The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during BOOT operation

Oh my. I have a solution.

I have the SAME Gigabyte BRIX. A GB-BXi3-4010. That has an Intel i3 4010U CPU.

I tried everything. A completely clean install with an ISO I took from my MSDN account. It simply would. not. boot.

I tried disabling everything in the BIOS. CSM, EFI, Secure Boot, LAN, Audio, ErP, RAID/AHCI. Everything.

I removed the WiFi card, I removed the drive I wanted to install it to....Nothing.

I tried installing 8.1 and doing an Upgrade. That would fail with "The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during BOOT operation 0xC1900101 - 0x20017". There were no logs, because apparently this is too early in the boot process.

I tried using NTLite to open up boot.wim and install.wim to insert all the latest drivers and tell the install to HALT on any BSODs....but still nothing...just a boot loop.

Then I found this thread: http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/373250-recent-windows-update-kb3064209-causes-windows-7-not-boot.html

A bunch of people complaining about their PCs going into a boot loop because of KB3064209.

KB3064209 ...is an Intel CPU microcode update. It updates the file C:\Windows\system32\mcupdate_genuineintel.dll. This file runs at boot to update the microcode on your CPU to the latest before Windows fully initializes (I think).

This was released in June 2015. This explains why Windows 10 builds BEFORE this date are unaffected and those after, boot loop.

I went ahead and took my USB drive, copied the contents of the Windows 10 10240 ISO to it...then I tried editing the WIM files to remove the mcupdate_genuineintel.dll. It <Removed Profanity> works.

A brief overview of how to get this working:

Assume your USB drive is X: and your OS drive is C: and your user profile name is "User"

a) Copy the contents of the Windows 10 ISO to a USB stick X:

b) Open up an elevated command prompt (cmd)

c) Create a temporary folder on your Desktop (C:\Users\User\Desktop), call it "mount"

d) Mount and edit a WIM (Image file: boot.wim, Index 1):

d-1) dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:X:\sources\boot.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\Users\User\Desktop\mount

d-2) In Windows Explorer, browse to  C:\Users\User\Desktop\mount\Windows\System32\mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll and Right-click > Properties

d-3) Click "Security" Tab, Advanced, then "Change" the Owner to your own user account. Click OK, OK again.

d-4) On the Security tab, Click "Edit" then "Add" and add your user account with Full Control checked. Click OK back to Windows Explorer.

d-5) Now, delete mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll

d-6) Close off all Explorer Windows, go back to DISM and unmount the image with: dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:C:\Users\User\Desktop\mount /commit

e) Now, you have to repeat D1 through 6 for:

boot.wim with /index:2 (WinPE Environment)

install.wim /index:1 (Windows install, Pro/Enterprise I think)

install.wim /index:2 (Another Windows install, might be a different edition: e.g. Home on a Pro/Home ISO)

FYI: boot.wim with /index:1 (Recovery Environment)

f) Remove USB and boot the installer. Delete the mount folder on your Desktop.

This is ridiculous. How did this even get through? It is completely preventing some CPUs from installing Windows 10.

Honestly, I don't really think you should do this...because once another Windows Update comes around that touches this file...things might not end well for your install. Who knows.