Microsoft: error 0x80070643; pretend you don't see it

It's been over a year, but Microsoft is still having issues with the Windows Recovery (WinRE) Environment in Windows 10. In an updated support document, Microsoft confirmed that some people may see the 0x80070643 error again after KB5057589, a WinRE security update released on April 8.

As we mentioned, it's been over a year, because this isn't the first time we've seen WinRE updates causing error 0x80070643 on Windows Update. The Windows 10 error 0x80070643 first appeared in January 2024 , when Microsoft released the security update for WinRE.

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Many users were unable to install the update due to the size of the Recovery drive partition, which caused the error. But the problem is that the error was affecting even those who do not have small storage space. And that's where things got more complicated, because no one could ignore the error message:

At one point, Microsoft said it wouldn't try to fix the problem because it couldn't figure out what to do.

It took about months for Microsoft to acknowledge the problem with Windows recovery updates, and we were finally done with the 0x80070643 errors because users either gave up or reinstalled Windows 10.

However, after the release of Windows 10 KB5057589 (WinRE update on April 8, 2025), new error reports from users began to appear.

In an updated support document, Microsoft confirms that you may encounter the error “0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE” after installing the KB5057589 update for Windows 10 WinRE, but the error doesn’t mean anything.

"This error is observed when the device installs the WinRE update when there is another update in a pending restart state," Microsoft says. According to the company, the WinRE update “usually applies successfully” despite the failure message.
Ignore the 0x80070643 errors and it will disappear automatically.

So, what can you do if you see errors while checking for updates in Windows 10? Nothing, just ignore it. Microsoft officially states this….

The company says it's looking into a fix and will try to fix this error again sometime in the future. For now, if you see 0x80070643 on Windows Update, pretend you don't see it (company advice?).

Remember that Microsoft has been trying to fix the WinRE bug for 15 months.

giorgos

George is still wondering what he is doing here….