Users continue to experience problems with the latest Windows 10 update. Here's what to do to get back to using your PC
It was supposed to "fix all the problems" caused by previous Windows 10 updates, but it's creating a slew of new ones. And Microsoft couldn't help but admit them, urging users to uninstall the update. We're talking about update KB4535996, which was released in late February 2020.
The update in question was released as "optional" to fix over 50 different issues that popped up in previous months due to other OS updates. Among the issues to be resolved, and indeed resolved (at least on most PCs on which KB4535996 was installed), were those related to sudden and unjustified freezing of the search functionality within the Start menu and File Explorer. It would seem that most of these problems have disappeared, but at a very high cost: sudden system freezes, unjustified crashes, inability to use even the task manager and, in the most serious cases, even to log in.
Windows 10 KB4535996 update: all the problems encountered
The most frequent, and all in all less serious, problem resulting from the installation of update KB4535996 is a strong slowdown of the operating system startup. Sometimes the system does not even start, and keeps rebooting several times before it does. Other users complain about continuous system crashes, blue screens or simply apps crashing one after another. The problem in this case is that the Task Manager, the app that is usually used to "kill" other apps that have crashed, also crashes. The only solution, in this case, is to shut down the computer from the physical button. Then there are the problems arising from the SignTool.exe application crashing/crashing resulting in error 1073741502. SignTool.exe is the tool for Windows 10 administrators that serves to verify, from the command line, the digital signature of files.
Windows 10 Update Issues KB4535996: How to Fix Them
Microsoft has been clear: it has admitted all these issues (a sign that it has been bombarded by user reports) and stated, as usual, that it is working to fix them. In the meantime, there is only one solution: uninstall update KB4535996 from Windows Update. Just open the update tool and then go to View Update History > Uninstall Updates and look for KB4535996, and then remove it and restart your PC.