Microsoft releases recovery tool for the PCs affected by the CrowdStrike outage issues

Microsoft is introducing a fresh tool to address an issue causing blue screens of death (BSOD) on Windows PCs. This problem, caused by a CrowdStrike outage, had affected over 8 million Windows PCs globally.

In a blog post, Microsoft says the tool works as a recovery wizard that can help automate fixing those PCs affected by the CrowdStrike outage. You must have another working PC with 64-bit Windows and a minimum RAM of 8GB to use it. You also require a USB drive with at least 1 GB of storage and administrative rights on the system being fixed; for systems that use BitLocker encryption, you must possess BitLocker recovery keys, too.

The main concept behind this recovery tool is to generate a bootable USB drive that, when booting up the system experiencing issues, will automatically apply required fixes and execute issue-remediation scripts as recommended by CrowdStrike.

You must get the Microsoft Recovery Tool from the Microsoft Download Center. Then, after you extract the PowerShell script in the downloaded solution, run it from an elevated PowerShell prompt. The process goes through a few stages. You can choose the driver directory for image import, but often, you don’t need to do this. When the USB creation is finished, it’s time to use it on your system and follow the boot instructions. If BitLocker is turned on, you will be asked about the recovery key.

The tool is not only a blessing for IT admins who are already struggling with an overwhelming number of systems showing BSOD, but it also simplifies the process. The official guide presents the process in straightforward steps that everyone can comprehend, ensuring that even people without much technical knowledge can handle the recovery process effortlessly.

This new recovery tool from Microsoft is a more permanent solution to the CrowdStrike outage issues. Right after the outage, some Windows users quickly devised temporary fixes for the issue, which seemed to work, but they were too much to handle, even for IT managers. However, this new solution is easier to implement.