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

2015-05-11T14:20:15+00:00

This bug makes me cry since almost 19 months.

I am tired of telling people "ow, no problem, don't worry, this is a well-known windows bug, let me show you the workaround, it's easy".

There are 244 windows updates on my computer and none of them contains a fix for this system bug.

This thread has 86+K views.

Is there any Windows engineer nearby willing to fix that? Or shall we wait for Windows 10?
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Anonymous

2015-07-21T10:14:45+00:00

Fast and Easy fix for people who are experiencing this issue (BUT THIS FIX ONLY APPLICABLE TO NVIDIA USERS) and it's good to know for nVidia Shield and Shadowplay Users, as you may think that you will have to put up with this "Please Wait..." message taking forever in order to keep using the nVidia Streamer Service which is required for nVidia Shield and ShadowPlay etc. (cause for me this nVidia Streamer Service is definately what was causing the massive Please Wait... Wait.After changing 1 simple setting I was amazed, first fix I found myself through research that I haven't seen on the web yet, well not for nVidia users anyway atleast).

That’s right you don't have to put up with that please wait.. WAITING..... YOU CAN in fact have the Please Wait message reduce back to its normal loading time whilst still having the nVidia streamer Service active, using my method the nVidia Streamer service will have a delayed start which means it will load automatically right after all of your other normal and custom services have loaded, if not right after, not too long after.

In all should only take 2-3 mins for the nVidia Streamer service to start by itself giving you access to the nVidia Shield and ShadowPlay still, my method is much a much better solution than just putting up with it and trying to bootup with the please wait screen and the nVidia Streamer service at the same time (which is what I think it's doing, making it glitch/load slow or whatever), or going without the nVidiaStreamer Service (nVidia Shield and Shandowplay) just so you can have a fast boot up which is what some people do bugger that I'm glad I found this fix and will explain what I found that worked for me and hopefully it will resolve your issue too with the "Please Wait..." message after starting the computer and taking like 5-10 minutes longer than what it should to load or what evs.

After doing a bit of research a recent update that you may have done for nvidia graphics drivers etc, (whether via nvidia or windows update download) may have updated your NVIDIA Streamer Service Startup type setting to Automatically instead of Automatic. To fix this either click start and type services.msc or click Start then run and type services.msc then press ENTER.

(NOTE: Services can also be accessed by right clicking on My Computer or This Pc for Windows 8 users, then Manage/Management Settings). Once you're in Services.msc scroll down to NVIDIA Streamer Service and right-click on it, then go to properties and select Automatic(Delayed) in the dropdown box if it was set to Automatic beforehand, which for me it was.

After that, click on Apply, then restart your computer and hopefully should boot up like normal (much quicker) and NVIDIA Streamer Service should also now start shortly after all other services have been loaded because we changed the startup type to delayed easy as pie hope it works for you.

From Shane. Peace. I hope you liked my fix.
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Anonymous

2015-07-28T07:01:13+00:00

When I was stuck at the please wait screen (Windows 8.1), circle not animating.. I did Windows-R and typed command:

taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe

This fix was great, but every time I rebooted I had to do it, eventually I was able to disable the startup of OneDrive or SkyDrive (I don't remember which) with CCleaner.
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