Fix: iCloud Setup Error “Your computer is missing Media features”

When you attempt to install Apple iCloud cloud storage client software on your Windows PC, the following error may occur:

Your computer is missing Media features. Please download Media Features Pack for Windows from Microsoft and install and try again.


icloud missing media features windows

Fix iCloud Error: Your computer is missing Media features

To fix the problem, enable Media Features via Windows Features dialog box using these steps:

  1. Right-click Start, click Run.
  2. Type optionalfeatures.exe and click OK.
  3. In the Windows Features dialog that opens, place a tickmark near “Media Features” option to enable it.
    media feature enable windows features dialog
  4. Click OK, and restart Windows.

Note: You can also add Media Features / Windows Media Player via Settings UI in Windows 10. If you receive the error 0x800F0821 when trying to add the Windows Media Player, temporarily disable your antivirus software before adding WMP again. Avira antivirus software seems to cause the problem, as reported by some users.

“Media Features” is missing? For Windows N & KN versions, you’ll not see the option “Media Features” in the Windows Features dialog. For those editions, you’ll need to download the Media Features Pack manually. See post Where is Windows Media Player in Windows 10? for more information and download links.

After enabling or installing Media Features, attempt to install iCloud now. If the error occurs again, there is a registry fix you can apply to resolve the issue.



  1. Right-click Start, click Run.
  2. Type regedit.exe and click OK.
  3. Goto the following registry branch:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\WindowsFeatures\WindowsMediaVersion
  4. In the right-pane, double-click (default) and set the media version accordingly.

To find the media version, open Windows Media Player and check the “about” dialog for the exact version number and build. In my system, the build number is 12.0.16299.64 as reported by WMP. In that case, set the (default) value data in the registry to 12.0.16299.64 if it’s not already set. However, for some users, simply setting the (default) value data to 1 worked anyway.

wmp media feature version

Apparently, some websites suggest that you can install iCloud for Windows 10 (which is missing Media features) merely by employing the above registry edit.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

5 thoughts on “Fix: iCloud Setup Error “Your computer is missing Media features””

  1. I do have the “Windows media features” in “Optional system features manager” (and turning it on and off didn’t help). I didn’t even have the last two keys of that registry path.
    I created them and set the last one’s value to just “1” and the iCloud installer didn’t display the error and succeeded this time around.
    Thank you for the tip!

    Reply
  2. Piotr, well done. I had spent some time figuring this out. Installing packs and turning media features on and off didn’t do the trick. Creating the two reg entries worked! Thanks.

    Reply

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