As this message described, many users have been stuck on the Getting Windows ready screen especially in Windows 10 and Windows 8. It usually happens when you boot up computer or right after a system upgrading. 

You may wait patiently at first, but as time goes on, you begin to realize that it doesn’t seem to end on its own. You must take actions. But how?

How to fix stuck on Getting Windows Ready in Windows 10/8/7?

How to solve this problem if you can’t even log on to Windows? Here I compiled 9 methods that may help.

1.    Wait patiently for 2-3 hours

When this Getting Windows ready screen appears, your system is very likely downloading and installing files or dealing with some tasks in the background. It would have taken some time to finish these jobs, so as suggested, you better not turn off the computer right away.

Generally speaking, 2-3 hours is a normal range for waiting. If it’s already taken much longer than that, you can consider trying following solutions.

2.    Shutdown your computer thoroughly

After waiting for a long time, you can try to restart the computer – not as a normal reboot, but to hard shutdown and then restart. This method can clear all the information in the memory and hopefully get you out of infinite waiting.

Step 1. Turn off your computer by pressing the power button.

Step 2. Disconnect all external devices including.

Step 3. Pull out the power cable from your computer, and detach the battery if you are using a laptop.

Step 4. Keep pressing the power button for about 30 seconds to drain the remnant charge.

Step 5. Reinstall the power cable and battery. Press power button again to boot the computer.

Note: don’t reinstall any USB device during reboot.

3.    Uninstall recently installed update

Errors in recent updates might also lead to Windows 10 stuck on getting ready screen, so you need to enter safe mode for further uninstallation. To do that, you should boot to Windows Recovery Environment.

Step 1. In WinRE, click Troubleshoot > Advanced options and then choose Startup Settings. Press F4 to enter safe mode.

Step 2. Right-click Start button and choose Control Panel in the menu. Then go to Programs and Features.

Step 3. Click View installed update on the left panel. Choose the recently installed updates and uninstall them to fix the Windows getting ready stuck issue.

Step 4. Restart your computer to check whether it has been solved.

4.    Check and disable corrupted system files

If you get stuck on getting Windows ready at every reboot, it may be caused by the corrupted files on your computer. To find and disable them, you can run System File Checker under Recovery Environment.

Step 1. Enter Windows Recovery Environment.

Step 2. Click Troubleshoot > Command Prompt.

Step 3. Type sfc /scannow and press Enter.

Step 4. When the process completes, restart your PC to see if it’s still stuck on getting windows ready.

5.    Perform startup repair to fix boot errors

Startup Repair can fix some boot errors of Windows. You can find it in advanced startup options.

Step 1. Boot to WinRE, click Troubleshoot > Advanced options.

Step 2. Choose Startup Repair and wait till the repairing completes.

Step 3. Restart the computer to see if you are still stuck on getting Windows ready.

6.    Perform system restore or system image recovery

If you have enabled system protection to create Windows 10 restore points (for System Restore), or used Backup and Restore to create system image backup (for System Image Recovery), you can restore Windows 10 to an eariler state without getting Windows ready stuck issue.

It also requires you to enter Windows Recovery Environment. Take System Restore as an example.

Step 1. Click Troubleshoot > Advanced options and choose System Restore.

Step 2. It takes a while to prepare for the restoring, you’ll be required to log in the account after that.

Step 3. Click Next in System Restore wizard, select the restore point and click Next to continue.

Step 4. Confirm the operation and click Finish to start restoring.

7.    Clean install Windows to fix system issues

If above methods cannot help you fix the Windows 10/8/7 getting Windows ready stuck issue, you may need to reinstall your Windows from scratch.

Step 1. Insert the installation disc, or installation USB created by MediaCreationTool (please refer to the detailed guide about Windows 10 recovery tools)

Step 2. Choose the language, time format, and keyboard in Windows Setup.

Step 3. Click Install now and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the process.

Note a clean installation might erase some personal files from system partition or desktop. To avoid unwanted data loss, it’s better to backup your important files before performing reinstallation.

However, even if you can boot to the safe mode of Windows, there’s not many options for data backup. You either use WBadmin in Command Prompt or pick a third-party backup utility.

Here I take AOMEI Backupper Standard as an example. This is a Windows backup & restore freeware with flexible modes and options. You can use it to create a bootable disc or USB on another working PC, then insert the media to the unbootable computer and perform backup under Windows PE. Thus when the installation is complete, you can restore your data easily.

Step 5. Restart your computer to check if the issue has been fixed.

8.    Disable automatic updates

Automatic update is one of the possible reasons behind getting Windows ready stuck in windows 10/8/7. If your computer finally boots properly, you can disable Automatic Updates in Windows in case the getting windows ready stuck error happens again.

Step 1. Press Windows + R key to open the Run command. Type services.msc and then press Enter.

Step 2. Find Windows Update from the Services list and double-click it

Step 3. Choose Disabled as the Startup type under General tab, click Apply and OK.

Step 4. Restart the computer.

9.    Restore Windows to rescue faulty computer (without previous backup)

This method may be right for you if you are unlucky enough to fit the following situations:

☛ All the normal meands above didn’t work.
☛ You have no earlier restore points/backups to recover the computer.
☛ You don’t have any installation disc or previously created recovery drive, neither do you want to reinstall Windows 10/8/7 from scratch.

How does the method works: Find a working computer with Windows 10 installed >> Create a bootable media on that machine >> Create a system image as well >> Insert the bootable media to the problematic PC >> Boot into WinPE and use the system image to recover it.