When trying to create a Windows 10 USB installation disk you may get errors starting with code 0x80004005 and end up scratching your head, that why isn’t it working. When I happened to get that error, what helped me get around it was basically emptying the windows update cache by doing the following:

  • Open command prompt in administrator rights
    Click on the start menu button and type cmd. A best match of "Command Prompt" will appear, right click on it and select run as administrator.
  • Using the previously opened Command Prompt stop the “Windows Update service” by typing the following:
    net stop wuauser
  • If your computer is a part of a Windows Domain, it might not have “Windows Updare service” running but rather have “Update Orchestrator Service” instead running, then you need to stop that by typing the following:
    net stop "Update Orchestrator Service"
  • Next you need to stop the Cryptographic and Background Intelligent Transfer services, by typing the following commands:
    net stop bits
    net stop cryptsvc
  • Now lets just rename some of the folders used by Windows Update so, it would re-create them, by typing:
    ren %systemroot%\System32\Catroot2 Catroot2.old
    
    ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
    
    
  • Now lets start the services back up again that we previously stopped by typing:
    net start wuauser
    
    net start bits
    
    net start cryptsvc
    
    # and if necessary also update orchestrator service
    
    net start "Update Orchestrator Service"
  • And thats it close the Command Prompt and retry creating your Windows 10 installation media.

If your are getting “Access is denied” on the “ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old” command and you haven’t stopped the “Update Orchestrator Service”, try stopping that.