Yet another update shipped for version 1709

Jan 19, 2018 06:06 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has just released another cumulative update for systems running the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, this time without providing too many details as to what’s included in the patch.

Windows 10 cumulative update KB4073291 “provides additional protections for 32-Bit (x86) version of Windows 10 1709 after you install January 3, 2018—KB4056892 (OS Build 16299.192),” Microsoft says in the release notes, so most likely, it includes additional mitigations for the Meltdown and Spectre hardware bugs discovered earlier this month.

No other details were provided and users are recommended to download and install the update as soon as possible, especially because it includes security fixes for the two overly-discussed vulnerabilities.

What’s also important to remember, however, is that cumulative update KB4073291 comes with three different known issues, and users should check them out because they could affect system stability.

Known issues

First and foremost, there’s the bug that causes Windows Update History to incorrectly report the update failed to install with error 0x80070643. This issue has been there since update KB4054517, and Microsoft says that you can ignore it if the system correctly installed the cumulative update.

To make sure this happened, type About your PC in the Start menu and look for the OS build section – after installing this new cumulative update, it should be 16299.201.

Second of all, there’s a problem that’s more likely to impact enterprises, with Microsoft also offering a workaround until a fix is shipped in an upcoming update:

“When calling CoInitializeSecurity, the call will fail if passing RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_NONE under certain conditions. When calling CoInitializeSecurity, the call may fail when passing RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_NONE as the authentication level. The error returned on failure is STATUS_BAD_IMPERSONATION_LEVEL,” Microsoft explains.

The workaround, according to the software giant, is to change the authentication level parameter to RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_CALL.

And last but not least, this update causes stop errors and reboots on Windows 10 Fall Creators Update due to compatibility issues with some versions of antivirus software, and Microsoft says the only workaround here is to reach out to the antivirus developer to get more information.