Microsoft says some users might see 0x80070643 installation failures when trying to deploy the April 2025 Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates.
The known issue impacts the KB5057589 WinRE update on Windows 10, versions 22H2 and 21H2, and KB5057588 on Windows Server 2022 systems.
However, as Redmond told those affected, these installation errors can be ignored since they are inaccurate and don’t impact the functionality of the Windows device.
“After installing the April 2025 Windows Recovery Environment update [KB5057588], you might see the following error message in the Windows Update settings page: 0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE. This error message is not accurate and does not impact the update or device functionality,” Microsoft said in an update to the Windows release health dashboard.
“This error is observed when the device installs the WinRE update when there is another update in a pending reboot state. Although the error message suggests the update did not complete, the WinRE update is typically applied successfully after the device restarts.”
While Windows Update might continue to display that the updates have failed to install, this will change after the following daily scan and the device restart, when the failure message is cleared automatically, and the updates will no longer be offered.
Microsoft is now working on a fix for this known issue, which will roll out to those affected with a future update.
In August 2024, Redmond also retired Windows security updates released during the January 2024 Patch Tuesday that triggered 0x80070643 errors when installing Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates on Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server devices.
The announcement came two months after the company told users a fix would not come and asked them to resize the WinRE partitions to fix the issue manually.
However, before their retirement, eSentire’s Threat Response Unit observed fraudulent IT support websites pushing malicious PowerShell “fixes” for 0x80070643 errors triggered by these faulty WinRE updates to infect Windows users with information-stealing malware.
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