Redmond releases new patch for Windows 10 TP

Dec 9, 2014 14:34 GMT  ·  By

No other Windows 10 preview build will be released until 2015, so Microsoft uses the remaining time to improve the existing versions and fix some of the biggest annoyances to make sure that testers get to try the operating system without wasting too much time diagnosing issues.

Last week, Microsoft introduced a brand new update for Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879, hoping to repair a bug that crashed Explorer.exe every once in a while.

But the update didn’t work exactly as expected for everyone out there, and some actually reported issues with it, so Microsoft’s development team created a new fix to fix the fix.

Today, Gabriel Aul, Microsoft’s employee who reveals new Windows 10 details on social channels, explained that approximately 12 percent of the PCs reported a problem when trying to install the original KB3020114 update, so the company wanted to release a revised version as soon as possible.

What caused the issue?

According to Aul himself, the problem was caused by two other bugs that were found in the Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879.

First of all, there’s the new System Compression code specifically aimed at SSDs and only available in this particular build. Microsoft says that this new feature was implemented to reduce disk usage by the operating system, but in some cases, “the logic for low-space detection gets inverted, and we compress automatically as a background operation.”

The second bug is affecting computers with system compression enabled and Microsoft says that there was an error in the way the filesystem tracks deletes. “The installer to think that the temp files failed to extract correctly, so the installer fails because it thinks it cannot complete,” Aul said.

How to fix the bug

Basically, the fix comes down to just a few steps that do not take more than a couple of minutes to complete. Obviously, Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879 is needed, so reboot your computer, and once you’re back in the operating system, launch Command Prompt with administrator privileges and type in the following command:

code
compact /u /exe /s:%windir%\winsxs\filemaps
After that, run Windows Update and check for updates. The KB3020114 should show up once again, so select and install it right away. A reboot will also be required when you complete this procedure, so just do this and you should be good to go.

Keep in mind that this workaround is only aimed at computers running Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879 and experiencing issues with the Explorer.exe patch. Otherwise, just continue using Windows 10 as before.

Windows 10 build 9879 (6 Images)

Windows 10 build 9879 Start menu
Windows 10 build 9879 taskbar optionsWindows 10 build 9879 system info
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