Battlefield 6 and WARDOGS Crash on Launch After Windows Update KB5124010. Here Is How to Remove It.

On September 22 Microsoft shipped KB5124010, the optional non-security preview update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. It takes the OS to build 26100.9550 or 26200.9550 depending on which version you are on, and the release notes list 46 changes: File Explorer previews, Emoji 17.0, a remappable Copilot key, Bluetooth fixes, a File History repair. Nothing about games.

Within a day the Battlefield 6 subreddit and the Steam forum had threads describing the same thing: the game launches, runs for 15 to 30 seconds, and closes to the desktop with no error box. WARDOGS players got a more useful symptom, a launch failure with the code WD-L020. On September 23 Team17 pinned a notice on the WARDOGS forum saying their team had identified a compatibility problem with KB5124010 and giving the uninstall steps as the workaround, with the caveat that removing a Windows update "is entirely optional and should be done at your own risk." An EA community manager in the Battlefield thread said it had been passed to the team. TechSpot, Neowin and The FPS Review all reached the same conclusion from the same reports.

As of September 28 Microsoft's known-issues list for the update mentions a Credential Guard domain-trust problem and some USB audio devices failing to start. Games are not on it. So this is a player-confirmed, developer-acknowledged, Microsoft-silent bug, and the fix is on you.

First, find out whether you have it

KB5124010 is optional. On a normal PC it only lands if you went into Settings, Windows Update, Optional updates and clicked Download and install. There are two ways to get it without doing that. The toggle labelled "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" installs preview updates automatically, and a lot of people turned it on once and forgot. And PCs enrolled in the Windows Insider program on the Release Preview channel got it earlier in September.

The check takes ten seconds. Open Settings, Windows Update, Update history, and look under Quality updates for KB5124010. Or press Win+R, type winver, and read the build number: 26100.9550 or 26200.9550 means you have it. Anything ending in a lower number means you do not, and your crash has a different cause.

Remove it

1. Settings, then Windows Update, then Update history.
2. Scroll to the bottom and open Uninstall updates.
3. Find "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5124010)" and choose Uninstall.
4. Restart when asked. The rollback takes a few minutes.

If you would rather do it from a command prompt run as administrator:

wusa /uninstall /kb:5124010

Then stop it coming back. Under Windows Update, use Pause updates for one to two weeks, and if the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" toggle is on, turn it off. Players in the Battlefield thread on the Insider program report the update reinstalling itself until they left the program, so unenroll first if that is you.

One thing you do not need to do is roll back your graphics driver. The EA reply in the Steam thread suggested it alongside removing the update, which is standard support advice. If the game worked before the update installed and stopped after, the driver did not change.

What you lose, and when it stops being optional

Not much. The 46 changes are quality-of-life items and the File History fix. None of it touches games, DirectX or drivers, and you can read the full list yourself. Living without it for a month costs you a new emoji set.

The reason to pay attention is the calendar. The optional preview in the fourth week of a month normally becomes the mandatory cumulative update on the second Tuesday of the next month, which is October 13. If whatever broke Javelin and Elytra ships unchanged in that update, everyone on Windows 11 gets it, and Pause updates only buys 35 days. Microsoft, EA or the anti-cheat vendors have two weeks to sort it out before the problem stops being confined to people who clicked an optional button. That is the date to watch, and this post will be updated when something moves.

Why "verify game files" does nothing here

Nobody has published the mechanism, so this next part is inference, and it is labelled as such.

Battlefield 6 runs EA Javelin, EA's in-house kernel-level anti-cheat. WARDOGS runs Elytra, Bulkhead's own kernel-level anti-cheat, which replaced Easy Anti-Cheat before the Early Access launch. They share no code. Both stopped working after the same Windows update, both fail at the same point in launch, and both come back when the update is removed. Two unrelated kernel drivers breaking together is a change in what Windows lets a kernel driver or a protected process do, not a bug in either game.

That is why the usual checklist is a waste of an evening. Verifying files, reinstalling the anti-cheat, clearing shader caches, disabling overlays, updating the GPU driver: none of those touch the thing that changed. It also means the reports of Battlefield 2042 crashing, which is also on Javelin, are plausible, and that other Javelin titles are the obvious next question. EA Sports FC 27 has had its own launch-crash and stutter complaints since it went live on September 17, before this update existed, so treat any FC 27 report as unconfirmed until someone shows it clearing on uninstall.

And it is not your hardware. The reports come from Nvidia and AMD cards, Intel and AMD processors, prebuilts and home builds. If you have been reading forum advice about power limits or memory timings this week, stop.

The Secure Boot red herring

Both games attract "turn on Secure Boot" replies to every crash thread, for a reason. Battlefield 6 does require Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 by design, and our WARDOGS requirements post covers why a number of WARDOGS players found the same setting cleared a launch crash even though Bulkhead does not officially require it.

Neither applies here. If Secure Boot were the problem the game would never have launched, and these are machines that played fine on Sunday and broke on Tuesday. Do not go into the BIOS chasing a Windows update. Remove the update, confirm the game runs, and leave the firmware alone.

The short version

• KB5124010 is the optional September 22 preview update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, builds 26100.9550 and 26200.9550.
• Battlefield 6 closes 15 to 30 seconds after launch with no error. WARDOGS fails with WD-L020. Team17 confirmed the link on September 23. Microsoft's known-issues list does not mention it as of the 28th.
• Check Update history or winver. If you have it, uninstall it, restart, pause updates, and turn off the automatic latest-updates toggle. Insiders leave the program first.
• Two unrelated kernel anti-cheats, Javelin and Elytra, fail identically, so it is the OS, not your drivers, firmware or hardware.
• October 13 is when this preview normally becomes mandatory. That is the deadline for a real fix.

Related reading

• WARDOGS PC requirements, including the Secure Boot question
• RuneScape: Dragonwilds crash fixes, for a crash that is the game's fault rather than Windows'
• FPS calculator with Battlefield 6 and WARDOGS profiles