windows 8.1 hangs on Please Wait screen (restoreoptin)

Anonymous

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?

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Anonymous

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

(This is the method I used)

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

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

login to the affected account
Press Windows Key + r
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:

login to the affected account
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

Complete the Wizard

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Anonymous

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:

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

Windows Account:

Make it a local account
Re-add your windows account
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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180 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-02-13T10:04:52+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. I'm well aware that the problem hasn't been fixed - simply that I'm now able to get on with my life (which includes not using Onedrive!) I do repeat however that after updating the Nvidia drivers having installed 8.1 and updated I still got the problem. Surely MS can sort this issue out - it seems to have been rumbling for a long time. In the meantime I'm quite happy with the 'workaround'.
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Anonymous

2015-02-13T09:32:21+00:00

Thinking back i'm pretty certain I did the Nvidia driver update whilst on 8.0 and then redid the the update to 8.1 which then avoided the issues. So it maybe that once already on 8.1 the fix I posted isn't applicable and needs to be done before going to 8.1.

Brian you haven't actually fixed it as such, you have turned off/disabled Onedrive which is integrated into 8.1 and therefore missing out on the free cloud storage that Onedrive gives you. If you don't use that then it's a perfectly fine workaround but the actual issue is a video diver issue on Nvidia's part with the older drivers that prevent the Onedrive setup page from displaying properly when on 8.1.
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Anonymous

2015-02-13T08:34:15+00:00

I think you've hit the nail on the head. There seem to be a number of different experiences/scenarios to resolve this painful issue.

I continue to believe that (at least in my case) the problem has been resolved. I have not seen that screen again.

I am very grateful for everyone sharing experiences and workrounds/solutions. I was in a very unforgiving frame of mind when it first appeared having been the victim of ransomware which had made some registry changes which meant I had to clear and rebuilt my system. The last thing I wanted was yet more aggravation.

As you say, we just have to hope that Windows 10 resolves the problem once and for all.

Thanks again for your input.
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