November's Windows update is failing on some PCs. Yours at home almost certainly isn't one of them

A day after November's security update went out, Microsoft has confirmed that on some computers it won't go in. The update, KB5132061, either tries to install over and over or stops with one of three error codes: 0x80070306, 0x800f0989 or 0x800f0993.

Before you worry, check two things, because the group affected is narrow. According to Microsoft's support page for the update, the problem applies only to Windows 11 version 24H2 in its Enterprise and Education editions, the kind found on laptops issued by an employer, a school or a university. And BleepingComputer, which saw Microsoft's notice to IT administrators, reports that it only strikes machines that had installed KB5127936, the optional preview update from 28 October. A family PC on Windows 11 Home or Pro isn't in that group; those editions of 24H2 stopped receiving updates last month anyway.

If you do have one of those work or school laptops, the instruction is unusually simple: leave it switched on and connected to the internet. Microsoft is sending out an automatic repair through Windows Update, which began on 11 November at 10 a.m. Pacific time and should reach every affected device within 24 to 48 hours. Once it lands, the November update downloads and installs by itself. Nobody needs to uninstall anything. Only if the errors are still there after Friday is it time to tell your IT department or contact Microsoft Support.

On a home PC, an update that keeps failing has some other cause, and that's the situation Tendvane's Windows Update repair wizard is built for.