune or third-party tools. OneDrive files that are “cloud only” or have not been downloaded or opened on the device are not affected and will not persist, as the files are not downloaded or synced locally.

Note Some device manufacturers and some documentation might call the feature to reset your device, "Push Button Reset", "PBR", "Reset This PC", "Reset PC", or "Fresh Start".

This issue was addressed in KB5011487. Some devices might take up to seven (7) days after the installation of KB5011487 to fully address the issue and prevent files from persisting after a reset. For immediate effect, you can manually trigger Windows Update Troubleshooter using the instructions in Windows Update Troubleshooter. If you are part of an organization that manages devices or prepared OS images for deployment, you can also address this issue by applying a compatibility update for installing and recovering Windows. Doing that makes improvements to the "safe operating system" (SafeOS) that is used to update the Windows recovery environment (WinRE). You can deploy these updates using the instructions in Add an update package to Windows RE using KB5012419 for Windows 10, version 21H2, Windows 10, version 21H1, and Windows 10, version 20H2.

Important If devices have already been reset and OneDrive files have persisted, you must use a workaround above or perform another reset after applying one of the workarounds above.

How to get this update

Before installing this update

Microsoft now combines the latest servicing stack update (SSU) for your operating system with the latest cumulative update (LCU). For general information about SSUs, see Servicing stack updates and Servicing Stack Updates (SSU): Frequently Asked Questions.

Prerequisite:

For Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) deployment or when installing the standalone package from Microsoft Update Catalog:

If your devices do not have the May 11, 2021 update (KB5003173) or later LCU, you must install the special standalone August 10, 2021 SSU (KB5005260).

Install this update

Release Channel

Available

Next Step

Windows Update and Microsoft Update

Yes

None. This update will be downloaded and installed automatically from Windows Update.

Windows Update for Business

No

No longer available.

Microsoft Update Catalog

No

No longer available.

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

No

No longer available.

If you want to remove the LCU

To remove the LCU after installing the combined SSU and LCU package, use the DISM/Remove-Package command line option with the LCU package name as the argument. You can find the package name by using this command: DISM /online /get-packages.

Running Windows Update Standalone Installer (wusa.exe) with the /uninstall switch on the combined package will not work because the combined package contains the SSU. You cannot remove the SSU from the system after installation.

File information

For a list of the files that are provided in this update, download the file information for cumulative update 5008212

For a list of the files that are provided in the servicing stack update, download the file information for the SSU - version 19041.1371, 19042.1371, 19043.1371, and 19044.1371

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