Perfect timing? Microsoft breaks Windows 11 upgrade tool — on the eve of Windows 10’s End of Life.

In less than 24 hours from now, Microsoft is set to pull the plug on Windows 10. The tech giant has been rather vocal about cutting support for the operating system on October 14, 2025 and has blatantly been urging users to upgrade to Windows 11 using ads and banners.

After tomorrow, users can either upgrade to Windows 11 or enroll to Microsoft's extended security upgrades (ESU) program to continue receiving Windows 10 security updates for an additional year for free by syncing their PC settings to the cloud via a Microsoft Account, or pay $30 or 1,000 Microsoft Reward points. It's also Windows 10 users in the European Economic Area can enroll for the program for free without meeting the cloud backup threshold.

But as it now seems, upgrading to Windows 11 might be a bit difficult as Microsoft has admitted that it has broken the Windows Media Creation Tool (MCT) through a recent update that bumped it to v26100.6584.

For context, the Windows Media Creation tool is used to create a bootable USB or DVD, which can be used for a reinstall or clean install of Windows 11 on a new or used device. However, it's worth noting that the tool is not supported on Windows 10 PCs with Arm64 processors.

The issue seems to be widespread as Windows 10's death looms, and as tested and reported by Windows Latest:

"We were able to download the Media Creation Tool from the Windows 11 ISO page. While clicking on the executable file, a prompt asks to allow the application to make changes to Windows. Upon pressing the Yes button, a Windows logo shows up, but the application abruptly closes, failing to install. All our attempts to use the Media Creation Tool on Windows 10 failed abruptly."

Luckily, Microsoft has issued another workaround as it tries to resolve the issue affecting the Windows Media Creation tool's functionality. You can navigate to the Windows 11 Installation Assistant page and select the "Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices" option. Then, follow the instructions as they appear in your screen to upgrade your Windows 10 PC to Windows 11,

We're keeping tabs on this developing story, and we'll keep you posted if any new developments about the situation emerge. In the meantime, you can head over to our Windows 10 end-of-life live blog to stay up-to-date with everything on that front,

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