"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
    2011-04-04T05:56:11+00:00

    I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del (was going to reboot anyhow) and the Windows Logon Screen magically appeared.  Go Windows... maybe someday it will be finished.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-03-29T12:50:51+00:00

    I'm in the same boat.  I'm evaluating Windows 7 and an HP Touchsmart 9100 for use at our company.  Booting up indicated 100 (that's right, one HUNDRED) updates were required and I am now stuck in Windows 7 purgatory as it does its thing.  Suffice to say will NOT work for our company (let alone me personally!) and my reccomendation will be not to proceed with Windows 7.  We haven't got the time nor the staff to babysit a machine while it is "Preparing to configure Windows".

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-03-25T12:46:27+00:00

    I hit ctrl alt del and that brought up the usual login screen and was able to log in as normal. then shut down and it still had 4 updates left to install out of about 26 so maybe if I had waited longer but 2 hours should be loads

    Its working normally now

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-03-01T23:55:08+00:00

    I have tried to install Windows 7 SP1 - worked fine on my older laptop. However having major issues with my desktop PC - has been on the 'Preparing to configure Windows' screen for sometime... (about an hour) - it then loaded back to Windows however it didn't state the update was complete.

    I then rebooted and guess what... SAME PROBLEM?!?

    How do I get around this infinite loop of 'Preparing to configure...'

    This cannot be an isolated problem - why is there not an official MS update regarding this problem with the Windows 7 Service Pack 1.

    If anyone can help please... I have a legit copy of Windows which I cannot activate again if this goes all wrong and I need to reinstall everything from scratch. :-(

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