The optional update KB5004296 is out for both Windows 10 v20H2 and v21H1. Here are the direct links to download KB5004296 offline installer.
Microsoft did not release a new mandatory cumulative update on Patch Tuesday; it released a new optional update called KB5004296 for Windows 10 users running v20H2 and v21H1 on Friday. As always, the KB5004296 update fixes and improves a lot of the things in Windows 10. One of the important things is that this update fixes issues with gaming performance. For the past few months, gamers are getting less than expected performance and lower FPS in many popular games. Microsoft released many updates to fix the problem, and this new optional update is another of those in the chain. According to Microsoft, the issues are not completely fixed, and you should get the expected gaming performance in Windows 10.
Other than the fixes for gaming performance, the update also includes several other fixes. These fixes and improvements include but are not limited to issues with search indexers, problems with Input Method Editor, File Explorer, Group Policy Editor, Registry Editor, Windows Filtering Platform, Networking, Audio, and more. To put it simply, the KB5004296 update is packed with a lot of fixes and improvements.
Unlike the regular cumulative updates, an optional update will not install automatically on your computer. You have to trigger the download manually from the Windows Update page in the Settings app. To install the KB5004296 update, open the Settings app, go to the “Update & security > Windows Update” page and click the “Check for updates” button. If the update is available for your computer, you will see it listed under the “Optional Quality Updates” section. Click on the “Download and install” button to install KB5004296.
Alternatively, use the link below to download KB5004296 offline installer.
Download KB5004296 Offline Installer
As always, the KB5004296 update is available as an offline installer via the Microsoft Update Catalog website.
Go to this webpage, find your Windows 10 version and click the “Download” button next. Another window or tab will open. Here, click the available link, and the offline installer is downloaded to your computer. After downloading, double-click on the installer and follow the wizard to install KB5004296.
KB5004296 change log
Addresses an issue with searchindexer. After you sign out, searchindexer continues to hold handles to the per user search database in the profile path, “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\<SID>\”. As a result, searchindexer stops working and duplicate profile names are created.
Addresses an issue that prevents gaming services from opening certain games for desktop users.
Addresses an issue that prevents you from entering text using the Input Method Editor (IME). This might occur, for example, after startup if you have set the power options to shut down a laptop by closing its lid.
Changes the functionality for uploading new activity into Timeline. If you sync your activity history across your devices using your Microsoft account (MSA), you cannot upload new activity into the Timeline. You can still use Timeline and see your activity history (information about recent apps, websites, and files) on your local device. This does not affect Azure Active Directory (AAD) accounts. To view web history, Microsoft Edge and other browsers provide the option to view recent web activities. You can also view recently used files using Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft Office.
Addresses an issue that might cause the File Explorer window to lose focus when you are mapping a network drive.
Addresses an issue that causes File Explorer to stop working after reaching 99% completion when you are deleting many files on a mapped network drive.
Addresses a timing issue in the Group Policy Registry Telemetry that causes Group Policy extension processing to fail.
Addresses an issue that repeatedly rebuilds the Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) filters. This issue occurs when a device is enrolled in a mobile device management (MDM) service and “MDMWinsOverGP” is set.
Addresses an issue with an MDM service that fails to correctly apply certain junk mail rules.
Addresses an issue that always reports the update build revision (UBR) as zero (0) on a device during enrollment to an MDM service.
Addresses an issue that causes the enrollment of the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) certificate to fail with the error, “0x80090027 NTE_INVALID_PARAMETER”. This issue occurs when the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) provider (the Microsoft Software Key Storage Provider) stores the key.
Addresses an issue with auditing events 4624 and 5142 that display the wrong event template when Dutch is the display language.
Addresses an issue that causes System Integrity to leak memory.
Addresses an issue that plays the sound for selecting something in a game loudly when you press the trigger button on a game controller.
Addresses an issue that prevents power plans and Game Mode from working as expected. This results in lower frame rates and reduced performance while gaming.
Addresses an issue in which “Network Internal Access” appears on the taskbar network icon on systems that access the internet from certain domains.
Addresses an issue in which the Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI) fails to detect internet connectivity after you connect to a virtual private network (VPN).
Addresses an issue that causes printing to stop or prints the wrong output. This issue occurs when you print using a USB connection after updating to Windows 10, version 2004 or later.
Addresses a rare issue that might degrade performance in applications that call Gdiplus.dll!GdipMeasureString in a tight loop with a new font on each call. This issue occurs after installing Windows updates released on and after February 2021.
Addresses an issue that incorrectly routes some audio channels when streaming using certain fixed channel layouts.
Addresses an issue that always displays devices that RemoteFX USB redirects as “Remote Desktop Generic USB Device” instead of the actual device name.
Addresses an issue in which Set-RDSessionCollectionConfiguration does not set the camerastoredirect:s:value custom property.
Addresses a Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) domain controller memory leak that is reported in Privileged Access Management (PAM) deployments.
Addresses an issue that prevents you from accessing a network drive that maps to a Distributed File System (DFS) root after you sign out.
Addresses an issue that prevents you from reconnecting to mapped network drives after you sign in and displays an access denied error. This issue occurs if you use the net use /deep option to create multiple drive mappings to different paths on the same encrypted file share.
Addresses an issue that prevents access to files on a Server Message Block (SMB) share when you enable Access Enabled Enumeration (ABE).
Addresses an issue that prevents the Windows Server service from starting if SrvComment is greater than 128 characters.
Addresses an issue in the Windows Network File System (NFS) client that might prevent you from renaming a file after mounting an NFS share. This issue occurs if you rename the file using File Explorer, but does not occur if you rename the file using command line.
Addresses an issue with an unhandled Open File dialog critical exception. As a result, Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) applications might close unexpectedly.
Adds a new policy that creates generic strings and removes branding-specific terms, such as “Windows” or “PC”, for IoT Enterprise editions. For example, we changed “computer” to “device”. Instead of “Getting Windows ready,” we changed that to “Getting things ready” and so on. These generic strings display on a user’s screen when an update is in progress.
Addresses an issue in which the Storage Sense page in Settings might incorrectly report the size of some storage devices that use the GUID Partition Table (GPT). The affected devices will incorrectly report in Storage Sense that the size is twice as large as the size reported in File Explorer.
That is it.
