Windows Setup: Language Selection Screen Appears During In-Place Upgrade

When you run an in-place upgrade by running Setup.exe using the Windows 10 or 11 Media Creation Tool or ISO from Windows, the language selection screen pops up. This is unusual because the screen is supposed to appear only when booting from the USB setup disk.

You may wonder why the screen appears even though you’re running setup.exe from within Windows.

Cause

Windows Setup thinks you’re booting from the USB setup disk even though you’re running it from Windows. The following registry key causes Windows to believe you’re booting from the Setup disk.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MiniNT

Please note that the “MiniNT” key and its registry values don’t exist in a standard Windows installation. Some user on your computer (or a third-party program) may have added it.

Resolution

To fix the Windows Setup issue during an in-place upgrade, delete the MiniNT registry key using these steps:

1. Right-click Start, and click Run.
2. Type regedit.exe and click OK.
3. Navigate to the following registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MiniNT

   

4. Right-click MiniNT, and choose Delete
5. Exit the Registry Editor.
6. No restart is required.

Rerun setup.exe.

It should show the “Install Windows” screen now.