Fix: Windows 10 Setup Error 0x800704dd-0x90016

The 0x800704dd-0x90016 error is typically caused by insufficient permissions on your account due to which if you try to upgrade your system to Windows 10, you’ll be left with this error. The error often pops up while you are using the Media Creation Tool to upgrade to Windows 10. Media Creation Tool is a utility from Microsoft that can be used to update, install or repair your system.

The tool is very efficient and mostly solves the errors that are faced by the users while using the standard way of updating their systems. However, if you are not using an administrator account while using the tool, it will, most of the times, prompt you with such errors. The said error can be taken as an example. To start off, let us go through the causes in more detail.

What causes the Windows 10 Setup Error 0x800704dd-0x90016?

The error can be very tedious if one doesn’t know what’s causing it. From what we gathered, the error is caused by the following factors —

Follow the below-mentioned solutions to ensure a workaround.

Solution 1: Disable Third-party Antivirus

Antiviruses are important for a system especially if you are not a tech guru. They’re tasked with keeping your system safe from harmful malware, however, they do have their cons. The major one would be that they almost intervene with all the processes on the system and eventually, an error pops up due to it. Therefore, make sure to disable or completely remove your antivirus from your system before initiating the upgrade.

Solution 2: Switch to Administrator Account

For most of the users that encountered this error, it was due to insufficient permissions. Using Windows Media Creation Tool typically requires administrative authorities, hence, make sure that you’re logged in as an administrator. If not, please log out of your current account and log in as an administrator.

If you don’t have access to the administrator account on your system, you can make a new user account or skip to the next solution.

Solution 3: Using the Hidden Administrator Account

Whenever you install Windows, an administrator account is created that is, by default, hidden. In case you don’t want to create an administrator account, you can use the hidden account to run the upgrade. Here’s how to enable the account:

1. Open an elevated command prompt by pressing Winkey + X and selecting Command Prompt (Admin) from the list.

   

2. Type in the following:

   net user administrator /active:yes

   

3. This will activate the hidden account. Log out and switch to it.
4. Run the upgrade.

If you want to, later on, disable the account, type in the following command in the command prompt:

net user administrator /active:no

Solution 4: Disable your Network

There have been reports that if you are using the ISO file to upgrade to Windows 10, make sure to disable your internet connectivity. If you are using an ethernet cable, just unplug the cable or you can do the following to disable your network (works for wifi as well):

1. On the right-hand side of the taskbar, click on the Network icon and select ‘Open Network & Internet settings’.
2. Select ‘Change adapter options’.

   

3. Right-click on your network and click ‘Disable’.
4. Run the upgrade.
5. Later on, you can enable your Network by selecting ‘Enable’.

Solution 5: Disconnect External Hardware

The error can sometimes be caused due to the external hardware that is connected to your system for example USBs, smartphones etc. Certain external hardware can interfere with your Windows installation which causes different errors to pop up, hence, in such a case, you’ll have to disconnect all the unnecessary hardware and then initiate the upgrade.

Solution 6: Perform a Clean Boot

When you perform a Clean Boot, you are booting up your system with the minimum amount of services required. When you install certain third-party software, some of them tend to startup automatically when your system boots up even though they aren’t required. These software can potentially interfere with the Windows installation.

Please follow this article published on our site to learn how to perform a Clean Boot.