"Preparing To Configure Windows. Please Do Not Turn Off Your Computer"

Anonymous
2009-12-03T01:02:16+00:00

Hi. I just got my new laptop yesterday with Windows 7 Home Premium. When I left for school this morning, I shut down my computer and saw that it had 22 Windows Updates to download. When I turned it back on this afternoon, it was stuck at a screen that said "Preparing To Configure Windows. Please Do Not Turn Off Your Computer." I decided to wait but it stayed the same for as long as I waited. Finally, I powered it off by holding on the power button, and just normally booted the system. Will there be any damage done to my new laptop? Is there any way I can prevent this update glitch from happening again? Thanks.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2010-04-23T05:50:01+00:00

Hi. I just got my new laptop yesterday with Windows 7 Home Premium. When I left for school this morning, I shut down my computer and saw that it had 22 Windows Updates to download. When I turned it back on this afternoon, it was stuck at a screen that said "Preparing To Configure Windows. Please Do Not Turn Off Your Computer." I decided to wait but it stayed the same for as long as I waited. Finally, I powered it off by holding on the power button, and just normally booted the system. Will there be any damage done to my new laptop? Is there any way I can prevent this update glitch from happening again? Thanks.

I just bought a Toshiba Laptop for a Client with windows 7 home,

As a favour for my clients I usually run windows update for them so they get it all working and are 100% confident that when they get it as up to date as possible,

I ran into the exact same problem as above, i read this thread and read all different reply's but none of them realy worked for me and i didnt have time to wait...

this is what worked for me:

  1. Hold down the power button and switch of your machine
  2. Restart your computer and just before windows boots hit the F8 button
  3. Boot into safe mode
  4. login (if nessecary)
  5. Make sure that any virus scanners at this point are disabled before continuing
  6. Click "Start" > "Accessories" > "System Restore"
  7. Click "Next"
  8. Pick an earlier restore point and then click next, (its best to pick the 1 just before you had problems)
  9. Click next and follow the prompts and it will start a system restore
  10. wait till your computer does this System Restore process
  11. Regardless of whether the system restore process fails or passes it should now get you out being stuck at "Preparing To Configure Windows. Please Do Not Turn Off Your Computer."

Now...

  1. login if required

13 Disable Virus Scanner before moving on

  1. Run windows update
  2. now it should run without any problems
  3. if you do have problems and run into a loop Call your Computer Manufacturer or the company that you purchased it off and see if they can help you,

Thanks

Michael

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-01-06T20:37:22+00:00

    Ihave an Asus Altec and it was stuck on 99 before i leeft this morning and it was still on it when i got home and that was 9 hours

    i turned it off and tried to go on safe mode didn't work

    what should i do?

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-12-06T23:21:05+00:00

    Hey David....I've had my new computer (Win7 Premium 64 bit) for about a month and within a week, I started getting the**"Preparing to configure windows"** message when shutting down or restarting.  Even when logged on, all programs were slow to load. I thought maybe it was a virus but it wasn't.  I've been searching for the answer on the internet ever since.  It wasn't until I opened the task manager to find out what was slowing my computer down that I noticed theWindows Media Player Network Sharing Service was using up all of the physical memory.  This was not good.  I did some research which led me to disabling the service which I'm sure I don't need.  I rebooted my computer and everything was running as it was the first day I turned it on.  I then tried a normal shutdown and a normal restart and it was like the first day also. I think this may have been the culprit that was slowing my PC down.  This may not be the answer for you but it sure worked for me.  If it does work for you, do like I did, share this information.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-12-06T22:52:44+00:00

    Hey somebody....I've had my new computer (Win7 Premium 64 bit) for about a month and within a week, I started getting the**"Preparing to configure windows"** message when shutting down or restarting.  Even when logged on, all programs were slow to load. I thought maybe it was a virus but it wasn't.  I've been searching for the answer on the internet ever since.  It wasn't until I opened the task manager to find out what was slowing my computer down that I noticed theWindows Media Player Network Sharing Service was using up all of the physical memory.  This was not good.  I did some research which led me to disabling the service which I'm sure I don't need.  I rebooted my computer and everything was running as it was the first day I turned it on.  I then tried a normal shutdown and a normal restart and it was like the first day also. I think this may have been the culprit that was slowing my PC down.  This may not be the answer for you but it sure worked for me.  If it does work for you, do like I did, share this information.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-10-29T03:16:59+00:00

    Another solution is to leave your computer sleeping quietly into a closet and wait for the upcoming service pack if you don't really want to bang your heads with the "preparing to configure" hanging screen and reinstall Windows 7 so many times. In the meantime, switch to Mac OS X, Linux or previous versions of Windows (Vista and XP) if Microsoft continues to refuse to fix the behavior and insists for unefficient solutions that not work. I've tried the sfc/ scannow workaround; none worked. This is not a KB974431 issue but a general problem with the Windows 7 Software Feature Installer Service which not allows installing more than 345 software updates and up.

    EDIT: I've installed MSU packages manually using the silent installation method (wusa windows6.1-Kbxxxxxx.x64.MSU /quiet /norestart). Microsoft Update configured the OS successfully. I've created a batch file containing a couple of wusa /quiet /norestart command lines closed by "shutdown -r -t 0". This workaround worked just fine.

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