"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
    2010-02-14T13:11:05+00:00

    Well, i found the answer to mine and it wasn't McAfee as Microsoft suggested. I installed each update 1 at a time and found that the entire issue was caused by, are you ready for this? Windows Live 4.1 optional update. Because they were all getting installed togethr, if 1 failed, they all failed. Now that I've gotten rid of that update, I've had no more issues. Good luck to everybody else, I hope this helps.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-02-17T07:16:17+00:00

    My new laptop did this last night without any update being involved.  No internet connection at all.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-26T09:36:13+00:00

    This happens to my desktop too. I've got a notification that there's 6 new updates, about 9.4 MB. So I tried to install it, and after work it still did not finish the 9.4MB download. So I just leave my computer overnight and after I woke up it still did not complete to download. After about 32 hours since the beginning of the updates download, I shut down my PC because it is still not complete and I'm stuck now on that "PREPARING TO CONFIGURE............" screen. I don't understand why a 9.4MB takes almost 2 days to download - internet connection speed is out of question I'm sure.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-02-27T20:52:01+00:00

    Have just bought a Toshiba...the Win 7... updates have become a nightmare! The first 25 updates came through with no problem, now I am hung up on 3 updates! The taskbar icon which typically shows the progress% is constantly at 0. "Windows is downloading updates (0 Complete)" . I had the laptop on for hours....still "0%" complete. I use this for business travel...never a problem before with any previous OS's. Help!!  Thanks. Erny

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