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[Fix] “Something Happened” Error Message in Windows 10 Upgrade

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Since when Windows 10 has been released to public for free upgrade from genuine Windows 7 and 8.1 operating systems, many users have reported an annoying issue while upgrading to Windows 10.

Many AskVG readers have reported that when they tried to upgrade Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 using Windows 10 Media Creation Tool, they received following error message:

Something happened

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Something happened

Something_Happened_Error_Windows_10_Upgrade.png

The error message is useless and doesn’t help at all to the users.

So today in this topic, we are going to share a working fix for this irritating problem. We have tried this fix in various computers and it worked successfully.

So if you are also facing this issue while upgrading to Windows 10, following methods will help you:

METHOD 1: Run Windows Media Creation Tool as Administrator

First of all try to run the tool again as Administrator as mentioned below:

Right-click on the Media Creation Tool’s EXE file and select “Run as Administrator” option.

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Run_Windows_10_Media_Creation_Tool_Administrator.png

Now it should not give “Something happened” error message.

METHOD 2: Change Locale and Language Settings to English (United States)

This problem may also occur if the locale and language settings in your computer are different than the downloaded Windows 10 setup files.

Just follow these simple steps to change locale and language settings in your computer to fix the problem:

1. Open Control Panel and click on Region icon. Alternatively you can direct open it using intl.cpl command in RUN or Start Search box.

It’ll open a new window containing details of your current system locale, language, etc.

2. Now go to “Administrative” tab and click on “Change system locale” button.

3. Now select English (United States) option from the drop-down box and click on OK button.

Change_Locale_Language_English_United_States.png

4. Now click on “Copy Settings” button and in the next window check both checkboxes “Welcome screen and system accounts” and “New user accounts” and click on OK button.

Restart your system and now run the tool again. It’ll work without any problem this time.

PS: If you can remember same problem has occurred to people who tried to download and install Windows 8.1 from Store:

[Fix] “The Update is Not Applicable to Your Computer” Error While Installing Windows 8.1

That error message was also fixed by changing locale and language settings in Windows 8 OS.

METHOD 3: Disable or Uninstall Antivirus Program or Internet Security Suite

If you still face this problem, it might be possible that your antivirus or any other security suite program might be blocking the tool from downloading or installing Windows 10.

So try to temporary disable your antivirus or security suite program. If you can’t disable it, uninstall it from “Control Panel -> Programs and Features” window.

METHOD 4: Enable Required Services

You can also try following steps to fix the issue:

1. Type services.msc in RUN or Start search box and press Enter. It’ll open Services Manager.

2. Now make sure following services are set to Automatic and running properly:

  • Automatic Updates OR Windows Update
  • Background Intelligent Transfer Service
  • Server
  • Workstation
  • TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
  • IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules

If any or all of the above mentioned services are not running or not set to Automatic, double-click on the service, set its Startup type to Automatic from the drop-down list, Apply the changes and click on “Start” button to immediately start the service.

3. Restart Windows and it should fix the issue.

METHOD 5: Fix Using Registry Editor

If above mentioned methods don’t work for you, try following:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to open Run dialog box. Now type regedit and press Enter to launch Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade

3. In right-side pane, create a new DWORD AllowOSUpgrade and set its value to 1

4. Close Registry Editor and run Windows Update again.

Now Windows 10 should appear on Windows Update and you can download and install it without any problem.

Also Check:

[Tip] Get Direct Download Links of Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 10

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

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Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  2. Upgrading from Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit … Ended up with upgrade error.

    No Semantec software installed on my machine.

    “Windows 10 Upgrade Error – 0xC1900101 – 0x4000D – The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error during MIGRATE_DATA operation”

    Any thoughts to overcome this error?

  3. Method 4 seems to have done the trick for me. In particular, starting the IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules service. Download is at 23% as I type this.

  5. Thank you, great website and lots of useful information.Tried all methods and restarted computer. Unlucky, it dint work Later, the registry patch from here worked for me.

    Cheers
    Mark

  6. I didn’t have an issue loading Windows 10, but what I have is the inability to copy pictures from my email and watching videos on Facebook. I have Google Chrome, both of these worked when I was running Windows 7. It’s very annoying as I get lots of pictures sent to me by family & videos on Facebook and I can’s get either to work. Otherwise it works fine.

  9. None of these methods worked for me. I’m very good at following instructions. So what now?Does Microsoft offer any help for this. Will they offer remote access and download it for us? 😉 They’d have to hire a bunch of new employees. Trying one more time to download to USB, if it does not work, I’m done.

  10. Also, clear your %tmp% and %windir%\temp folders, this is what worked for me to fix the “something has happened” error.

  11. Hi!
    If I do the “method 2” does it mean that I can change system language in the upgrade process. Win 8.1 pro x64 is swe – download win 10 pro En-us x64 and after upgrade system language is English and Win 10 is automatic activated?

  12. ^^ Yes. You can select locale and Language in installation. You can also change them after Windows 10 installation using Region in Control Panel.

  13. Hi VG!
    Thanks.
    You say: “You can select locale and Language in installation”. I hope you mean also upgrade not only clean installation. If so this really means that system language can be changed in win 10 upgrade using this trick. I’m very happy and try it.
    BR
    Lape

  14. ^^ No. If you upgrade, Windows setup will automatically detect your locale and language and will install Windows 10 in the same language.

  15. If you have an older PC with Windows 7 Pro, like mine from 2008, follow the process that Fredrik said and I copy below:

    “I was seeing the Something happened 0x80070002 – 0x20016” error (as per image below) when running the media creation tool as well. What worked for me was the following fix from Reddit. I was having to run the tool as I hadn’t recieved a notification to reserve a copy and it wasn’t showing up in Windows Update until the below change in the registry.

    1. Click on Start, search for regedit.

    2. With regedit open, proceed to the following path. Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade

    3. Right click on the right side window and go to New -> DWORD (32-bit) value

    4. Rename the new value to “AllowOSUpgrade” without the ” quotations and make sure it is exactly the same as it is case sensitive.

    5. Double click on the newly created value AllowOSUpgrade and change the value to 1 with hexidecimal base.

    6. Close regedit and run Windows Update again. Windows 10 should pop up and you can then download it.”

    That did the job for me, after I tried all the solutions and I’ve seen at least 3 times that Windows Update attempted to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. Cheers guys for the help and thank you Fredrik!

  16. Solution to Media Creator NOT working. Enter into Safe Mode and delete $WINDOWS.~BT and $WINDOWS.~WS. Reboot normally and try Media Creator again. It will work!!!

  17. Exercise in futility. Diligently and carefully followed all these directions. It made not difference whatsoever.

  18. My laptop takes long time to start. Even when I restart it, a black window appears . I wait 10 – 15 minutes but it doesn’t work. Then usually I close my laptop and after some time I open it, then the problem goes. I use windows 10. What should I do? please help me

  20. After many attempts to correct the issue, I called Microsoft and they informed me that since Windows 7 was loaded on my system in capatibility mode, that I am not eligable for the upgrade to Windows 10. And I would have to buy a new computer in order to get the upgrade… ;-(

  21. i am triying to upgrade from windows 8.1 Pro to10 pro and this is the error i get “SOMRTHING HAPPENED setup failed to validate product key” how to i solve this?

  24. For me apart from disabling Non-Microsoft services (including third part anti-virus), disabling Firewall and SQL services worked.

    For those who have the option to install using Windows Update utility, should use that option than media creation tool. For me the update showed error, while media creation tool buried message somewhere in C:\$WINDOWS.~BT.

  25. Am trying to reinstall W10 again, was originally W8.1 I am definitely making progress, was getting the Something Happened error at 25%, 33%, 45% and now 83 %

    Have been through all of the above, anymore suggestions please

  26. I used all of the above suggestions +
    physically removed one of the connectors to the Wifi card inside the laptop to disable the card. Restarted the computer so it would not see the Wifi card.
    Finally it all worked !
    Thanks for the suggestions.

  28. I was upgrading Mom’s laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 (64-bit). I used the Media Creation Tool recommended by Microsoft. It got stuck on windows updates during the upgrade. So I started a chat on my own laptop with Microsoft Support Representative and he remotely hopped onto my Mom’s laptop and gave the installation a push. I asked him to tell me what he did but he forgot to send me the info. Anyway, it worked after he did whatever he did. Why stress out trying to do it yourself if you can get a Microsoft employee to do it for you? LOL

  29. Thanks for the steps. This resolved my long pending issue with win10 upgrade from a genuine 8.1 OS.

  30. I tired on 3 different PC’s 2 with Win 10 and one with Win 7.

    Run as Administrator worked!

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