Windows Update Failure 0x80070003

Does it persist with reboots? What happens if you run Defender?

defenders running fine. and yes.

Just be aware that Windows can/will in some cases totally ignore the hosts file for ms servers it wishes to make contact with.

like i said stop em starting in the first place, or redirect em to /localhost.
as mentioned above, you can if you want access the file structure from outside windows, and edit the xml scripts that start the servers and redirect to 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 in the xml.

why redirect?. stopping servers can have unintended effects and can cause windows to bawk on updates. so keep a backup of any changes (just dont save em in the path:) as windows will use them if the edited ones fail.

I see you mention mediacreation tool, but have you tested WWindows update assistant?