During last night's maintenance window you deployed the latest cumulative Windows Update to a Windows Server 2022 virtual machine that hosts your department's file shares. After the scheduled reboot, users report they can no longer access any SMB shares. When you sign in through Safe Mode you find the Server (LanmanServer) service is stopped and fails to start with the message "Error 2 - The system cannot find the file specified." Event Viewer shows no disk or network errors, and network connectivity to the VM is normal. Running dism /online /get-packages lists the new cumulative update with the state Install Pending.
Which action should you perform first to restore the file-sharing service while you investigate the cause?
Update the virtual NIC driver to the latest vendor-supplied version and rebind the TCP/IP stack.
Uninstall the most recent cumulative update and reboot the server to roll back the incomplete patch.
Delete and recreate the affected shares and their permissions, then try to restart the Server service.
Clear the DNS resolver cache and restart the DNS Client (Dnscache) service.
The missingāfile error and the Install Pending status indicate that the operating-system patch did not complete successfully. An improperly applied (partially installed) update can remove or replace critical binaries, preventing dependent services such as LanmanServer from starting. The quickest way to return the server to a known-good state is to roll back the defective update: uninstall it and reboot. Microsoft's support guidance explicitly recommends removing a recently installed update when it causes functional problems and you need to regain operability.
Re-creating shares, updating NIC drivers, or flushing DNS will not start the Server service as long as its executable or registry values are missing. Therefore, uninstalling the most recent cumulative update is the correct first step; further analysis can then be done in a stable environment.
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What does the 'Install Pending' status in DISM indicate?
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What is the Server (LanmanServer) service, and why is it important?
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Why is rolling back a cumulative update often the first troubleshooting step?