Windows Update 2026-05 Preview Update (KB5089573) (26200.85424)

Hello Morten Fly,

Thanks for reaching out. A bit of context that might be relevant first.

• This one, KB5089573, is a preview/optional cumulative on the Release Preview channel, and there are a couple of things going on around it. Microsoft has mentioned that the Secure Boot 2023 certificate rollout is moving through the April and May 2026 cumulatives, and that can legitimately cause a few extra "needs restart" prompts while the firmware certificate handoff completes, though that's usually two or three rounds, not ten.
• The release note for KB5089573 also lists a known issue where install fails at the reboot stage with error 0x800f0922 due to insufficient free space in the EFI System Partition.
• So if you check Settings > Windows Update > Update history and look at the KB5089573 entry, it'd help to know whether there's an error code shown next to it, since that would point us at the right branch.

In the meantime, the usual sequence for clearing a stuck "pending restart" state is:

• Run the Windows Update troubleshooter: Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters > Windows Update.
• Reset Windows Update components from an elevated Command Prompt (clears any stuck servicing transaction):
• net stop wuauserv && net stop cryptSvc && net stop bits && net stop msiserver
• ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
• ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old
  • net start wuauserv && net start cryptSvc && net start bits && net start msiserver
  • Restart, then check Windows Update again.
  • If it's still pending, try dropping the stuck transaction with DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions from an elevated prompt, then restart and retry.
• If the error in history does turn out to be 0x800f0922, that's the ESP-space known issue, and that one isn't really fixable from inside Windows Update — safer to wait for the fix Microsoft is preparing than to manually resize the partition.

One option worth keeping in mind, since this is a preview update rather than a mandatory one, is just skipping it and waiting for the June Patch Tuesday cumulative, which should supersede KB5089573 and may clear the pending state on its own once it installs. So if you'd rather not keep wrestling with this specific build, that's a reasonable path too.

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Update:

After 1-2 days the Microsoft Update tried to install KB5089573 again with the same result.

Again I had to use the hotfix @Thomas4-N suggested and again it helped sorting it out.

So in order to prevent it from asking for a restart that won't do anything I have now postponed all updates until mid June.

Usually new updates are released the 2nd Tuesday each month (at least that's how Microsoft used to do it), so by doing this I hope a new update that will fix the issue will be available.