Yesterday's spectacularly successful Crowdstrike update took IT downtime to a whole new level. Banks, hospitals, supermarkets, airports - you name it, they were hit. Windows PCs worldwide decided they'd had enough and refused to boot up.

UPDATE 21/07(2024

Microsoft reports on its own blog that they are not directly responsible, but have taken measures to support their affected customers.

Although the percentage of Windows devices affected is small (0.1%), the incident shows the far-reaching impact on the economy and society. In total, according to Microsoft, 8.5 million devices worldwide were affected.

https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/07/20/helping-our-customers-through-the-crowdstrike-outage/

Crowdstrike's epic update snafu

Crowdstrike, in a move that will surely be remembered for years to come, rolled out a faulty update for its Falcon sensor, turning countless computers into very expensive paperweights. User complaints flooded the internet faster than you can say blue screen of death. The update unleashed the dreaded blue screens on Windows hosts, and while there's a workaround, it demands manual intervention on every single afflicted system, if still bootable somehow. Fun, right?

This technological marvel of an update has thrown a wrench into the operations of numerous organizations globally. According to The Guardian, banks, airlines, telecom providers, TV and radio stations, and even supermarkets have joined the chaos. And it's not just the USA and Germany feeling the pain; Australia, New Zealand, India, and many other regions are sharing in the joy.

BlueCon: The admins' plan B for when things go south

Crowdstrike quickly sprang into action, providing all the details about the incident on its support portal. If you're into community discussions, you can also check out some lively content on Reddit.

To tackle the issue, users can theoretically boot into Safe Mode or the Windows recovery environment. Once there, delete the file C-00000291*.sys in the directory C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike. Your system should then spring back to life.

However, this fix works only if the admin can still access the emergency boot options on the PC. Sometimes these options do not work or are not installed. If these options fail, you'll need a gem like the admin tool O&O BlueCon as your trusty Plan B.

Because O&O BlueCon is your ultimate lifesaver when your Windows PC decides it's done booting up. It lets you fire up a rescue environment, giving you the power to take the necessary steps to revive your system. With BlueCon's integrated File Explorer, you can easily navigate to the troublesome directory and delete the pesky file causing all the trouble. Your machine should then spring back to life, good as new.

To nip the current BSODs in the bud in the current update desaster, simply head to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike and delete the file named C-00000291*.sys – the asterisk means it could have a variety of endings, so be vigilant. This should prevent the blue screen from rearing its ugly head again.

O&O BlueCon No-Brainer Offer Alert

Usually, an O&O BlueCon admin license costs around USD 1390. However, thanks to the Crowdstrike fiasco, O&O Software is now offering licenses for a jaw-dropping USD 69 only.*

*And no, I am not getting any affiliate money or perks for this shoutout! I am just spreading the word because this deal is an absolute no-brainer for every savvy admin who wants to be ready for the next tech disaster.

Happy recovering!