Tag: KB4489881

March 2019 Patching Issues – WDS

Update:
Microsoft has updated KB4489883 with a known issue surrounding the WDS issue.

Below extract is from:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/4489883/windows-8-1-update-kb4489883

After installing this update, there may be issues using the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) to start a device from a Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server configured to use Variable Window Extension. This may cause the connection to the WDS server to terminate prematurely while downloading the image. This issue does not affect clients or devices that are not using Variable Window Extension. To mitigate the issue, disable the Variable Window Extension on WDS server using one of the following options:

Option 1:
Open an Administrator Command prompt and type the following:

Wdsutil /Set-TransportServer /EnableTftpVariableWindowExtension:No

Option 2:
Use the Windows Deployment Services UI.

  1. Open Windows Deployment Services from Windows Administrative Tools.
  2. Expand Servers and right-click a WDS server.
  3. Open its properties and clear the Enable Variable Window Extension box on the TFTP tab.

Option 3:
Set the following registry value to 0:

“HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WDSServer\Providers\WDSTFTP\EnableVariableWindowExtension”.

Restart the WDSServer service after disabling the Variable Window Extension.

Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

There are known issues with Windows Deployment Services (WDS) and the March 2019 patches.

The problem patches are KB4489883 and KB4489881.
The issue currently affects Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019.

There are two workarounds:

  1. Go to wds -> properties -> tftp settings and untick Enable variable window extension;
  2. Uninstall the two problematic patches.