December 13, 2022—KB5021255 (OS Build 22621.963)

^11/8/22 IMPORTANT Because of minimal operations during the holidays and the upcoming Western new year, there won’t be a non-security preview release for the month of December 2022. There will be a monthly security release (known as a “B” release) for December 2022. Normal monthly servicing for both B and non-security preview releases will resume in January 2023.

For information about Windows update terminology, see the article about the types of Windows updates and the monthly quality update types. For an overview of Windows 11, version 22H2, see its update history page.

Note Follow @WindowsUpdate to find out when new content is published to the Windows release health dashboard.

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Highlights

This update addresses a known issue that might affect Task Manager. It might display certain elements in the user interface (UI) in unexpected colors. Some parts of the UI might not be readable. This issue might occur if you have "Choose your mode" set to "Custom" in the Personalization > Colors section of Settings.
This update addresses security issues for your Windows operating system.

Improvements

This security update includes improvements that were a part of update KB5020044 (released November 29, 2022). When you install this KB:

This update addresses an issue that might affect Data Protection Application Programming Interface (DPAPI) decryption. The decryption of a certificate private key might fail. Because of this, virtual private network (VPN) and other 802.1 certificate-based authentication might fail. This issue might occur when you encrypt the DPAPI master key with a wrong value.
This update addresses a known issue that affects Direct Access. The issue might stop you from reconnecting to it after temporarily losing network connectivity. The issue might also occur when you switch between Wi-Fi networks or access points.

If you installed earlier updates, only the new updates contained in this package will be downloaded and installed on your device.

For more information about security vulnerabilities, please refer to the Security Update Guide website and the December 2022 Security Updates.

Windows 11 servicing stack update - 22621.898

This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates. Servicing stack updates (SSU) ensure that you have a robust and reliable servicing stack so that your devices can receive and install Microsoft updates.

Known issues in this update

Applies to	Symptom	Workaround
IT admins	Copying large multiple gigabyte (GB) files might take longer than expected to finish on Windows 11, version 22H2. You are more likely to experience this issue copying files to Windows 11, version 22H2 from a network share via Server Message Block (SMB) but local file copy might also be affected.Windows devices used by consumers in their home or small offices are not likely to be affected by this issue.	This issue is addressed in KB5022913.
IT admins	After installing this update, apps that use ODBC connections utilizing the Microsoft ODBC SQL Server Driver (sqlsrv32.dll) to access databases might fail to connect. You might receive an error within the app or you might receive an error from SQL Server, such as "The EMS System encountered a problem" with "Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver] Protocol error in TDS Stream" or "Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Unknown token received from SQL Server". Note for developers Apps affected by this issue might fail to fetch data, for example when using the SQLFetch function. This issue might occur when calling SQLBindCol function before SQLFetch or calling SQLGetData function after SQLFetch and when a value of 0 (zero) is given for the ‘BufferLength’ argument for fixed datatypes larger then 4 bytes (such as SQL_C_FLOAT). If you are unsure if you are using any affected apps, open any apps which use a database and then open Command Prompt (select Start then type command prompt and select it) and type the following command: `tasklist /m sqlsrv32.dll`	This issue is addressed in KB5022303.
IT admins	You might have intermittent issues saving, copying, or attaching files using 32-bit apps, which are large address aware and using the CopyFile API. Windows devices are more likely to be affected by this issue when using some commercial or enterprise security software that uses extended file attributes. Microsoft Office apps, such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel are only affected when using 32-bit versions and you might receive the error, "Document not saved." This issue is unlikely to be experienced by consumers using Windows devices in their home or on non-managed commercial devices. Apps are not affected by this issue if they are 64-bit or 32-bit and NOT large address aware.	This issue is addressed in KB5027231.

Applies to

Symptom

Workaround

IT admins

Copying large multiple gigabyte (GB) files might take longer than expected to finish on Windows 11, version 22H2. You are more likely to experience this issue copying files to Windows 11, version 22H2 from a network share via Server Message Block (SMB) but local file copy might also be affected.Windows devices used by consumers in their home or small offices are not likely to be affected by this issue.

This issue is addressed in KB5022913.

IT admins

After installing this update, apps that use ODBC connections utilizing the Microsoft ODBC SQL Server Driver (sqlsrv32.dll) to access databases might fail to connect. You might receive an error within the app or you might receive an error from SQL Server, such as "The EMS System encountered a problem" with "Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver] Protocol error in TDS Stream" or "Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Unknown token received from SQL Server".

Note for developers Apps affected by this issue might fail to fetch data, for example when using the SQLFetch function. This issue might occur when calling SQLBindCol function before SQLFetch or calling SQLGetData function after SQLFetch and when a value of 0 (zero) is given for the ‘BufferLength’ argument for fixed datatypes larger then 4 bytes (such as SQL_C_FLOAT).

If you are unsure if you are using any affected apps, open any apps which use a database and then open Command Prompt (select Start then type command prompt and select it) and type the following command:

tasklist /m sqlsrv32.dll

This issue is addressed in KB5022303.

IT admins

You might have intermittent issues saving, copying, or attaching files using 32-bit apps, which are large address aware and using the CopyFile API. Windows devices are more likely to be affected by this issue when using some commercial or enterprise security software that uses extended file attributes. Microsoft Office apps, such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel are only affected when using 32-bit versions and you might receive the error, "Document not saved."

This issue is unlikely to be experienced by consumers using Windows devices in their home or on non-managed commercial devices. Apps are not affected by this issue if they are 64-bit or 32-bit and NOT large address aware.

This issue is addressed in KB5027231.

How to get this update

Before installing this update

Microsoft combines the latest servicing stack update (SSU) for your operating system with the latest cumulative update (LCU). For general information about SSUs, see Servicing stack updates and Servicing Stack Updates (SSU): Frequently Asked Questions.

Install this update

Release Channel	Available	Next Step
Windows Update and Microsoft Update	Yes	None. This update will be downloaded and installed automatically from Windows Update.
Windows Update for Business	Yes	None. This update will be downloaded and installed automatically from Windows Update in accordance with configured policies.
Microsoft Update Catalog	Yes	To get the standalone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)	Yes	This update will automatically sync with WSUS if you configure Products and Classifications as follows: Product: Windows 11 Classification: Security Updates

If you want to remove the LCU

To remove the LCU after installing the combined SSU and LCU package, use the DISM/Remove-Package command line option with the LCU package name as the argument. You can find the package name by using this command: DISM /online /get-packages.

Running Windows Update Standalone Installer (wusa.exe) with the /uninstall switch on the combined package will not work because the combined package contains the SSU. You cannot remove the SSU from the system after installation.

File information

For a list of the files that are provided in this update, download the file information for cumulative update 5021255.

For a list of the files that are provided in the servicing stack update, download the file information for the SSU - version 22621.898.

December 13, 2022—KB5021255 (OS Build 22621.963)

Highlights

Improvements

Windows 11 servicing stack update - 22621.898

Known issues in this update

How to get this update

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