Microsoft recently published detailed step-by-step guides that could help IT admins and regular users fix their PCs broken by the recent CrowdStrike outage (Microsoft says the problem took down over 8 million Windows PCs worldwide). Now, Microsoft has released a new tool that can speed up and automate the recovery process. It is available in the Microsoft Download Center.
Using the CrowdStrike recovery tool on Windows PCs requires a separate working PC with a 64-bit Windows and at least 8GB of RAM. You also need a USB drive with a minimum of 1GB of storage, Administrative privileges to execute the tool, and BitLocker recovery keys on affected systems with BitLocker encryption.
In a nutshell, the tool creates a bootable USB drive that, when launched, applies the necessary fixes automatically and executes "issue-remediation scripts" suggested by CrowdStrike, saving users, especially IT admins, a lot of time and effort. Once everything is done, the affected system should boot into Windows without any issues.
Here is the official guide on how to use the utility. On a separate working Windows machine:
- Download the signed Microsoft Recovery Tool from the Microsoft Download Center.
- Extract the PowerShell script from the downloaded solution.
- Run MsftRecoveryToolForCS.ps1 from an elevated PowerShell prompt.
- ADK download and install will start, may take several minutes to complete.
- You will be prompted to optionally select a driver directory for image import. We recommend you select “N” to skip this step. Some devices may need specific keyboard and/or mass storage drivers, however “N” is sufficient for most devices. NOTE: The tool will import any SYS and INI recursively under the specified directory.
- Insert the USB drive when prompted and provide the drive letter.
- Once the USB creation is complete, remove the USB from the Windows client.
On the affected system that needs recovery:
- Insert the USB key into an impacted device.
- Reboot the device.
- During restart, press F12 (or follow manufacturer-specific instructions for booting to BIOS).
- From the BIOS boot menu, choose Boot from USB and continue.
- The tool will run.
- If BitLocker is enabled, the user will be prompted for the BitLocker recovery key. Include the dashes in for the BitLocker recovery key when entering. The recovery key options are provided here.
- The tool will run the issue-remediation scripts as recommended by CrowdStrike.
- Once complete, reboot the device normally.
You can learn more about the tool in a post on the official Tech Community website.