The Windows Media Creation Tool can be used to install Windows 11/10 or upgrade to a newer version of Windows. While it runs through smoothly on most occasions, there may be times when it runs into problems. At such times you may see error messages like:
- There was a problem starting setup
- There was a problem running this tool
- Something happened.
This may be accompanied with error codes: 0x80080005 – 0x90016, 0x800704dd – 0x90016, 0xc1800103 – 0x90002, 0x80070002 – 0x20016 or 0x80070456 – 0xA0019.
Windows Media Creation Tool Error
If you have faced a problem running this tool or starting setup, before you try once again, here are a few things you want to take a look at:
1] Check your USB size
Make sure you are using a USB which is 8GB or more
2] Flush the Software Distribution folder
Delete the contents of the SoftwareDistribution folder.
3] Disable your security software
Disable temporarily your antivirus software.
4] Free up Disk space
Use Disk Cleanup to free up Disk Space.
5] Check status of Windows Services
Make sure that the following required Windows Services are set to the following Startup types.
- Background Intelligent Transfer Service – Manual
- IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules – Automatic (Trigger Start)
- Server – Automatic
- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper – Manual (Trigger Start)
- Windows Update – Manual (Trigger Start)
- Workstation – Automatic.
You could even manually start all the services before you start using the Media Creation Tool.
6] Check for the presence of $Windows.~BT & $Windows.~WS folders
Delete $Windows.~BT & $Windows.~WS folders if they are present on your system.
7] Run Windows Update Troubleshooter
Run Windows Update Troubleshooter. This has been known to help.
Having done this, see if you are able to run the Windows Media Creation Tool successfully now.
If it does not help, check if your USB has been formatted using NTFS. If it has been, maybe you could reformat it using the FAT32 system and try again.
We hope this post helps you resolve the issue where your Windows Media Creation Tool is not working.
All the best!
