"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
    2011-10-17T07:13:48+00:00

    This question is raised on 2009 Dec, till today we are facing this problem. I waited, and had to wait forever, some one said to start in safe-mode, even safe-mode could not give me another road, the same thing i need to do. I try to do restore point, still not working, and I try to do crash my system ...lol...!!! this makes me sick, so I made a clean installation... this fixed

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-10-19T13:41:40+00:00

    Hello VL_mem10 and anyone else

    Thank you for visiting the Microsoft Windows Community site. In an effort to focus more attention on your particular situation since others have recieved a resolution and it has worked for some of them.

    it would be best to post into a new thread since new threads are done to mitigate confusion caused by more than one posting about similar topics, allowing us to focus on each customer individually

    Thank you for visiting the Microsoft Windows Community site.

    Please post your new question with all relevent errorshere.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-10-19T16:41:03+00:00

    Every time this happens (BTW it happened to me many times) I have to manually shutdown the computer after waiting for many hours.  I believe it is a bug.  As usual, Microsoft always ignore it's own bugs no matter how many times users complain.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-10-26T12:13:57+00:00

    That didnt work for me. I have waited all night and all morning. I have tried :

    1. Safe More then system Restore - didnt work. I couldnt even see the screen of the system restore - it was all white.
    2. to repair windows with the windows restore cd - didnt work
    3. re-started, shut down like 20 times - didnt work.

    In the end I have kept pressing Alt Ctrl + Del many times. At the beginning it said it was trying to configure windows - kept pressing Alt Ctrl + Del then it told me - faiture to install updates - and i kept pressing Alt Ctrl + Del until i have seen the login in screen.

    Now. I will never ever ever ever allow windows to do uploads. It is the 4th time it has been doing this in the last 6 months. Im starting to HATE windows.

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