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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180 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-02-13T02:29:40+00:00

    Hi,

    I updated via the link you posted and then rebooted but got the blue screens again. I then followed the stages relating to restoreoptin laid out above and (touch wood) have not had a recurrence of the screen after more than a dozen reboots over the last 24 hours.

    Brian,

    That is interesting. My own experience (so far) has been sort of the opposite of yours. 

    The first time I upgraded from 8.0 to 8.1, I got the Please Wait screen and none of the work arounds I tried resolved it.  They either did not work or they seemed to work, only to have the Please Wait screen reappear later (after, I suspect, a windows update).  At that time, I was relying on Windows to keep my Nvidia video card drivers up to date.  Since I could not resolve the issue with the workarounds, I rolled back to 8.0, where I stayed without issue for about a year.

    The second time I upgraded to 8.1 was by mistake.  I got a pop up asking me to upgrade with two choices, "Upgrade Now" or "Upgrade Later."  Since I did not want to upgrade at all, I chose Later, but Windows was apparently being quite literal because it upgraded me the next time I rebooted without asking me again whether I wanted to do it. 

    To my surprise, the Please Wait screen did not appear (nor has it in about four (?) months).  I therefore did not need to do any of the workarounds.  The only thing I did differently the second time I upgraded to 8.1 was that before I did the upgrade, I had switched to Nvidia's update program and used it to keep my video drivers up to date, rather than rely on Windows Update to do that. 

    I wonder if you needed to use the workarounds because you upgraded to 8.1 and installed all the updates before you used Nvidia's program to update your video drivers?  Maybe I did not need a workaround because I had already used Nvidia to update my video drivers before I upgraded and installed all the updates? 

    Thank you for sharing your experience.  My guess is that we will continue seeing posts by "Please Wait" victims until Windows 10 rolls out.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-12T12:09:25+00:00

    Hi,

    I updated via the link you posted and then rebooted but got the blue screens again. I then followed the stages relating to restoreoptin laid out above and (touch wood) have not had a recurrence of the screen after more than a dozen reboots over the last 24 hours.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-02-12T10:24:59+00:00

    Brian out of interest did you update your Nvidia drivers using Windows update drivers or via the link I posted to use the Nvidia update tool?

    If you used the Nvidia update tool, installed the latest drivers and then rebooted it would have worked as that is the fix, not a workaround.

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