Windows 11 started officially rolling out to the public on October 5, 2021. For those who couldn’t receive the update on day 1, Microsoft has provided the ‘Windows 11 Installation Assistant’ which will force install Windows 11 on any Windows 10 device that meets the installation requirements.

If you are one of those who are trying to upgrade to Windows 11, it is highly likely that you’ve already encountered an error message that reads ‘Something went wrong’ followed by the error code ‘0x8007007f’. This error code will not let you upgrade your computer to Windows 11. To make the journey easy for you, this guide will discuss what does the error code 0x8007007f refers to, what causes it and some ways you can fix this error code and upgrade your computer to Windows 11.

What is Error Code 0x8007007f?

The error code started appearing exclusively among the users who tried to use the Windows 11 Installation Assistant. The error code will prevent the user to successfully upgrade to Windows 11.

Users have reported that, while using the Installation Assistant tool, the upgrade process will just halt around the 70% mark. After some time, a message will appear which reads, ‘Something went wrong’, followed by another text, ‘Select try again, and if that doesn’t work, contact Microsoft support for help. Error code 0x8007007f’.

What Causes Windows to Show 0x8007007f Error?

The issue at hand becomes more confusing as the error code is too generic to indicate towards any specific cause. There are some factors, which may be the reason.

As of now, it can be said that lack of permissions, not enough storage, driver incompatibility and numerous other factors can contribute to this issue. Now that we know more about the issue and what might be causing the issue, let’s move on to some methods that you can use to avoid this issue.

How to Fix Error Code 0x8007007f on Windows

There are a few methods that you can use if you are facing this issue. Follow the methods mentioned below and you will be able to upgrade your computer to Windows 11 in no time.

1. Restart your computer

If you received the error code on the first attempt, then simply restarting your computer might solve it. Click on the ‘Windows’ button on the taskbar.

Then click on the ‘Power’ button on the bottom-right of the Start menu and select the ‘Restart’ option.

If restarting doesn’t fix your issue, you can move on to the following methods.

2. Run the Windows 11 Installation Assistant as Admin

It is possible that the installation assistant is unable to download or rewrite the Windows 11 files into the system directory as the existing OS is blocking its access. This is normal and if you try to open folders that contain system files, it will ask you for admin access.

To make sure that the OS isn’t blocking the installation assistant’s access to modify system files, try running the Windows 11 Installation Assistant as administrator.

To do this, first, right-click on the Windows 11 Installation Assistant executable file and select ‘Run as administrator’ option from the context menu.

You will be prompted with a dialogue box. Click yes and proceed with the usual installation process. Running the Windows 11 upgrade assistant as an administrator should bypass all the permission restrictions.

3. Free up Storage Space

Not having enough disk space can also trigger Error code on your system. The Installation Assistant requires space to download the installation files and then it will keep the old Windows OS files for some time after installation, in case you wish to roll back to the previous version of Windows. This takes a significant amount of space.

If you have less than 100 or 50 gigabytes of space available on your Windows installation drive and you are getting this 0x8007007f error, it is advised that you should try to free up some storage space on your computer’s Windows installation drive.

4. Make Sure You Have the Latest Graphics Drivers

In many cases, users have reported, outdated or incompatible graphics drivers were the cause of the issue. Graphics card manufacturers like AMD and Nvidia have already released their Windows 11 supported graphics drivers before Windows 11 was officially released. Follow the steps to update your graphics drivers manually and then try running the installation assistant.

First, press the ‘Windows’ and R keys at the same time. This will bring up the Run window.

On the Run box, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter. This will open up the Device Manager.

On the Device Manager window, double-click on the ‘Display adapters’ option and then right-click on the graphics card you have on your computer and select the ‘Uninstall device’ option from the context menu.

Next, check the box that says ‘Attempt to remove the driver for this device’ and click on the ‘Uninstall’ button on the ‘Uninstall Device’ dialog box.

Now restart your computer and it will automatically reinstall and update the graphics driver.

Read: How to Update Drivers on Windows 11

5. Turn on User Account Control

If the Installation Assistant is still not working after running as admin and you are getting the same error code, you might have to turn on UAC or ‘User Account Control’ on your PC.

To enable UAC, open ‘Control Panel’ by searching for it in the Start menu or Windows Search.

In the Control Panel window, click on the ‘User Accounts’ setting.

Then, click on the ‘User Accounts’ option again.

On the next screen, click on the ‘Change User Account Control settings’ option.

The User Account Control Settings dialog box will open, here, drag the slider to the topmost option that says ‘Always notify’ and click on ‘OK’ to save the changes.

Another prompt will appear, click ‘Yes’. And then you will have UAC enabled on your system. Launch the Installation Assistant again and see if it resolves the error now.

6. Disable third-party Antivirus Software

If you have any third-party antivirus software installed on your computer, it can interfere with the Installation Assistant. It is best to uninstall that software before the installation. You can always reinstall them after you have upgraded to windows 11, just make sure your antivirus manufacturer has updated their software to support Windows 11.

To uninstall your Anti-virus software, open the Control Panel by searching for it in the Start menu or Windows Search.

On the Control Panel window, under the ‘Programs’ section, click on the ‘Uninstall a program’ option.

It will open up a list of applications installed on your computer. Here, find the Anti-virus software installed on your PC, right-click on it and select ‘Uninstall’ from the context menu OR highlight the software and press the ‘Uninstall’ button inside the toolbar on the screen.

7. Run SFC Scan on your System

If there are corrupted or damaged system files on your computer, it can stop the Installation Assistant from operating properly. To make sure there is no such conflict, you can run an SFC scan using the sfc /scannow command.

First, open the Start menu by pressing the ‘Windows’ key on your computer and type ‘Command prompt’.

Then, right-click on the ‘Command Prompt’ icon and select ‘Run as administrator’ from the available options.

The Command Prompt window will open. Here, type the following command and press Enter.

sfc /scannow

Now, wait for the process to finish. It will notify you if you have damaged or corrupted system files on your computer.

8. Make Sure You Have TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot Enabled

Microsoft has made TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot features mandatory requirements for Windows 11 Upgrade. You can easily check if you have both enabled or disabled.

To check if you have TPM 2.0 enabled, open up the ‘Run’ window by pressing the Windows+R keys together. Then, type tpm.msc in the Run dialogue box and hit Enter.

On the Trusted Platform Module Management window, find the Status section and see if it shows “TPM is ready to use”. If yes, then you have TPM 2.0 enabled on your PC. If not, then you need to go to your computer’s BIOS settings and enable it from there.

To check if you have Secure boot enabled, open the System Information app by searching for it in the Start menu or Windows Search.

On the System Information window, scroll down until you find the ‘Secure Boot State’ item on the right side of the screen. If you have it enabled, it’ll show ‘On’ in the Value column next to the Secure Boot State item.

In case not, you need to enable Secure Boot in the BIOS settings on your PC.

9. Use a Bootable Windows 11 USB Drive to Install the OS

If none of the methods work and you are still getting the error code, you should try changing the installation process. You can create a bootable USB using the Media Creation Tool.

Go to microsoft.com/software-download/windows11 and scroll down a bit to find the ‘Create Windows 11 Installation Media’ section. Under this section, click on the ‘Download Now’ button.

It’ll download the MediaCreationToolW11 executable file on your PC. If you get a prompt to save, click on ‘Save’ in the dialog box.

After the download finishes, go to the directory where you saved the Media Creation Tool (most likely your PC’s Downloads folder) and double-click on the ‘MediaCreationToolW11.exe’ file to run it.

The toll will request administrator privileges before running, select ‘Yes’ when you get the prompt to do so.

It will get things ready. And then you will another prompt to Accept or Decline the terms and services. Click on the ‘Accept’ button to proceed.

If you wish to change the language for your Installation, uncheck the ‘Use recommended settings options and then select your preferred language. Else, keep the preset language and click on ‘Next’.

Next, on the ‘Choose which media to use’ step, select the ‘USB flash drive’ option, and plug in your USB drive into your PC before clicking the ‘Next’ button. Please note that you must have a USB drive with a minimum of 8GB of storage space to be able to create a bootable Windows 11 USB drive.

Finally, select the USB drive under the ‘Removable drives’ section on the next screen, and hit the ‘Next’ button.

The Windows 11 Media Creation Tool will now download and write the Windows 11 image to your USB drive. Once done, you can restart your PC, boot it into the Windows 11 USB drive you just created, and install Windows 11 from there.

Read: How to Install Windows 11 from a USB Drive (skip to the installation part).