Cannot install WinRE update

Question

Cannot install WinRE update

Brian Tillman [Outlook MVP 2007-2019] 25,920

I have Windows 10 22H2 and each month I receive a KB meant to update the WinRE environment. Each month, that particular update fails with the error 0x80070643, download failed. The other updates all work. Of course, I've checked in Microsoft's help pages and other places online and none of the solutions I find there have helped. I have a recovery partition of 15.1 GB with 8.06 GB used and 7.07 free, which should be plenty. I've even tried to update it manually and run into an issue each time (although I failed to document what the problem was). Any suggestions?

I did see some articles that said some Windows 10 systems will never update and I should just forget about it.

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2 answers

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Answer 1

Volume Z 1,765 Volunteer Moderator

Well...the update may fail for Windows RE disabled. Did you run

reagentc /enable

and

reagentc /info

already and if so, does it indicate the 15.1 GB partition in use?

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Answer 2

For Windows 10 22H2, 0x80070643 on WinRE updates does not always mean the update actually failed.

For the April 8, 2025 WinRE update KB5057589, Microsoft documented that Windows Update can show 0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE even when the WinRE update was applied successfully after restart. The failure message can remain until the next daily scan, then clear automatically.

What to do:

Install the latest WinRE update offered by Windows Update
- Microsoft states this issue was resolved in KB5063523 and later updates.
- Go to Start > Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates and install the latest available update.
Restart the PC after the WinRE update attempt
- For the known 0x80070643 issue, the WinRE update is typically applied successfully after restart even though Windows Update reports failure.
Wait for the next Windows Update scan
- Microsoft states the incorrect failure entry can remain temporarily and then disappear automatically after the next daily scan.
- In some cases, the incorrect message may still remain in Windows Update History even after the issue is fixed.
Do not assume this means the device is broken or unsupported
- The documented 0x80070643 issue for KB5057589 does not impact device functionality.
Only revisit partition sizing if needed
- WinRE updates require 250 MB of free space in the recovery partition.
- The reported recovery partition free space is far above that requirement, so lack of partition space is unlikely to be the cause in this case.

About the idea that some systems “will never update”: the provided Microsoft documentation does not say that. It says the April 2025 0x80070643 message was a known inaccurate error, and that the issue was addressed in KB5063523 and later updates.

If the current offered WinRE update is a newer one and it still repeatedly fails after restart and a later scan, the supported guidance in the available documentation is to make sure the recovery partition still has at least 250 MB free and then try Windows Update again.