Windows 10 PCs are locking and crashing after May’s security update

Microsoft dealt a heavy blow to Windows 10 with the most recent Patch Tuesday. May’s KB5058379 update is causing some annoying problems, like making Windows request the BitLocker recovery key on startup on some Windows 10 PCs. (Windows 10 normally only requests this key when changes are made to the hardware or BIOS settings.)

German blog Borncity reports on this problem as it relates to German users, but there are also reports in the US, like the one by Windows Latest. The problem affects Windows 10 computers in companies as well as PCs used privately, and information from affected users can be found both in the Microsoft forums and on Reddit.

Without the BitLocker recovery key, Windows 10 remains locked and therefore cannot be used. Some affected users have to go through system recovery and restore their OS to a point in time before the update installation. But that’s not all. Even after Windows 10 starts, some users are running into blue screen crashes.

As a workaround, it seems to help if you deactivate the “Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT)” option in the BIOS/UEFI. Instructions on how to do that have been provided by Windows Latest and BleepingComputer. According to Windows Latest, the problem affects computers from Dell, HP, and Lenovo running Windows 10 22H2 or Windows 10 21H2 Enterprise.

Microsoft doesn’t currently mention the above issues on the KB5058379 update support page, but this is an important security patch that you should install, and Windows should install it automatically once it’s available to your PC. Unless you have a good reason, don’t skip it.