Update

This issue was resolved with the release of Deep Freeze 8.62 on December 9, 2020. Faronics recommends that customers update to the latest release to address this specific problem. Updated versions of the Deep Freeze product can be downloaded either through Faronics Labs, for customers in North America, or through Faronics Customer Center, for customers in the rest of the world.

Problem

In some cases, customers may experience issues with the installation of Deep Freeze on client machines running the 2004 release of Windows 10. Customers who have successfully installed Deep Freeze may also see problems with freezing the computer after performing updates or other tasks that required the system thawed.

Cause

This issue is caused by cumulative updates delivered with the Windows 2004 build and being incorrectly flagged as "in progress". This results in Deep Freeze seeing updates as "in progress" on client workstations when the update process has completed successfully. Deep Freeze has a failsafe logic in place to ensure the workstation is not rebooted Frozen if there are ongoing updates to avoid boot loop issues. 

Faronics has contacted Microsoft regarding this issue and is working with them towards a resolution of this issue. 

Workaround

At this time there are a few options to address these issues;

For problems with the install of Deep Freeze removing the contents of the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder will clear the flags that are preventing the installation of the software.

To ensure that the contents of this folder can be removed you will need to ensure that the Background Intelligent Transfer Agent and the Windows Update services are stopped on the client machine, and then restarted once the folder is cleared.

For systems that have Deep Freeze installed and are unable to re-freeze;

1 - Leave the computer alone.

Deep Freeze incorporates a number of checks to determine if it is safe to return a machine to a protected state. Those checks are subject to a series of timeouts that will eventually, if left alone, return the computer to a protected state. 

Depending on the state of the system and what check is involved this may take between 2 to 12 hours to complete the process of returning the system to a protected state.

During this time the system must be left alone - rebooting the system manually or through the console will cause the failsafe and extend how long it will take for the systems to resolve the issue on their own.

2 - Reinstall Deep Freeze

In cases where the machine needs to be returned to service quickly removing Deep Freeze and reinstalling the product after removing the contents of the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder will clear the flags that are preventing the installation of the software.