Solved! Please wait loop and desktop not available after windows update

[gibbs.montana]

Hello everyone.
So i was about to sleep when my laptop popped up a required windows update, so i uodated it. But what happened after that is the desktop became unavailable wherein all your files and apps are gone. So i panicked and quickly restarted it.
After restarting it showed me "please wait" so i waited a few minutes which turned to hours. So i restarted it again, tried to boot in safe but up to no avail. I also did the automatic repair, it did undergo the repair but right after rebooting, it went to the "please wait" loop all over again.
So now im a sitting duck.
Please help!

 

[fastcompany2]

I've actually seen this twice recently. just so happens that in both cases so far it happened to low powered laptops that people restarted during the updates and screwed it all up. The last one I restored the please wait and getting windows ready displayed for I don't know something like 3 hours. Just as I thought there had to be something wrong it finished. So did your update finish over night un interrupted? I would first try a system restore to see if that gets you back on track but the last 2 times for me I had to re install windows as the automatic repairs did not work nor did trying to repair them with a recovery drive through command prompt. Not sure what your hardware is but there really seems to be an issue that i've seen with windows 10 updates requiring more resources than alot of older tech has.

 

[ischmal001]

I just had this exact this issue from an update that was installed on Thursday that I only discovered a few hours ago (and I'm actively searching for more reports, which are growing).

The "please wait" loop will probably resolve itself after several minutes and bring you to the login screen. One immediate difference you'll likely see is that you need to now use your Microsoft account password on your user profile. The problem is, once you login, you'll realize virtually nothing on the operating system is functional (this is not hyperbole). As best I can tell, something in the update corrupted the operating system itself.

From my personal experience and from others I've seen, none of the basic Windows Recovery options work, and the only solution has been the awful Reset Windows option. That will work, and will likely save your files, but you may notice some programs need to be manually reinstalled.

For background, my PC is a high performance desktop that I built, so I don't think system specs are the common denominator. The only thing I can think of right now is limited primary C drive space. I use several drives, but my OS is installed on a 120 GB SSD, and it tends to have only 4-10 GB free at any given time depending on AppData usage (most of my personal files folders are configured to use separate drives). If people are reporting this issue frequently on lower-end devices, it could indicate an issue with drive space.

Nonetheless, this is going to be another huge issue we'll hear more about as people return to work. I wish I could say there's an easy fix, but there really isn't. Because the OS is made unusable, hopes for an update that fixes it are minimal, leaving an OS reset as the only likely viable option.

 

[fastcompany2]

I just had this exact this issue from an update that was installed on Thursday that I only discovered a few hours ago (and I'm actively searching for more reports, which are growing).

The "please wait" loop will probably resolve itself after several minutes and bring you to the login screen. One immediate difference you'll likely see is that you need to now use your Microsoft account password on your user profile. The problem is, once you login, you'll realize virtually nothing on the operating system is functional (this is not hyperbole). As best I can tell, something in the update corrupted the operating system itself.

From my personal experience and from others I've seen, none of the basic Windows Recovery options work, and the only solution has been the awful Reset Windows option. That will work, and will likely save your files, but you may notice some programs need to be manually reinstalled.

For background, my PC is a high performance desktop that I built, so I don't think system specs are the common denominator. The only thing I can think of right now is limited primary C drive space. I use several drives, but my OS is installed on a 120 GB SSD, and it tends to have only 4-10 GB free at any given time depending on AppData usage (most of my personal files folders are configured to use separate drives). If people are reporting this issue frequently on lower-end devices, it could indicate an issue with drive space.

Nonetheless, this is going to be another huge issue we'll hear more about as people return to work. I wish I could say there's an easy fix, but there really isn't. Because the OS is made unusable, hopes for an update that fixes it are minimal, leaving an OS reset as the only likely viable option.

The 2 that I had to reset had roughly 300gb free space on a hdd. All I know is I have a decently fast system with plenty of space on my ssd and I have plenty of ram and its been taking uplates lIke a champ. Both systems that messed up on me were only 4gb of ram which was the max for both.