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For weeks, Windows administrators grappled with a phantom menace: persistent, incorrect firewall errors that appeared after rebooting devices running Windows 11 24H2. Microsoft has now extinguished this nuisance with the KB5062660 preview cumulative update, released this week. The fix will reach all users via August's Patch Tuesday, closing a chapter of unnecessary troubleshooting headaches.

The Ghost in the Event Log

The bug, first acknowledged by Microsoft on July 3rd, caused Event Viewer to log spurious 'Config Read Failed' errors (Event ID 2042) with the cryptic message "More data is available" under Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. Crucially, these warnings were entirely benign—no actual firewall functionality was compromised. Microsoft initially advised admins to simply ignore the noise, attributing it to an experimental feature still in development that hadn't been fully integrated into the OS.

"Although this event is logged in Event Viewer every time the device is restarted, they do not reflect an issue with Windows Firewall, and can be disregarded," Microsoft stated, downplaying the impact while scrambling for a solution.

A Pattern of Reporting Woes

This incident isn't isolated. Microsoft recently resolved several similar bugs generating false alarms across Windows environments:
- April 2025: Fixed 0x80070643 errors during Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates.
- October 2024: Addressed incorrect BitLocker encryption warnings on managed devices, caused purely by a reporting flaw.

The recurrence underscores a broader challenge: as Windows evolves with new features, edge cases in diagnostic logging can create distracting 'alert fatigue' for sysadmins. Microsoft's July 8th apology—after prematurely marking the firewall bug as resolved—further illustrates the communication tightrope walked during such incidents.

Why This Matters Beyond the Noise

While the false alerts didn’t compromise security, they wasted valuable IT resources. Teams spent hours investigating non-existent threats, diverting attention from real vulnerabilities. For developers and infrastructure leads, it’s a reminder to scrutinize monitoring tools and validate errors before initiating deep dives. As Microsoft accelerates Windows 11 24H2 deployments, this fix restores confidence in the reliability of its diagnostic systems—a small but critical win for enterprise productivity.

Source: BleepingComputer