The Media Creation Tool is a pretty neat utility that Microsoft has created to allow any consumer to easily upgrade their computer to Windows 10 or create a medium such as a USB or DVD that they can use to upgrade a different computer to Windows 10. However, the Media Creation Tool is not entirely flawless as many users have been greeted with error code 0x80070005 – 0x90002 when trying to upgrade to Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool or when trying to create upgrade media. Error code 0x80070005 – 0x90002 usually shows up when almost the entire setup for Windows 10 has been downloaded, flushing all the time that the user waited for the download to complete down the toilet.
The culprit behind error code 0x80070005 – 0x90002 when trying to upgrade to Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool or create new installation media can vary from one computer to the other. Fortunately, the following are three methods that have proven to be successfully at getting rid of error code 0x80070005 – 0x90002 for various Windows users who have been affected by it.
Method 1: Uninstall any and all third-party system security programs
It is a pretty well-known fact that third-party system security programs such as firewall, antivirus and anti-malware programs can interfere with the processes that need to take place in order to execute and complete a Windows system upgrade, giving birth to problems such as error 0x80070005 – 0x90002. If third-party system security programs are behind error 0x80070005 – 0x90002 in your computer’s case, simply going to Control Panel > Uninstall a program and uninstalling all of the third-party security programs on your computer will allow your Windows 10 upgrade through the media creation tool to go through seamlessly.
Method 2: Stop and then restart all services associated with Windows Update
Open the Start Menu. Search for cmd. Right-click on the program named cmd and click on Run as administrator.
Type the following commands one by one into the elevated Command Prompt to stop services associated with Windows Update, pressing Enter after typing each one of them:
net stop bits
net stop wuauserv
net stop appidsvc
net stop cryptsvc
Type the following commands one by one into the elevated Command Prompt to rename the software distribution folders backup copies, pressing Enter after typing each one of them:
Ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak
Ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.bak
Type the following commands one by one into the elevated Command Prompt to restart all of the services you stopped before, pressing Enter after typing each one of them:
net start bits
net start wuauserv
net start appidsvc
net start cryptsvc
Restart your computer, and you should have no trouble using the media creation tool to upgrade to Windows 10 once your computer boots up.
Method 3: Upgrade using Windows Update instead
The only reason why any Windows user would resort to upgrading to Windows 10 using the media creation tool is because they are unable to upgrade their computer through Windows Update. However, if trying to upgrade to Windows 10 through the media creation tool results in error 0x80070005 – 0x90002 and the two methods listed above haven’t helped you, you can simply upgrade your computer to Windows 10 using Windows Update instead. If the Windows 10 update does not show up in your computer’s Windows Update app, you need to:
Open the Start Menu. Search for regedit. Open the Registry Editor by clicking on regedit.
Navigate to
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade
in the left pane. Click on OSUpgrade to display its contents in the right pane. Right-click on an empty space in the right pane, hover over New and click on DWORD (32-bit) value.
Name the new DWORD value AllowOSUpgrade.
Double-click on the AllowOSUpgrade value and change its value data to 1. Click on OK on your way out.
Restart your computer, and when you open Windows Update after your computer boots up, an update to Windows 10 should pop up and you can then download it.
