Windows 10 2004-21H1: Preview Updates (June, 21, 2021)

[German]Following the preview update for Windows 10 V1909 (see Windows 10 V1909: Update KB5003698 released (June 15, 2021), Microsoft has released another optional cumulative (preview) update for Windows 10 version 2004, 20H2 and 21H1, as well as their Windows Server counterparts, as of 6/21/2021. The update fixes performance degradation in gaming, glitchy Dolby 5.1 audio playback, washed out display in "News and Interests", and many other bugs. Here's an overview of this update.

The information can be found in the Windows 10 update history page. It should be noted that these updates are so-called preview or preview updates. These are optional and must be manually triggered for download and installation by default. 

Update KB5003690 for Windows 10 V2004, 20H2, 21H1

The cumulative (Preview) update KB5003690 for Windows 10 Version 2004, 20H2, 21H1 and the Windows Server counterparts raises the build to 19041.1081, 19042.1081 and 19043.1081 (depending on the Windows 10 version). The update includes a number of bug fixes, but no new operating system features and no security fixes. Here is the list of changes called highlights:

• Updates an issue in a small subset of users that have lower than expected performance in games after installing KB5000842 or later. 
• Updates an issue that causes the Japanese Input Method Editor (IME) to suddenly stop working while you are typing.
• Updates an issue in which signing in using a PIN fails. The error message is "Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again."
• Updates an issue that, in certain cases, takes you out of the exclusive virtual reality (VR) app and back to Windows Mixed Reality Home when you press the Windows button on the controller.
• Updates an issue that causes blurry text on the news and interests button on the Windows taskbar for some screen resolutions.
• Updates an issue with Search box graphics on the Windows taskbar that occurs if you right-click the taskbar and turn off News and interests. This graphics issue is especially visible when using dark mode.
• Updates an issue that might prevent you from using your fingerprint to sign in after startup or waking up your device from sleep.
• Updates an issue that might cause a high-pitched noise or squeak in certain apps when you play 5.1 Dolby Digital audio using certain audio devices and Windows settings.

Of particular note are the fixes for performance issues in games, the washed out display of the News and Interests feature in the taskbar, and the squeaking in Dolby Digital 5.1 audio playback. The full list of fixed bugs and changes can be found below.

• Addresses an issue that causes communication between apps to stop working after you enable the "AppMgmt_COM_SearchForCLSID" policy.
• Addresses a performance issue in the MultiByteToWideChar() function that occurs when it is used in a non-English locale.
• Addresses an issue that prevents sorting from working properly when using multiple versions of National Language Support (NLS) sorting.
• Addresses an issue in a small subset of users that have lower than expected performance in games after installing KB5000842 or later.
• Addresses an issue that causes the Japanese Input Method Editor (IME) to suddenly stop working while you are typing.
• Addresses an issue that causes WMIMigrationPlugin.dll to return an error when you attempt to migrate in offline mode.
• Addresses an issue with the Set-RuleOption PowerShell command that fails to provide the option for the Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policy to treat files signed with an expired certificate as unsigned.
• Addresses an issue that causes Windows to stop working when it uses AppLocker to validate a file that has multiple signatures. The error is 0x3B.
• Addresses an issue that might cause BitLocker to go into recovery mode after updating the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) firmware. This occurs when the "Interactive logon: Machine account lockout Threshold" policy is set and there were incorrect password attempts.
• Addresses an issue that causes Windows to generate many AppLocker or SmartLocker success events.
• Addresses an issue with authenticating for a domain controller when Credential Guard and Remote Credential Guard are enabled.
• Addresses an issue that prevents certain screen reader apps from running when Hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI) is enabled.
• Addresses an issue in which signing in using a PIN fails. The error message is "Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again."
• Adds Windows support for System Management Mode protections (firmware protection version 2.0) for certain processors that support Secure Launch.
• Addresses an issue that, in certain cases, takes you out of the exclusive virtual reality (VR) app and back to Windows Mixed Reality Home when you press the Windows button on the controller. With this update, when you press the Windows button, the Windows Start menu appears. When you close the Start menu, you will go back to the exclusive VR app.
• Improves the accuracy and efficiency of sensitive data analysis in the Microsoft 365 Endpoint data loss prevention (DLP) Classification Engine.
• Addresses an issue with the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) VPN service on remote access server (RAS) servers. Periodically, users cannot connect a VPN to the server over the IKE protocol. This issue might start several hours or days after restarting the server or restarting the IKEEXT service. Some users can connect while many others cannot connect because the service is in DoS Protection mode, which limits incoming connection attempts.
• Addresses an issue that causes Wi-Fi connections to fail because of an invalid Message Integrity Check (MIC) on a four-way handshake if Management Frame Protection (MFP) is enabled.
• Addresses an issue that might cause a VPN to fail after renewing a user auto-enrolled certificate. The error message is "There are no more files".
• Addresses an issue with the Tunnel Extensible Authentication protocol (TEAP) that replaces the outer identity with "anonymous" even though identity privacy is not selected or is disabled.
• Addresses an issue that causes Remote Desktop sessions to stop responding while the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is enabled.
• Adds support for the USB Test and Measurement Class.
• Addresses an issue in Adamsync.exe that affects the syncing of large Active Directory subtrees.
• Addresses an error that occurs when the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) bind cache is full, and the LDAP client library receives a referral.
• Addresses a redirector stop error that is caused by a race condition that occurs when the system deletes binding objects when connections close.
• Addresses an issue that prevents users from setting or querying disk quotas on the C drive.
• Addresses an issue that causes 16-bit apps that run on NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM) to stop working when you open them.
• Addresses an issue that causes fontdrvhost.exe to stop working when Compact Font Format version 2 (CFF2) fonts are installed.
• Addresses an issue that might prevent End User Defined Characters (EUDC) from printing correctly because of font fallback settings.
• Addresses an issue that causes blurry text on the news and interests button on the Windows taskbar for some display configurations.
• Addresses an issue with Search box graphics on the Windows taskbar that occurs if you use the taskbar's context menu to turn off News and interests. This graphics issue is especially visible when using dark mode.
• Addresses an issue that might cause signing in with your fingerprint to fail after the system starts up or resumes from sleep.
• Addresses an issue that might cause a high-pitched noise or squeak in certain apps when you play 5.1 Dolby Digital audio using certain audio devices and Windows settings.

The update is optional and is only offered when the user explicitly checks for updates in the settings page. The update can also be downloaded and installed from the Microsoft Update Catalog. It is not available in WSUS or Windows Update for Business.

It is required that the May 11, 2021 update  KB5003173 is installed before the preview update is installed. Starting with Windows 10 version 2004, Microsoft includes Servicing Stack Updates (SSUs) in the last cumulative update for the month. Microsoft lists quite a few known issues with this update. Details can be found in the support post for KB5003690.

In addition, Microsoft has made direct improvements to the update client for Windows 10 to improve its reliability.

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