Preparing windows do not turn off the computer turns off. What prevents your computer from turning off?

If not all, then almost all Windows 10 users have encountered this problem. This fact appears either when turning on or, more often, when turning off the computer. At the same time, it is not possible to use it, since there is no reaction to either button presses or mouse clicks.

What does it mean?

Typically, the message “Preparing windows, do not turn off the computer” in Windows 10 and other versions of this operating system indicates downloading and/or installing system component updates. Since Windows 10 is a fairly young OS, its developers are constantly finishing and improving it, introducing these improvements in the form of system updates.

The preparation window then changes to a window displaying the progress of the update.

Displaying system update progress

Therefore, if you see this message on your PC, it is better not to really try to turn it off or restart it, so as not to disrupt the progress of the update. This can lead to a complete failure of the operating system and the only option to correct the current situation is to reinstall it.

Why does the update take so long?

There are several factors that influence the update time, namely:

Update size. Sometimes a small update is released (about 100 MB). In this case, downloading and installing it takes little time. And there are large-scale updates, up to 4-5 GB in size. In this case, quite a lot of time is spent downloading and installing them.
. Everything is simple here. The faster your Internet connection, the faster the update will download. Especially the big one.
PC performance. As with the above, the speed of installing the update depends on how fast and productive your computer is. Weak PCs spend much more time installing updates.
Having problems with the hard drive. A hard drive that has many bad sectors greatly slows down the installation of updates and the overall operation of the computer as a whole. Therefore, if you experience slow computer operation and the message “Preparing windows, do not turn off the computer” appears often and for a long time, then in this case we recommend that you check your performance.

Conclusion

The message “Preparing windows, do not turn off your computer” that appears in Windows 10 when you turn on or off your PC indicates the progress of installing system updates. This process cannot be interfered with and you should always wait until it is completed. If it hangs for a long time, then there are a number of reasons for this, described above.

To prevent this message from being displayed in the future, you need to:

Obviously, any Windows user, when shutting down or restarting their computer, very often saw the message “Preparing Windows. Don't turn off your computer." This is normal and concerns either the initial system setup or the installation of important updates. But there are also situations when the message does not disappear from the screen for a long time, and the terminal does not turn off or the system does not start when rebooting. What is the reason for this, how to get rid of this problem, read on.

Preparing Windows

We will not consider installing the system now. Apparently, the message “Preparing Windows. Do not turn off the computer” is mostly associated with when operating system files are copied to it, and it is not possible to launch them for initial setup. Here you will have to either check the disk initially, or change it altogether.

Another thing is installing updates. Indeed, after the download of critical packages is completed, the message “Preparing Windows. Do not turn off the computer" indicates that the system is integrating and configuring them. But freezing or looping of these processes can appear completely unexpectedly.

“Preparing Windows” hangs on the screen for a long time. Don't turn off your computer." Reasons for freezing

What could cause this behavior of the operating system? Apparently, no one can pinpoint the exact reason. But in most cases, it can be assumed that such a failure is associated with the services that oversee the search and installation of downloaded packages.

In other words, failures are observed in the Update Center. Either its components are damaged, or the service is not working correctly, or something really happened to the hard drive. Get rid of the situation where the “Preparing Windows. “Don’t turn off the computer” hangs for too long, and the system shows no signs of life; a normal reboot is impossible (the message may appear again during a restart). Therefore, radical methods will have to be used.

How to solve the problem in the simplest way?

The first proposed solution is to use a safe start. For systems below the tenth version, at the very beginning of the boot, you must use the standard entry into the extended menu by pressing the F8 key, after which the boot of the last known good configuration is selected.

If this does not help, and upon restart the message “Preparing Windows. Do not turn off the computer” does not disappear from the screen for a long time, working with updates again, you can forcefully reboot the system several times in order for automatic recovery to start.

If this does not happen, the best option would be to boot in safe mode, after which you will need to roll back yourself, using either the standard recovery partition in the Control Panel, or by launching the command console with the line rstrui.exe and then selecting a rollback point.

Note: in different versions of Windows 10, entering safe mode can be done through the diagnostic menu or when starting from removable media.

Disabling Update Center

So, we assume that the system did boot into safe mode. The first step is to deactivate the Update Center service.

In an OS below the tenth modification, you can disable it directly in the corresponding section of the Control Panel. In Windows 10, this procedure is performed exclusively through the services section. We will start from this section, since this solution is universal for all Windows systems.

First you need to enter the editor using the “Run” console and the services.msc command, find “Update Center” there, right-click or double-click to open the parameter editing window, stop the service, set its startup type to disabled, and then restart systems.

Removing updates

However, it happens that, for example, the corresponding message in Windows 10 (“Preparing Windows. Do not turn off the computer”) appears again only because the updates have already been downloaded, but the system is stubbornly trying to configure them. To correct the situation, they must be completely removed.

To do this, boot the system in the same safe mode, go to the programs and components section, select the section for viewing installed updates and delete the latest downloaded packages. Since the service responsible for the functioning of the Update Center is in a deactivated state, it makes no sense to run a manual search to exclude failed updates. Once the removal is complete, we reboot. In theory, the system should boot in normal mode.

How to solve the problem of incorrect update

This is one of the most common problems associated with almost endless setup preparation. An incorrectly installed update may have virtually no effect, but in some cases you get errors like this. As a result, the system is able to update itself ad infinitum whenever you turn your computer on or off. In the first case, this leads to the fact that the operating system simply does not start. In the second, it means it is impossible to turn off the computer normally. So how to solve this.

Radically

If you don’t want to spend a long time figuring out the cause and fixing all this, just restore the system. Of course, this will take a fair amount of time and leave you without your files. But if you don’t have anything that important, then feel free to restore Windows. To do this, use one of the restore points that the system makes independently.

By the way, for this to work, the ability to create restore points must be enabled. Otherwise, it will be impossible to “heal” the system in this way, and it will have to be reinstalled.

To start the recovery, simply open “Start” and enter “System Restore” in the search. After this, you should open a similar item and confirm that you are really an administrator and definitely want to do this. Well, select a restore point.

With Update Center disabled

If you have neither the desire nor the ability to reinstall the operating system, you can simply prevent it from updating. In fact, if there is nothing to launch the update, then there will be no freezes due to this update itself.

First of all, if you turn on your computer, you need to log in through safe mode. This is done quite simply. Press the power button and immediately start frantically clicking on F8. You can't hesitate. If the operating system logo appears, turn off the computer and try again.

After this, you need to log into the Control Panel using the command line. It is called by the combination Win + R, and then the control command is entered into it. From the window that appears after entering, you need to go to the “System and Security” section. And among all the variety that is there, scroll to the very bottom and select “Administration”.

Another new window will appear, in which there will be the inscription “Services”. You need to double-click on it with the left mouse button.

After this, another window will pop up. It will contain all services running on this computer. In order to get rid of the computer freezing with the message “Preparing to configure Windows”, you should find “Windows Update”. As a rule, this service is located almost at the very bottom if sorted by name.

Once found, you need to double-click on it with the left mouse button. And you will see another new window in which you need to stop this service. Done? Feel free to turn it off by selecting the appropriate startup type. After this, it will no longer turn on without your intervention, which means there will be no problems, the computer will not undergo automatic updating.

With updates removed

If you want to figure out what caused your computer to not work correctly, you can try uninstalling one of the latest updates. To do this, you must first enter the Control Panel, and from there through the same section as in the last paragraph - into “Windows Update”.

Then at the very bottom you need to find the inscription that says “Installed updates”. And there, in a huge list, you can see which of them was installed last. And delete it.

By the way, you should first disable the ability to update your computer, otherwise every time you turn on the deleted file, it will be installed again.

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Windows users often encounter the Blue Screen of Death problem. What is it? The fact is that damaged system files can lead to a critical error that prevents the computer from starting to work correctly. In this case, a “blue screen” appears. But don't panic! After all, you can fix the problem yourself. Let's figure out exactly how.

Causes of blue and black screens

In Windows 10, you may encounter the following error messages: “The computer is not starting correctly,” “The system requires repair,” etc. The reason for their appearance lies in damaged system files, due to which Windows could not boot.

The system may be damaged due to incorrect actions of the user himself, who made changes to the registry or files on drive C. Or the cause of the breakdown may be a virus. The error also sometimes occurs due to incompatibility with third-party device drivers or enabled Fast Boot. However, most often a critical error appears due to an interrupted update or an incorrect shutdown of the computer. For example, the computer shut down forcibly because the power was lost or a power surge occurred. Processes and files controlled by them are terminated, after which their reuse becomes impossible.

If damaged, the system first tries to recover twice on its own, rebooting the computer each time. If the error is not resolved after this, control is given to the user. Sometimes it happens that the system freezes and reboots a large number of times, after which a black screen appears. In this situation, you must abort the procedure and continue the recovery manually.

Video: the danger of the Blue Screen of Death in Windows 10

Automatic system recovery

First, give the computer a chance to figure out the error on its own. Keep in mind that the automatic recovery procedure may take more than an hour. Do not interrupt it under any circumstances, as this can lead to even more tragic consequences. Proceed to manual recovery only if the system freezes or one of the messages appears: “The computer is not starting correctly,” “Windows seems to have loaded incorrectly.”

The appearance of a “blue screen of death” indicates the presence of a critical error in the system

Reboot

This method is suitable for you if the system displays a message with a choice of two options: “Reboot” and “Advanced options”. If it is not there, then you will have to use other methods.

What should be done:

When you receive the notification, go to the Advanced Options section.
Start System Restore by going to Advanced Options
Select the troubleshooting block.
Open the “Troubleshooting” tab
Select the section with additional parameters again.
Select "Advanced Options"
Go to the Boot Options tab.
Open the "Boot Options" section
In the list that opens, click “Restart”.
Click "Restart"
A list with download options will open. Select option 6 - command line support mode. Wait until the system restarts and the command prompt appears.
Select reboot with command line support
On the command line, run three commands in sequence:
- sfc /scannow;
- dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth;
- shutdown -r.

Commands take time to complete, please wait for them to complete.

Video: how to fix the Blue Screen of Death in Windows 10

Deactivating Quick Launch

The reason for the impossibility of recovery may be fast boot, activated by default. Since in this case there is no access to the system, you will have to deactivate the function through the BIOS:

If this method doesn't work, move on to the next one.

Deactivating automatic recovery

It happens that the system resorts to recovery without any reason, by mistake. Therefore, it is worth trying to prevent it from calling the recovery procedure by following these steps:

When the message appears, go to advanced options and invoke Command Prompt.
From the Advanced Options menu, open Command Prompt
Using the bcdedit command, find the string resumeobject and copy its value.
Run bcdedit to get to Windows Boot Manager
Run the command bcdedit /set (X) recoveryenabled, where X is the previously copied line, enclosed in curly braces. After that, exit the command line with the exit command.
Run bcdedit /set (X) recoveryenabled to disable automatic recovery

Ready! Now try booting the system.

Manually running diagnostics

Going to the command line using the method described in the paragraphs “Deactivating automatic recovery” or “Reboot”, run the following commands in sequence:

chkdsk /r c:;
sfc /scannow.

Run the command chkdsk /r c;, sfc /scannow

These commands scan system files and fix any errors found. After executing them, write exit to exit the command line and check if the problem goes away.

Manual system recovery

If none of the described methods help resolve the problem, you will have to return the system to working condition manually. There are several ways to do this.

Restore point

This method is good because your data (photos, music, archives and other files) will not be deleted or changed. System settings, updates, and driver versions will be rolled back to the state they were in at the time the restore point was created. If it was not created automatically or manually in advance, then you will not be able to use the method.

Follow these steps:

After this, the rollback procedure will begin, which can last about an hour. Don't interrupt it - it will lead to big problems. As a result of the rollback, system files are regenerated, so no errors should occur.

Reset to factory settings

This method allows you to reset all system settings, installed programs and created tasks, and at the same time save the user’s personal data that is not stored in the system partition. This method replaces reinstalling the system, allowing you to complete it much faster.

Do the following:

The rollback procedure will begin, which may last more than an hour. Do not interrupt it, otherwise the system will be damaged so much that a direct reinstallation cannot be avoided. At one stage you will be asked whether to save your personal data or not. If you select the “Don’t save” option, you can get a completely clean Windows 10.

Choose whether to save your personal data or not

Manually entering the recovery menu

To manually enter the recovery menu, you will need recovery media. An installation flash card with at least 8 GB of memory will be used as it.

To create installation media, follow the instructions:

Insert the flash card into your work computer, find its icon in Explorer, right-click on it and select the “Format” function. Please note that you can create media in any version of Windows, but the “Format” function is present only in Windows 10. In previous systems, you will have to use a third-party program, for example, USB Disk Storage Format Tool. The formatting format is FAT32.
Before formatting the flash card, select the FAT32 file system format
After formatting is complete, go to the Microsoft website to the Windows download page and download the installation program.
Go to the Microsoft website and download the system installer
Launch the downloaded program. Check that you want to update another device.
Select "Create installation media"
When asked to select the characteristics of the system to be recorded, select the specifications that match the characteristics of the system that needs to be restored.
Specify the characteristics of the system you want to restore
Specify which media to use and wait for the recording to complete. Done, the installation media has been created.
Specify the media - flash card or disk
After the operation is completed, run the flash card on a non-working computer. To do this, enter the BIOS (how to do this is described in the first step of the “Deactivating Quick Startup”) and change the boot order so that the connected media moves the hard drive from the first place.
Install the installation media first
Exit the BIOS and wait for the installation window to appear. Go through the first step of selecting a language, and on the second, interrupt the installation procedure by clicking “System Restore”.
Click "System Restore" in the second step of Windows installation

After completing these steps, you will be in the recovery menu and can use all the instructions described above.

Generating a system image

If you have another computer with the same Windows 10 specifications as the non-working computer, you can capture a system image. This will create a restore point and you will be able to use the method already described above for fixing a Windows error using a restore point.

To generate a system image, follow these steps:

In the Control Panel menu, go to File History.
Click "Create a system image"
Select the recording media and confirm the action. After the procedure is completed, you will have a flash card with a backup copy. Use it to restore a damaged system.
Specify the media on which the system image will be written

The appearance of a blue or black screen with an error indicates the presence of failures or damaged files in the system. You can fix the problem using the automatic system recovery options. If this does not work, use one of the manual recovery methods. Follow the instructions from the article and you will definitely succeed!