- Windows 10 has pushed out an emergency patch to fix a bug with extended support
- The glitch meant the wizard for signing up for extended updates failed
- With this problem ironed out, if you grab the out-of-band update you should be good to enrol for extended support
Microsoft has released a patch to fix a problem whereby some Windows 10 PCs couldn’t sign up for extended security updates (the ESU scheme) due to a bug.
As we reported earlier this week, there was a glitch with the ESU signup that meant it simply wasn’t working for some Windows 10 users, falling over with an unhelpful error message that simply stated: “Something went wrong.”
Thankfully, Windows Latest spotted that Microsoft has released an emergency update to fix this issue.
This is patch KB5071959, which has been deployed out-of-band, meaning outside the normal release cadence for Windows patches.
Microsoft says of the update: “This update addresses an issue in the Windows 10 Consumer Extended Security Update (ESU) enrollment process, where the enrollment wizard may fail during enrollment. After applying this update, consumer devices should be able to successfully enroll in ESU using the ESU wizard.”
Note that nobody who’s in the ESU will get this patch; it’s only for those who haven’t been able to sign up for extended updates due to the aforementioned bug and error message.
Analysis: extended woes have come to an end
It’s good to see Microsoft is on the case here, and just in time, as the first security update for Windows 10 PCs enrolled for extended support just emerged yesterday (November 11). Indeed, I just got this patch – which is KB5068781 – on my Windows 10 PC, which is in the ESU scheme, this morning (it took a surprisingly long time to install, considering it’s just a barebones set of security fixes – or maybe there’s a bit more to this first delivery).
Windows Latest indicates that “all ESU-related issues” are patched with this emergency update, but as we saw earlier this week, aside from the bug, there are also regional barriers preventing signup for extended updates in some cases. I’m not sure if all those will have been resolved, but granted, it makes sense that they should be – given that the first update for the ESU is now out as noted.
Whether or not the whole world now has access to the ESU (which should be the case), you shouldn’t be seeing the unhelpful “Something went wrong” error message after applying this emergency patch.
That’s going to save a good deal of frustration, no doubt, and if you’ve been one of those annoyed by these ESU signup failures, head to Windows Update now. Run a check for updates and you should see KB5071959, and after you’ve installed that you should be good to go for a successful enrolment to the ESU – and then you can grab the November security update for Windows 10.
Extended support means you’ll be covered for security updates through to October 2026, but after that you’ll be facing the same dilemma that you’ve put off for a year – upgrade to Windows 11 (if possible), or look at an alternative OS such as a Windows-like flavor of Linux.
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