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Recently, I attempted to upgrade my Windows 10 Home PC to Windows 11 Home. Despite investing a significant amount of time and effort, I encountered the error 0x800f0830 – 0x20003 during the installation/upgrade process on both of my laptops.
On the Windows 11 Setup screen, you will see below error message:
| Error Message |
|---|
| “We couldn’t install Windows 11” We’ve set your PC back to the way it was right before you started installing Windows 11. 0x800F0830 – 0x2003 The Installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during INSTALL_UPDATES operation. |
To upgrade my Windows 10 PC to Windows 11, I initially downloaded the installation media/ISO from the Microsoft website https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 and proceeded to extract the ISO into a folder. Following this, I initiated the upgrade process by running the setup.exe file from the extracted Windows 11 ISO folder.
The installation process initiates successfully by checking for updates and then displays the “Installing Windows 11” page with a cancel button. However, upon reboot, the system attempts to check/install updates, consistently encountering failure when it reaches 10 to 11 percent.
The system restarts once more, and a message appears on the screen stating “Undoing changes made to your computer“. This process reverses the Windows 11 installation, restoring the system to its previous state.
After another restart, you will encounter a pop-up window with an error message:
| Error Message |
|---|
| “We couldn’t install Windows 11” We’ve set your PC back to the way it was right before you started installing Windows 11. 0x800F0830 – 0x2003 The Installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during INSTALL_UPDATES operation. |
After resolving this error code, I successfully installed/upgraded Windows 11 on two of my systems: one from Windows 10 Home to Windows 11 Home and the second from Windows 10 Enterprise to Windows 11 Enterprise. The solution outlined in this blog post proved effective, saving a considerable amount of time and ensuring the successful completion of the Windows 11 installation.”
Fix 1 – Disconnect from the Internet
While attempting various solutions, including checking if the developer mode is disabled on the Windows 10 system before initiating the Windows 11 installation, resetting the Windows Update service, and rebooting the system, none of the fixes proved successful. Each time, I encountered the same error message (0x800F0830 – 0x2003).
As we know, this error message occurs during the Install_Updates phase when the setup is attempting to download and install updates to ensure the system has the latest drivers for all connected components. To address this, disconnect from the internet before starting the Windows 11 setup using the ISO and maintain this disconnected state throughout the entire installation process.
If possible, disable the Wi-Fi adapter and remove any LAN/Ethernet cable attached to the system. Additionally, disconnect any external devices such as USB hubs, external HDDs, or connected USB devices, including printers, before initiating the installation.
This should undoubtedly resolve the issue and fix this particular error. Another helpful tip is to choose “Not right now” on the “Get updates, drivers, and optional features” window that appears just after starting the setup process by double-clicking on the setup.exe, as illustrated in the screenshots below.
Select “Not right now” on the “Get updates, drivers, and optional features” window.
Fix 2 – Ensure Windows Version is Compatible
Make sure you are upgrading to the same level of Windows Editon. For Example: Windows 10 Home to Windows 11 Home Edition. If you are upgrading to Pro or Enterprise Edition then you may get this error message.
Fix 3 – Ensure there is enough free space in C:\ Drive
Make sure that there is enough free space available in your C:\ drive before you start with the upgrade process. The minimum free space required is 64 GB in C:\ drive.
Fix 4 – Run System File checker (SFC) tool
The error code 0x800f0830-0x20003 could be a result of corrupted or missing system files.
To identify and automatically replace corrupted system files in Windows, you can use the System File Checker (SFC) tool. Before running the “sfc.exe” tool, it’s advisable to first execute the DISM (Deployment Imaging Service and Management Tool) command with the “/Restorehealth” switch.
SFC tool will scan all protected system files and replace any corrupted files with a cached copy from the “%WinDir%\System32\dllcache” folder.
Check any component store corruption
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /checkhealthScan to check Corrupted files
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /scanhealth
Repair Corrupted files
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
Scan Corrupted files and replace them with a Cached copy
sfc /scannowFix 5 – Use Windows Update Troubleshooter
You can use Windows update troubleshooter to check this Issue. To launch the troubleshooter, follow the below steps:
On Windows 11 device
- Press Windows key + I to open the Settings App
- Go to System > Troubleshoot > Other Troubleshooters
- Next to Windows Update, click on Run to launch the troubleshooter.
On Windows 10 device
- Press Windows key + I to open the Settings app
- Navigate to Update & Security > Troubleshoot > Additional Troubleshooters.
- Click Windows Update > Run the troubleshooter.
- Restart your device and try to upgrade to Windows 11 once again.
Fix 6 – Restart Windows Update Service
Restart the Windows Update service on your computer and attempt to upgrade to Windows 11 once again. To restart the Windows Update service, follow the steps below:
- Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box
- Type services.msc and press Enter to open Services Management Console.
- Find the Windows Update service and right-click on it, Select Restart.
Fix 7 – Disable Anti-Virus Software
If you have installed any third-party antivirus on your Windows device, it may cause issues during the upgrade process. Try disabling it completely, restart your device, and then initiate the upgrade process again.
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Tried all of these previously apart from the disconect from the internet etc bit at the end, then disconected from the internet etc and RESULT! Thanks you whoever you are at techpress. Unable to identify you, but many thanks.????
I am glad that the issue has been resolved for you. Thanks for the feedback.
Wonderful, unplugging the network did the trick. I had the same problem with one of the Windows 10 updates and it took be for ever to get it installed. As soon as I saw this error I thought oh no how did I solve this last time. Googled it and you were first on the list. Thank you very much.
No Problem Adrian. Thanks for the feedback.
Bump up – enabled TPM & secure boot in BIOS, bypassed 6th generation Intel problem, install via ISO — but had the “How to fix Error 0x800f0830 – 0x20003” error. Found this page, didn’t disconnect any USB or anything, only disconnected network: worked!! Great thanks.
Thank you so much! Your solution (disconnect from internet) was the only that works on my problem. In my case I was installing Windows 10 over Windows 11.
After numerous failed upgrade attempts, disconnecting it from the network was the only way I could get it to succeed. Thank you very much for the advice!
Just wanted to say thanks for posting this. Was upgrading a ‘mission-critical’ (aren’t they all) server from Server 2012 Essentials to Server 2022 Standard (via Server 2016) and had failed at the above error twice. And it takes a couple of hours each time just to get to the failure point. Google brought me here and disabling the virtual switch for the VM finally got Server 2022 installed on the server. Respect to you Sir.