Contributor
newsMay 18, 20264 mins
“Something didn’t go as planned. Undoing changes.” That’s all the clue some Windows 11 users will get when Microsoft’s May Security Update fails to install because of insufficient free space on the EFI System Partition (ESP), leaving their systems unprotected by the dozens of patches it contained.
This issue affects devices with limited free space available — typically 10MB or less — on the ESP. “On affected devices, the installation might proceed through the initial phases but fail during the reboot phase at approximately 35-36% completion,” Microsoft said in an advisory. It recommended changing a Windows registry setting to force the update, or to roll back changes and wait for a future update to fix the problem.
Consultants said it was a potentially serious issue given the unexpected exposure and the time the destined-to-fail patch takes to fail to install.
