Windows 11’s latest patch declares war on BIOS updates for some Lenovo laptops, blocking them as a security risk in a bizarre turn of events

Some Lenovo ThinkPad owners can’t install BIOS updates because of a security tweak Microsoft applied in the latest Windows patches
This is happening to those installing via the Lenovo BIOS Update Utility or Vantage app
A fix is inbound already, and as a workaround, you can install via Windows Update

Some Lenovo laptops are seeing BIOS updates fail to work thanks to a change that Microsoft just made in Windows 11 (and Windows 10).

Windows Latest spotted a support post from Lenovo addressing the problem which affects those trying to apply an upgrade to the BIOS with its ThinkPad notebooks.

Apparently, the issue is due to a tweak Microsoft made to block a certain executable file (WinFlash64.exe) in the latest patches for Windows, a change made for security reasons.

When trying to apply a BIOS update using either Lenovo’s BIOS Update Utility or the Lenovo Vantage app, some ThinkPad owners could see the process fail, accompanied by some kind of error message. There are a few errors that might pop up, but all amount to the same thing – the update didn’t work.

What’s happening is that following the patch, and Microsoft updating its security blocklist therein, the update is being detected as a ‘vulnerable driver,’ meaning that it’s a risk to the system – hence Windows refuses to run the process.

As mentioned, the changes to the blocklist were made in the latest patches for Windows 11 24H2, 23H2, and 22H2, along with Windows 10 22H2 – all active versions of Microsoft’s desktop OS, in other words.

Lenovo | Thinkpad T14s Gen 6 Snapdragon

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

A fix is already inbound – or you can use Windows Update instead

As Windows Latest points out, normally Lenovo recommends using its BIOS Update Utility for refreshing your laptop’s firmware, as it’s generally more reliable than other methods.

Obviously given this new issue, that isn’t the case, and so the easiest way to work around the glitch is to use Windows Update to apply the BIOS update for your Lenovo ThinkPad. That is, assuming that Windows 11 (or 10) has found the relevant patch and flagged it under Windows Update. If not, all you can do is keep checking for updates and hope it turns up soon enough.

Meanwhile, Lenovo has been working on remedying this problem, and according to Windows Latest, a fix is in place with the newest BIOS version (v1.61) that’s rolling out. So, if you can bag that latest spin on the BIOS, it should work okay installing via Lenovo’s BIOS Update Utility – fingers crossed.

At any rate, this should be a temporary hiccup for Lenovo ThinkPad owners, but it’s pretty strange that a BIOS update would be flagged as a risk like this in the first place. That said, of course there’s always a small level of risk involved in any BIOS update – such is the nature of the beast – and if you want to read up more on the correct procedure for applying these, to make sure you get it right, we’ve got an article dedicated to just that.

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