Windows 10 2004/20H2: Preview Update KB5000842 (March 29, 2021)

[German]Microsoft has released a preview update for Windows 10 version 2004 and 20H2 on March 29, 2021. These are updates that are supposed to fix bugs. Here is a brief overview of what has been fixed by this update KB5000842.

A list of the updates can be found on this Microsoft website. The preview updates are optional and are used in companies to test features that will be rolled out on patchday in April 2021. 

Update KB5000842 for Windows 10 Version 2004/20H2

Cumulative Update KB5000842 is available for Windows 10 version 2004 and 20H2, as well as for the Windows Server counterparts. It bumps the OS build to 19041.906 (Windows 10 2004) or 19042.906 (Windows 10 20H2), and includes quality improvements but no new operating system features. Here's the list of improvements, called highlights by Microsoft:

• Updates an issue with zoom that occurs when using Microsoft Edge IE Mode on devices that use multiple high-DPI monitors.
• Updates an issue that makes high dynamic range (HDR) screens appear much darker than expected.
• Updates an issue that causes video playback to be out of sync in duplicate mode when you use multiple monitors.
• Updates an issue that displays nothing or shows "Computing Filters" indefinitely when you filter File Explorer search results.
• Updates an issue that makes the split layout unavailable for the touch keyboard when you rotate a device to portrait mode.
• Informs users when a child account in the Family Safety plan has administrative privileges.
• Updates an issue that prevents you from closing Toast Notifications using the Close button on touchscreen devices.
• Updates an issue with 7.1 channel audio technology.
• Updates an issue that causes a device to stop working if you delete files or folders that OneDrive syncs.

A Servicing Stack Update (SSU) is integrated in the update. This makes improvements to the Windows Update component. Here is the list of all changes and improvements.

• Addresses an issue with zoom that occurs when using Microsoft Edge IE Mode on devices that use multiple high-DPI monitors.
• Allows administrators to use a Group Policy to enable extended keyboard shortcuts, including Ctrl+S, for users in Microsoft Edge IE Mode.
• Addresses an issue that prevents the icon for a Toast collection from appearing in the Action Center if the icon file's URI contains spaces.
• Addresses an issue that makes high dynamic range (HDR) screens appear much darker than expected.
• Addresses an issue that causes video playback to be out of sync in duplicate mode when you use multiple monitors.
• Addresses an issue that might cause applications to stop working while you type Japanese characters using the Microsoft Japanese Input Method Editor (IME) in compatibility mode.
• Addresses an issue that might cause a device to stop responding during hybrid shutdown.
• Addresses an issue that prevents users from adjusting or turning off the touchpad because of administrative settings.
• Addresses a window rendering issue that causes content in a window to flash frequently when FlipEx is used.
• Addresses a window rendering issue that causes content in a window to flash frequently when multi-plane overlay (MPO) is used.
• Addresses an issue with Japanese input that occurs after focus changes between boxes in Microsoft Edge.
• Addresses an issue that displays nothing or shows "Computing Filters" indefinitely when you filter File Explorer search results.
• Addresses an issue that makes the split layout unavailable for the touch keyboard when you rotate a device to portrait mode.
• Informs users when a child account in the Family Safety plan has administrative privileges.
• Addresses an issue that prevents you from closing Toast Notifications using the Close button on touchscreen devices.
• Addresses an issue with a heap leak that might cause explorer.exe to consume high amounts of memory.
• Updates the Volgograd, Russia time zone from UTC+4 to UTC+3.
• Adds a new time zone, UTC+2:00 Juba, for the Republic of South Sudan.
• Addresses an issue with the Windows Event Log Forwarding client, which returns the first matching certificate without checking private key permissions. With this update, the Windows Event Log Forwarding client selects the client's certificate only if the Network Service has read permissions for the private key.
• Addresses an issue that causes PowerShell-based monitors to stop working when you enable transcription on the systems.
• Addresses an issue that stops BranchCache from working if you activate Windows using Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) license.
• Addresses an issue that prevents Windows 10 Home edition devices from upgrading to the Windows 10 Pro Education edition using mobile device management (MDM) services such as Microsoft Intune.
• Addresses an issue that prevents App-V applications from opening and generates error 0xc0000225.
• Addresses an issue in which some machines enrolled with an MDM service fail to sync if the device manufacturer's name contains a reserved character.
• Addresses an issue with using a configuration service provider (CSP) policy to configure a custom setting for Audit Other Logon/Logoff events. The custom setting fails to take effect.
• Addresses an issue that causes a system to stop working when no Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is present in the system. The error code in TpmTasks.dll!TrackTPMStateChanges is c0000005.
• Addresses an issue that causes multiple instances of appidcertstorecheck.exe to run on a system when AppLocker is enabled and the system is not on the internet.
• Addresses an issue with credential roaming that occurs when Windows Hello for Business is enabled.
• Addresses an issue that prevents performance monitoring tools from displaying logged data for single instance counter objects.
• Addresses an issue that prevents the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge from working. This issue occurs when Microsoft Edge is used in combination with Microsoft App-V and fonts are enabled inside the virtual environment.
• Addresses an issue that causes a black screen or delays signing in to a Hybrid Azure Active Directory joined machine while the machine attempts to connect to login.microsoftonline.com.
• Addresses an issue that causes the system to stop working and generates error code 0xC9.
• Addresses an issue with 7.1 channel audio technology.
• Addresses an issue that turns on Caps lock unexpectedly when using RemoteApp.
• Enables Windows to retrieve updated printer capabilities to ensure that users have the proper set of selectable print options.
• Updates support for hole punch and stapling locations for print jobs with long edge first paper feed direction on certain printers.
• Addresses an issue with high memory usage when performing XSLT transforms using MSXLM6.
• Addresses an issue that might cause File Explorer and other applications to stop responding for several minutes. This issue occurs after a client reconnects to the corporate network and attempts to use mapped drives to access file shares on the corporate network.
• Addresses an issue that prevents Server Message Block 1 (SMB1) clients from accessing the SMB share after restarting the LanmanServer service.
• Addresses an issue that might cause the cluster network interface to stop working for a short time. As a result, the network interface controller (NIC) is marked as failed. When the network is operational again, the system might not detect that the NIC is working and the NIC remains in a failed status.
• Addresses an issue with signing in to a device that is in the current domain by using the default user profile of a device that is in a different, but trusted domain. The profile service of the current domain cannot retrieve the default user profile from the trusted domain and uses the local default user profile instead.
• Addresses an issue that causes a device to stop working if you delete files or folders that OneDrive syncs.
• Addresses an issue that prevents Windows from activating Windows 10, version 2004 using the OA 3.0 key after installing KB4598291.
• Addresses an issue with evaluating the compatibility status of the Windows ecosystem to help ensure application and device compatibility for all updates to Windows.
• Removes the Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop application that is out of support and installs the new Microsoft Edge. For more information, see New Microsoft Edge to replace Microsoft Edge Legacy with April's Windows 10 Update Tuesday release.
• Addresses an issue that prevents users from using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to connect to a Windows Server 2019 device that is in Desktop Experience mode.
• Addresses an issue to allow our enterprise partners to work with the Microsoft Support program to create customized mitigations.
• Addresses an issue that causes Remote Desktop sessions to end unexpectedly.
• Addresses an issue with an HTTP Keep-Alive connection in Azure Front Door. After completing a previous request and response to keep the connection open, Azure Front Door will try to reuse the connection. After an idle timeout, a race condition might occur that closes the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection. As a result, the client might fail with an invalid server response.
• Addresses an issue that prevents you from specifying up to 255 columns when you use the Jet Text installable indexed sequential access method (IISAM) format.

Several things in particular caught my eye in the list of changes. First, the preview update removes the old Edge browser from Windows 10. In addition, the activation issue I mentioned in the blog post Windows 10 Version 2004/20H2: Workaround for activation error 0xc004c003 caused by update KB5001692 seems to be fixed. And the update fixes the problem that Explorer can freeze for minutes.

This update is optional and should be shown as a link on the Windows Update page of the Settings app under Optional Updates. Only when the link is selected will the update be downloaded and installed. This update is also available in the Microsoft Update Catalog, but not via WSUS. In the support article, Microsoft mentions the certificate problem that has existed for a while, so you can read more about it there. In the support article there are also hints about prerequisites and how to uninstall the integrated SSU. 

Microsoft has also released an update directly for the Windows Update client to improve its reliability. This is rolled out outside of Windows Update if the machine is compatible and not an LTSC variant, and updates have not been blocked via GPO.

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