Microsoft releases tool to repair Windows machines hit by CrowdStrike issue

When reboot doesn’t work

Microsoft has released a recovery tool that’s designed to help IT admins repair Windows machines that were impacted by CrowdStrike’s faulty update that crashed 8.5 million Windows devices on Friday. The tool creates a bootable USB drive that IT admins can use to help quickly recover impacted machines, The Verge reports.

While CrowdStrike has issued an update to fix its software that led to millions of Blue Screen of Death errors, not all machines are able to automatically receive that fix. Some IT admins have reported rebooting PCs multiple times will get the necessary update, but for others, the only route is having to manually boot into Safe Mode and deleting the problematic CrowdStrike update file.

Tool makes recovery process less manual

Microsoft’s recovery tool now makes this recovery process less manual, by booting into its Windows PE environment via USB, accessing the disk of the affected machine, and automatically deleting the problematic CrowdStrike file to allow the machine to boot properly. This avoids having to boot into Safe Mode or a requirement of admin rights on the machine because the tool is simply accessing the disk without booting into the local copy of Windows. If a disk is protected by BitLocker encryption, the tool will prompt for the BitLocker recovery key and then continue to fix the CrowdStrike update.

The recovery tool has also been updated to include a new PXE boot option and even a boot to Safe Mode option that allows IT admins to access BitLocker-enabled devices without a recovery key. You’ll need to have access to an account with local administrator rights on the device if you pick the Safe Mode option.

Microsoft also has separate recovery steps available for Windows Virtual Machines running on Azure, and the company has also published recovery steps for all Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices over at its support site.