Microsoft Addresses Issue Breaking Windows 10 ‘Reset This PC’

Microsoft has resolved a known issue that caused the Windows 10 “Reset this PC” feature to fail in some cases, on both client and server platforms.

The ‘Reset this PC‘ feature allows Windows 10 customers to reinstall the operating system using either a local recovery image or the latest Windows 10 version available on Microsoft’s servers.

While resetting their PC, customers can also decide if they want to keep their files and remove apps and settings or to remove everything.

The known issue breaking ‘Reset this PC’ on Windows 10, version 1607 up to Windows 10, version 1909 was addressed by Microsoft with the release of the KB4598479 servicing stack update as part of the January 2021 Patch Tuesday.

Pulled security update caused flood of issues

The issue was introduced last year with the standalone KB4524244 security update released on the February 2020 Patch Tuesday.

While KB4524244 was designed to address a third-party Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot manager issue that could expose UEFI-enabled computers to attacks, it also caused the “Reset this PC” feature (aka Push Button Reset or PBR) to fail.

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“You might restart into recovery with ‘Choose an option’ at the top of the screen with various options or you might restart to your desktop and receive the error ‘There was a problem resetting your PC’,” Microsoft explained.

Four days after its release, Microsoft pulled KB4524244 from Windows Update after confirming user reports regarding freezes, boot problems, and installation issues.

Workaround available

Users experiencing this issue who can’t immediately install KB4598479 can also use a workaround that requires uninstalling the problematic KB4524244 update.

To uninstall KB4524244 and get rid of the problems follow this procedure :

1. Select the start button or Windows Desktop Search and type update history and select View your Update history.
2. On the Settings/View update history dialog window, Select Uninstall Updates.
3. On the Installed Updates dialog window, find and select KB4524244 and select the Uninstall button.
4. Restart your device.

BleepingComputer also has a detailed tutorial on how to uninstall Windows updates from the command prompt or at boot with the help of the Advanced Options feature.

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In October, Microsoft shared fix for a similar known issue affecting Windows 10, version 2004 devices for certain hardware configurations.