Microsoft releases recovery tool to fix Windows machines hit by CrowdStrike outage
The aim is to minimize downtime and disruption for users worldwide
If your Windows machines went belly-up and turned blue in the recent CrowdStrike software update issue, Microsoft has just rolled out a new recovery tool to help you easily fix your machines.
The outage was triggered by an update to CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software, causing Windows systems to crash. Around 8.5 million devices in the US, UK, Australia, and worldwide—were impacted by the problem, according to a blog post by David Weston, Microsoft’s Vice President of Enterprise and OS Security.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
While the number of affected devices sounds relatively low - less than 1% of all Windows machines— it translated to disruptions for businesses big and small, from banks and airlines to retailers and rail networks. A single crashed computer for an individual business quickly cascades into disruption for millions of users using the service.
ClowdStrike had subsequently pushed a fix for the problem, but getting it to all the affected machines wasn't a smooth ride. Not all machines could automatically receive the corrective update and some IT admins have reported having to reboot their PCs multiple times to get the update, while others had to manually boot into Safe Mode to delete the problematic CrowdStrike file. Talk about a hassle, right?
To make things easier, Microsoft has developed a recovery tool to simplify the repair process for the affected Windows machines. This tool allows IT administrators to create a bootable USB drive that can quickly recover impacted machines. By booting into Microsoft’s Windows PE environment, the tool accesses the disk of the affected machine and automatically deletes the problematic CrowdStrike file, enabling the system to boot properly without requiring Safe Mode or admin rights. For disks protected by BitLocker encryption, the tool prompts for the BitLocker recovery key before proceeding with the fix.
Additionally, Microsoft has also provided separate instructions for fixing Windows Virtual Machines running on Azure and detailed recovery steps for all Windows 10 and 11 devices on its support site.
With this new recovery tool, Microsoft aims to minimize downtime and disruption for users worldwide by ensuring that affected devices can be swiftly and effectively restored to operational status.
