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
    2014-12-28T05:27:10+00:00

    How does disabling OneDrive integration impact functionality?  If I wasn't planning on using OneDrive anyway, is it okay if I leave it disabled?  

    Some users report that going into PC Settings > OneDrive and turning off the options for File storage, Camera roll and Sync settings fixed their problem. With these options disabled, you don't save documents to OneDrive, your camera roll doesn't automatically get saved to OneDrive, and your settings don't get synched. (Synching your settings means that you can log in to any Windows 8.1 PC with your Microsoft Account and you will get the same wallpaper, colour scheme, apps etc.)

    However, I tried this and it didn't fix the problem for me. I was only able to fix it by changing the user account to a local account on the PC, then back to a linked Microsoft Account. You do this by going into PC Settings > Accounts > Your account > Disconnect.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-28T07:02:03+00:00

    Hi DonnaGo,

    No, I no longer have any issues If you've updated your drivers, may fix your issue. In any case, just try it - there's no harm you can do by trying to log into the account - leave it for a couple of minutes and if it hasn't gone past the blue screen, re-try all the solutions of changing account types - I'd do a reboot between account changes just to make sure the blue screen process is not running in background and that the account was properly changed . Don't be afraid changing the account type several times. If after doing this, you still have issues, try deleting the account, reboot and recreate it as an admin account. Good luck

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-28T13:07:01+00:00

    I had the problem on a new Dell XPS 27 with NVidia card after upgrading it to windows 8.1;

    I changed the accounts to local and problem went away.

    I have not gone back to microsoft accounts yet, and won't until I need SkyDrive

    I posted the above in Feb 2014 and never saw the problem since.

    to clarify:

    . I updated the Dell from 8 to 8.1 as soon as I got it and didn't have the "wait screen" problem until later, certainly after some updates had been applied. I didn't update NVidia driver until recently. 

    . I had two accounts setup as microsoft accounts both with admin priviledges but the problem only occurred on one of them, so I had the good account to clean up.

    . I changed both accounts to local accounts still with admin, doing this automatically disables One Drive but I back up all my stuff myself and haven't missed anything else (sync?) that may have been disabled.

    . I will test my third point soon, when I receive my Surface Pro 3 with 8.1 installed. I will setup the same two admin accounts as microsoft accounts. I'm keeping the Dell so if no problems occur on SP3 I may retest the microsft account(s) on it.

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