windows 8.1 hangs on Please Wait screen (restoreoptin)

Anonymous
2013-10-19T03:11:39+00:00

When logging in, a Please Wait screen shows up along with a Cancel button. I tried letting it sit there for more than half an hour but nothing happens. I noticed the application is letterboxed and I can use Win+D to see that the desktop show up. The screen stays on top blocking all mouse activity and most of my screen.

Eventually I logged into another account and found restoreoptin running and terminated it. That removed it from my original account however it will do it again if I log out and log back in.

Any ideas?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2013-10-25T17:25:19+00:00

<Modifying post to help other find the answer quickly>

I found another workaround that allows for still using skydrive, and further confirms the relationship to skydrive setup.

(This is the method I used)

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press Windows Key + L to lock the computer
  3. Switch to a user account with administrator priveledges
  4. open task manager & switch to the "Processes" tab (Press "More Details" if don't see a processes tab)
  5. find restoreoptin.exe & end task that process
  6. switch back to affected account (Start Page, click your account name/picture, click the account you want to switch to)
  7. Open Charm menu (windows key + C), select "Settings", then Change PC Settings
  8. Select Skydrive
  9. Modify the File Storage, Camera Roll, and Sync Settings (not sure which one does the trick)
  10. logout & log back in
  11. you should no longer be prompted with the blank 'please wait' screen

Another workaround that should achieve the same, as posted by others:

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press Windows Key + r
  3. Type:

taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe 4. Open Charm menu (windows key + C), select "Settings", then Change PC Settings 5. Select Skydrive 6. Modify the File Storage, Camera Roll, and Sync Settings (not sure which one does the trick) 7. logout & log back in 8. you should no longer be prompted with the blank 'please wait' screen

and just for completeness, you could also try:

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press: Windows Key + r

Type:

taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe 3. Press: Windows Key + x

Press: a

Press: <Alt + Y>

(run cmd as administrator) 4. Type:

cd c:\windows\system32

restoreOptIn.exe /Ramp
  1. Complete the Wizard

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Anonymous
2014-01-03T18:25:43+00:00

I fixed it much more simply. I had to recently rebuild my dell xps 27 and started with 8.0. Setup everyone's account since I have a home network and domain setup. Then upgraded, I ran into the same issue as everyone here in the post. What I had to do to fix is is unassociated all the windows live/Hotmail/outlook accounts from the domain accounts and then re-apply them. This then asked me to verify that the account has permissions to skydrive, and asked for verification. Texted me, I put in the verification code and it was fixed on all accounts. Someone also mentioned making it a local account and then reassigning to your windows account. Seems to fix it as well.

Steps for Domain accounts:

  1. Remove association from your windows account
  2. Re-add your windows account
  3. verify that the pc has permissions to back up your info to sky drive/turn off sync with sky drive.

Windows Account:

  1. Make it a local account
  2. Re-add your windows account
  3. Verify that the pc has permissions to backup your info to sky drive/turn off sync with sky drive.

Appears to be a bug in the 8.1 upgrade where the pc and sky drive trust is broken, it didn't happen until I received a windows update, but I could see this happening if you download the patches during the upgrade process.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-22T05:37:45+00:00

    having the same issue after adding a new Microsoft account to the computer on first logon to that account. "RestoreOptIn.exe /ramp" is what I see from process explorer. looks to be the 'express or custom settings' prompt that you would normally get on first logon. (but blank instead)

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-20T02:42:02+00:00

    1)       What do you mean by “restoreoptin”? Is that a service running on the computer?

    2)       Does this happen before you enter your user account credential or is it after logging into your account?

    3)       Do you have any third party security program installed on the computer?

    4)       With which user account does this happen? Is it with Microsoft account or Local account or on both? 

    1. C:\Windows\System32\RestoreOptIn.exe

    It has a digital signature signed by Microsoft Windows.

    1. After logging into the account. This has happened both accounts now. Everything is running behind it as expected. I can use keyboard commands to load and do anything I want but the screen is still obscured. It even shows up in Alt+Tab. I can kill RestoreOptIn.exe and have a regular running account.
    2. No
    3. They are both Microsoft accounts.

    My account asked me suddenly something about SkyDrive one of the times I logged in and I have yet to see it on my account again. However the other account now has the pop-up.

    I am letting it run System File Checker just in case right now.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-19T19:33:29+00:00

    Hi John,

    Please provide more information regarding this issue. It would be great if you can answer these questions for a better understanding:

    1)       What do you mean by “restoreoptin”? Is that a service running on the computer?

    2)       Does this happen before you enter your user account credential or is it after logging into your account?

    3)       Do you have any third party security program installed on the computer?

    4)       With which user account does this happen? Is it with Microsoft account or Local account or on both?

    This could be either due to some third party software conflict on the computer or missing or corrupted system files. Let’s try some troubleshooting steps and check if that helps.

    Method 1: Check the issue in Safe Mode and perform a Clean Boot.

    Step 1: Boot the computer in Safe Mode and check if the issue persists.

    In Windows, we can start the computer in different advanced troubleshooting modes to find and fix problems on the PC. One of such troubleshooting mode is Safe Mode. Here we start Windows with a minimal set of drivers and services. Please refer to the steps in this link to boot the computer in safe mode:

    Windows Startup Settings (including safe mode)

    If the issue does not occur in safe mode, then you may boot the computer back to the normal mode and then perform a clean boot to check if the issue is caused by any software conflicts.

    Step 2: Perform a Clean Boot and find out which application/service is causing this issue.

    A clean boot helps to eliminate software conflicts and to determine what is causing the problem. Perform a clean boot on the computer by following the steps given in the link:

    ***http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135***

    Follow the steps given in this link to perform a clean boot on the computer. You may please note that performing a clean boot does not fix the actual issue. It just helps us in identifying the root cause of the issue.

    If the issue does not occur in clean boot, then you may determine which application/service on the computer is causing this issue. This can be done by following the instructions given in the article “How to determine what is causing the problem by performing a clean boot” under the section “More information” from the same given link.

    Important: After you have finished troubleshooting, refer to the article “How to reset the computer to start as usual after clean boot troubleshooting” for Windows 8, given under the section “More Information” to reset the computer to start as usual from the above link.

    If you are unable to identify any software conflict on the computer, then let’s check if this is caused by the missing or corrupted system files on the computer.

    Method 2: Run an SFC Scan

    The sfc /scannow command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.

    a)       Press “Windows Logo” + “Q” keys on the keyboard and type “cmd” in the search box.

    b)       Right click on the “Command Prompt” icon from the search results and select “Run as administrator”

    c)       On the command prompt window, type the following command, and then press “Enter”

    sfc /scannow

    d)       Follow the on-screen instructions and complete the scan.

    Important: It may ask for windows installation DVD to fix and to enable SFC to make more than minor repairs. Some files saved on your computer might get deleted when fixing corrupted files.

    Please get back to us with the results.

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