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
    2014-01-20T20:51:35+00:00

    Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to solving this mess. The methods you proposed are working for me. So thanks again and good to everyone ;-)

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-15T13:14:24+00:00

    creating a new account did not work at all. However, there was this issue "restoreoptin.exe" and got it solved by simply using taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe in run ....

    Source - http://www.optimizewindows8.net/2014/01/fixing-please-wait-screen-problem-in-windows-8-8-1/

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-12T22:43:18+00:00

    Hi guys

    The system restore worked for me, but after some time the please wait screen started showing up again.

    It seems I have found the culprit - if you are using any registry cleaner tools such as CCleaner or AVG's, it will mess up Skydrive somewhat and would cause restoreoptin to run again, eventually making the Please Wait screen show up.

    So in short, after the system restore DO NOT clean up registry entries. One or more of them might actually be needed to be by the system to prevent this issue.

    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.

    The above method of switching the account to a local account and then switching it back to a Microsoft account worked ! If you are looking at detailed steps on how to switch your account to a local account this might help - http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4842-local-account-switch-windows-8-a.html

    Once switched and signed in again, if you try to access skype, it will ask you to switch back to Microsoft account and send you some email verification code to complete the wizard !

    All said and done, really disappointed with this problem, had been driving me nuts !

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