Microsoft releases easier CrowdStrike fix

The massive global tech outage that occurred on Friday due to an error in an update from the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike may largely be out of the public's mind today. And that's thanks to IT admins and departments around the world who sprung into action to fix the problem that took down many airlines, hospitals, and banks' Windows-based networks.

However, while things may be all and well for consumers, ITs are actually still dealing with getting their company's computers back up and running. As Mashable previously reported, the faulty CrowdStrike update that went out requires a technical fix and direct access to each individual affected device. So, for big organizations, this will take awhile.

But, ITs now have a major assist thanks to an easier recently released fix from Microsoft.

Microsoft's CrowdStrike recovery tool

CrowdStrike issued an updated fix soon after the faulty version went out, but for many computers that had automatically installed the update it was too late. Once installed the fix became a manual process that involved booting the computer in Safe Mode to get around the Windows "Blue Screen of Death" and then deleting the update file.

While this could be a bit technical for the average Windows user, it's not a problem for an IT professional. The issue, though, is that this is a time-consuming process: Boot into Safe Mode. Find the update file. Delete. Repeat. It has to be done for every single affected individual machine. 

Microsoft's fix, released over the weekend, speeds things up considerably. Yes, the fix still requires manual work on every single computer. But, the more tedious processes are automated. 

The recovery tool by Microsoft utilizes a bootable USB drive that logs into a lightweight version of Windows known as Windows Preinstallation Environment or Windows PE. From there, it automatically deletes the CrowdStrike update file that's causing the issue on the affected computer.

As The Verge points out, this saves time as it  "avoids having to boot into Safe Mode or a requirement of admin rights on the machine, because the tool is simply accessing the disk without booting into the local copy of Windows." 

While a third-party was responsible, the only affected devices were computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system. So, it appears Microsoft felt compelled to act in order to help out its many affected customers.

Microsoft has also provided detailed steps to fixing the CrowdStrike issue on various versions of Windows computers, including details on the USB tool.