"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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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

Was this answer helpful?

500+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

142 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2010-10-19T05:04:28+00:00

    There were many solutions told in this forum which worked for many. I am listing it out and will mention what I found in my Dell Inspiron i5 4GB RAM Win-7 Pro-x64 laptop

    1. Waiting:

    I faced this problem on Oct 14, 2010 and opted for a recovery as nothing happened even after waiting for 4 hours. I again tried to install the updates and after waiting for 7 hours opted for a Recovery because "this is not the only thing I do".

    1. Put off by holding on the Power button and booted back normally.

    This worked first time for me. But as the flurry of the updates happened after and after, this is no more a solution.

    1. System Restore.

    I kept on doing this. But even after keeping the Win 7 updates manually in the Control Panel > Windows Updates > Settings, some of them kept on downloaded and installed brought the problem back.

    1. Installing Updates manually.

    I do not know whether this works. But I have around 40+ updates waiting. How the ____ I will be able to manually install them? Oh Jeez......

    1. Disable McAfee.

    I do have McAfee installed from AT&T (AT&T is another ____ like MS where reaching out to US President is a better option than a customer support person). I am not yet done with this because of "Please do not switch off...." window. But the other folks who complained about the same issue has not mentioned about this. I am disabling McAfee and trying to install the updates hoping that something would happen. Please pray for me and my computer to get it booted and allow me to start working. 

    Folks, if I missed anything please add up. 

    With lot of regrets,

    A Windows 7 Professional Customer

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2010-10-16T00:28:09+00:00

    yup! this is what i had to do exactly. Mine got stuck at "Preparing to configure ..." screen. But I just shut it down manually at that screen. It then loaded up. The "Preparing to configure ..." screen came again but only lasted a few seconds. It then went to Updating and is now done.

    Fun fact: I was doing 70 updates!

    I don't think waiting is the answer. I think it just gets stuck and a manual restart at the screen is necessary. It loads up fine after that. Btw, I have a sony vaio...intel core2duo processor and windows 7 hoe premium.

    So glad i found this forum and answer.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2010-10-12T20:49:50+00:00

    I'm having the same issue with my Sony Vaio VGN-NR160E. The notebook is in loop: "Preparing to configure Windows. Do not turn off your computer." This is going for at least 9 hours. I noticed on the posts here that it seems that I have to really wait a little bit more. I will try, but does not make sense. I did try F8 and all the options there (Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking...). I also tried to boot from the original Windows 7 CD and tried all the recovery options there. In summary all failed. I'm again stuck with the "Preparing to configure Windows..." This is my wife's notebook so I don't know how many updates were downloaded and are being installed, but it is very strange to stay in this loop forever... I tried all the solutions listed in this thread, in summary:

    1. to wait for hours...some people said they waited from one day to the next....
    2. to reboot in Safe Mode or other options after hitting F8.
    3. to repair from the Windows 7 CD

    All options failed and the notebook stays in the loop: boot, "preparing to configure....", reboot, "preparing to configure...".

    I will try to copy my files and reinstall Windows... Thanks Microsoft.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2010-10-07T00:15:58+00:00

    Well, this WSIF (Windows Software Installation Feature)-related issue seems to be somewhat caused by third party drivers installed on the OS.

    I've had installed Windows updates and hotfixes before installing any driver and I didn't have noticed this problem therefore. So if you want to install Windows MSU packages on a Win7-based 64bit machine which has 3rd party drivers installed, a reboot after each MSU installation (even if it's not necessary) is required to prevent the computer to hang during installation. This is a temporary solution until a WSIF hotfix for Win 7 x64 comes into surface.

    AFAIK, Microsoft has released 5 patches for the Windows Software Installation Feature for Vista a couple of years ago. Perhaps the folks at M$ will launch a similar hotfix for Windows 7 which definitely eliminates these system hangs.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments