Security Update KB5044281 for Windows Server 2022 causes Hyper-V error "Hyper Visor is not running"

Question

After security update for Microsoft windows KB5044281 was installed on a Windows Server Standard 2022 21H2, Hyper-V virtual machines are not able to be started due to the error "An error occurred while attempting to start the selected virtual machine. Virtual machine could not be started because the hypervisor is not running".

Everything was running fine before this update, the VMMS service is running and set to automatic. I performed the BCEDIT command to no avail per older articles found.

This update cannot be uninstalled through "Installed Updates" as it performs some DISM operations. Attempting to uninstall this update using DISM fails in an attempt to remove the package that I was guessing was the problem.

If you want to remove the LCU

To remove the LCU after installing the combined SSU and LCU package, use the DISM/Remove-Package command line option with the LCU package name as the argument. You can find the package name by using this command: DISM /online /get-packages.

Running Windows Update Standalone Installer (wusa.exe) with the /uninstallswitch on the combined package will not work because the combined package contains the SSU. You cannot remove the SSU from the system after installation.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/october-8-2024-kb5044281-os-build-20348-2762-e063059c-9122-4324-86e8-4f6f3383a20a

Answer 1

Hello,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community forum.

Based on the description, I understand your question is related to uninstall KB5044281.

Try below steps to uninstall the update, then monitor the issue:

Create folder C:\temp\cab 

Download the update package KB5044281 from Microsoft Update Catalog to C:\temp 

Expand the .msu file to extract the .cab file by running below command in CMD: 

expand -F:* C:\temp{.msu file name with extension} C:\temp\cab

You will get a .cab file from last step, use the following DISM command to remove package: 

Dism /online /remove-package /packagepath:c:\temp\cab{.cab file with extension}

If there is no error, reboot the machine

Have a nice day.

Best Regards,

Molly

Answer 2

Thank you for your reply, there are so many packages, it is not possible to know which one was the issue.

I downloaded 22H2 and performed an in place upgrade. This corrected the issue and I was able to start the VM's. However the OS is the LTSC version so it remained on 21H2.

Answer 3

Hello,

Thanks for sharing the trouble-shooting steps, this may help others with similar issue.

Best regards,

Molly