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Konstantinos Tsoukalas

Konstantinos is the founder and administrator of Wintips.org. Since 1995 he works and provides IT support as a computer and network expert to individuals and large companies. He is specialized in solving problems related to Windows or other Microsoft products (Windows Server, Office, Microsoft 365, etc.).

127 Comments

  1. Sophia
    March 1, 2020 @ 4:49 am

    Beautiful! Thank you

    Reply

  2. Nussaim
    January 2, 2019 @ 8:36 pm

    Awesome Worked.

    Reply

  3. Leexo
    May 20, 2018 @ 3:33 pm

    Thanks guys and really appreciate your instructions and comments

    Reply

  4. Hello
    March 6, 2018 @ 9:13 am

    Hello,
    This is great I found here a solution to this problem, but does it enable to keep our documents/data ?
    Please I dont want to make my computer as new I need to keep my work
    Thank you for your help

    Reply

    • lakonst
      March 6, 2018 @ 9:51 am

      @Hello: Your data will be kept. Just sign in with you old user account.

      Reply

  5. Fabiano Mello
    March 3, 2018 @ 3:47 pm

    Thanks Bro!!

    The best tutorial about this problem!!!

    Hug!!

    Reply

  6. Batsi
    February 26, 2018 @ 2:52 pm

    Thanks this saved me, was almost looking at formatting and rebuilding my environment

    Reply

    • Sukh
      November 16, 2019 @ 4:02 am

      Not working after msoobe command

      Reply

  7. Vin
    January 16, 2018 @ 9:49 pm

    AWSM. Thanks

    Reply

  8. mustapha
    November 24, 2017 @ 7:51 pm

    thank's a lot for the information you saved me ^^

    Reply

  9. Brian
    September 6, 2017 @ 10:44 am

    Thankyou. Information was of much help

    Reply

  10. Karen
    July 11, 2017 @ 10:36 am

    Thank you so much!!!!!! You really saved the day <3!

    Reply

  11. peter
    May 18, 2017 @ 11:00 am

    Thanks man it works ?

    Reply

  12. thomas/Hungary
    April 2, 2017 @ 12:13 pm

    Thanks a lot!
    I appreciate your affort, I donate 10 bucks.

    Reply

  13. joeyA
    March 9, 2017 @ 8:10 pm

    another relieved and happy customer right here!

    thanks so much for posting the detailed instructions!!

    Reply

  14. jeremy
    February 22, 2017 @ 7:20 pm

    I downloaded a Dell system image from their drivers and downloads for a computer, installed, and I was getting this error. Followed the instructions, rebooted, and the system is up and running. Thanks!

    Reply

  15. bhaskar
    February 22, 2017 @ 9:29 am

    Thank u very much

    Reply

  16. Mezta
    February 11, 2017 @ 10:55 am

    Hi,

    I faced the same problem earlier and then I follow your instruction, but I got because all my files in the desktops and even in the download folder are all gone. Is there any possible way to retrieve them?

    Thank you,

    Reply

    • lakonst
      February 11, 2017 @ 2:42 pm

      @Mezta: Your files are still there under a different user account. Look under C:\Users folder to find your files.

      Reply

  17. meisam
    February 10, 2017 @ 2:22 pm

    Thanks

    Reply

  18. Azat
    February 8, 2017 @ 2:10 pm

    Thanks a lot for your post !!

    Reply

  19. ILLYWoNKa
    January 19, 2017 @ 10:40 am

    You're a genius!!! Do u know anything about MacBook air unlocks?

    Reply

  20. JC
    January 7, 2017 @ 8:55 pm

    BIG thank you; was about to reinstall the OS!

    Reply

  21. Matt
    November 16, 2016 @ 6:49 am

    I LOVE YOU THANK YOU

    Reply

  22. Outlander
    October 29, 2016 @ 11:30 am

    Holy crap thanks man, been on roller coaster of emotions today, finally upgraded pc and windows wont boot, managed to repair, boots but crashes from time to time, than I found out oobe function and this error happened, and now finally found this article of yours and it seems to finally works like it should!

    Reply

  23. Tim knowles
    October 13, 2016 @ 1:41 pm

    Hi…thanks very much – it worked for me. Much appreciated

    Reply

  24. Uneek
    October 2, 2016 @ 10:04 pm

    Hi there…I tried this and everything went through But why is it sooooooo slow?

    Reply

    • lakonst
      October 3, 2016 @ 9:16 am

      @Uneek: Ask Microsoft…:)

      Reply

  25. Andy O
    September 6, 2016 @ 10:22 pm

    Thanks so much! it helped me in my enterprise environment!

    Reply

  26. ajith
    August 1, 2016 @ 3:11 pm

    very nice tnq very much

    Reply

  27. tun
    July 27, 2016 @ 3:50 pm

    Thank you very much!

    Reply

  28. LionL
    July 15, 2016 @ 7:12 pm

    Hello! I followed the steps. However, after the "windows is finalizing your settings" window disappears, my computer goes back to the command promt.
    After I perform a cold shutdown my computer loads the "Setup is starting services" page, and the "Windows could not finish configuring the system." window appears again. Is this problem fixable.

    Reply

    • lakonst
      July 15, 2016 @ 7:21 pm

      @LionL: I guess that a service prevents Windows to complete the setup (e.g. the Antivirus service, etc.) . I don't know if there is a way to resolve this problem.

      Reply

  29. Abrham Fentabil
    July 2, 2016 @ 10:08 pm

    I really thanks. It works correctly!

    Reply

  30. Chris
    June 29, 2016 @ 11:05 pm

    I've been struggling on this error for couple of days now. I feel so stupid on how i resolved this after going thru and modifying system settings, Window Repair, Shift + F10 etc. After imaging with SCCM it placed the OS and injected the Driver package i've created and then it rebooted the system. I've received the error above ""Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer". I used an External Hard drive to place this Standalone Image to my HP system. Remove or unplug your USB hard drive and let it auto fix itself. Reboot it and It seriously corrected it self and then was asking for the USB HD to resume to OSD install. Give it a shot. Hope this helps someone.

    Reply

  31. sasha
    June 27, 2016 @ 9:00 pm

    Thank you works well just one question, my display look as if its in safety mood how do i fix this

    Reply

    • lakonst
      June 28, 2016 @ 9:12 am

      @sasha: Check your Resolution or reinstall the VGA drivers.

      Reply

  32. Tom
    June 25, 2016 @ 6:22 pm

    This worked just fine! There were some other glitches, and it adjusted the Registry, but after all the bs it finally came back!
    Read a lot of posts, this was the only solution that worked.
    I was getting a Winclone solution to work and this error came. This fix is the shit!
    Notee, I had previously tried the bcdedit trick, that did absolutely nothing for this Win7 64 problem.

    Thank you so much! You saved us all a full reinstall plus hours of updates!

    Reply

  33. Fernando
    June 19, 2016 @ 11:08 am

    Thank you! Great Solution :)

    Reply

  34. Tommy
    June 17, 2016 @ 1:57 pm

    Thanks a lot! Your solution perfectly helps me solve the proplem! Frankly,I losed my heart and almost gave up before searching this page.

    Reply

  35. laura
    May 17, 2016 @ 6:54 pm

    Thank you, thought I had ruined the laptop but it's working now. Thank you sooooo much for posting this and it's easy to ubderstand for someone who dosnt know much about computers.

    Reply

  36. Kevin
    May 16, 2016 @ 7:19 pm

    HOLY SHIT! You just saved my life dude! I have sooo much setup on my newish PC and I was just following a Tutorial on how to change my user files from the main drive to a secondary drive and screwed up somewhere. Your information has saved me hundreds of hours of setup again. If you had a donation button then I would have sent you a ton of money!

    Reply

    • lakonst
      May 17, 2016 @ 9:30 am

      @Kelvin. I' m glad to assist you. (The Donate button is located at the end of each article).

      Reply

  37. mr.D
    May 12, 2016 @ 8:20 pm

    Thank u so much :)

    Reply

  38. glen
    May 11, 2016 @ 9:56 pm

    DUDE…!!!! You Rock. This worked like a charm. So I am guessing the same that you stated that it is the AV that is installed and configured. I've completed other images and didn't configure the AV and had no problems. I was just being lazy and didn't want to create a new image.

    Thanks again.

    Reply

  39. beni
    May 4, 2016 @ 9:37 am

    many thank's to you from belgium! ! ! ! :) :) :)

    Reply

  40. Sean
    March 23, 2016 @ 4:37 am

    Good shit man it worked for me thanks for ur brain

    Reply

  41. İnanç
    March 22, 2016 @ 10:06 am

    Thanks

    Reply

  42. Arunkumar S Kammar
    March 8, 2016 @ 8:03 am

    Thank you.. It was headache. So now i got solution from you.. Thanks lot..

    Reply

  43. Tu
    February 25, 2016 @ 2:52 pm

    Thanks

    Reply

  44. Marek Javůrek
    February 23, 2016 @ 12:20 pm

    This work for me:
    * Pressed Shift + F10 to get the command prompt.
    * Run the command: ‘bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal’.
    * Rebooted.
    * When error message about safe mode subsequently came up after reboot, pressed Shift + F10 again.
    * Ran the command: ‘bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot’.
    * Rebooted.

    Reply

  45. Jhie
    February 10, 2016 @ 12:54 pm

    Thnkyou soo much.I'd been looking for this answer for. Few days.

    Reply

  46. Whit
    February 7, 2016 @ 11:40 pm

    Ong thank you so much I was getting ready to trash my computer and finally found this!! Thank you so much really thank you

    Reply

  47. Jordan chew
    February 7, 2016 @ 3:59 pm

    After doing wat you have say everything was ok but my internet explore is not working, how to fix it?

    Reply

    • lakonst
      February 8, 2016 @ 4:33 pm

      @Jordan chew: (This is strange). Try to uninstall and re-install IE.

      Reply

  48. Vince
    February 2, 2016 @ 3:44 am

    I was stuck as well. This did get me going and appreciate that, But on to the next problem. Notes this is a home computer old users were deleted or at least no longer listed. During the process I had to create a new user. I don't recall any one else mentioning this.
    The unfortunate outcome is that even thought this user was an administrator I don't have access to old personal files (pictures and personal papers). Window does lead your to a process for getting access as the administrator but it gets to a point where it will not give you access. Also I had to repair drivers to get internet access going but explorer will not work.
    FireFox is not longer found. Has any one else fixed the access files????????

    Reply

    • lakonst
      February 2, 2016 @ 10:17 am

      @Vince: 1. SysPrep doesn't remove old users. Try to sign out and Sign in again with your old user. Otherwise…
      2. Login to Windows in Safe Mode. You should view the old files from the old profile.

      Reply

  49. Maria
    January 31, 2016 @ 1:58 pm

    Thanks!! This saves me :)

    Reply

  50. sanele mtshali
    January 22, 2016 @ 10:30 am

    man you're a star for 6 months i've stucked with this

    Reply

  51. Azi
    January 19, 2016 @ 6:19 pm

    Hello,

    I did everything as you wrote in your tip, but after Im done with the setting it returns to the command line and the error stays there. After restart the whole loop of error starts again. I tried safe mode, restart and normal but that doesnt help either.

    Do you have an idea?

    Reply

    • lakonst
      January 20, 2016 @ 10:13 am

      @Azi: Do you have a security suite or antivirus installed? If yes, try to uninstall it. Another reason could be a third app that prevent Windows to start normally. Use "msconfig" to deactivate them.

      Reply

  52. hasan
    January 16, 2016 @ 8:27 pm

    how long does it take to finalize your settings?

    Reply

    • lakonst
      January 17, 2016 @ 1:24 pm

      @hasan: Normally not long. Try to shutdown and restart.

      Reply

  53. Doug
    January 14, 2016 @ 5:03 am

    Mine gets to the Windows is Finalizing your settings part and seems to be stuck. How long should this take?

    Reply

    • lakonst
      January 14, 2016 @ 11:09 am

      @Doug: Normally not long. Try to shutdown and restart.

      Reply

      • Doug
        January 15, 2016 @ 5:22 pm

        Worked great. Thanks so much!

        Reply

  54. clint
    January 4, 2016 @ 10:25 pm

    This worked for me as well! Thanks so much for taking the time to post this!

    Reply

  55. Saad
    January 4, 2016 @ 3:04 pm

    It's helpful. Thanks a bunch

    Reply

  56. Edith
    December 26, 2015 @ 11:17 am

    I see you really good in this .
    I really need your help if you can please ..
    I follow your Oder from TOP number 1 to 9
    Then when it's turn 10 ( computer bring me back to Administrators black screen again ..
    May I know what wrong with my laptop ?;(

    Reply

    • lakonst
      January 11, 2016 @ 11:35 am

      @Edith: Have you installed a security software? Uninstall it before running SYSPREP.

      Reply

  57. Danny
    December 16, 2015 @ 5:56 am

    Thanks, this worked for me. So clutch will donate .

    Reply

  58. Thiago
    December 15, 2015 @ 3:44 pm

    Thanks man. My error was slghtly different, something like "Windows can´t finish installation an error with the unnattend file prevent windows installation to continue. restart the computer and try to reinstalling the product", but in portuguese so I didn´t take sanpshot. Your tip solve my problem… thanks a lot…

    Reply

  59. AOliva
    December 14, 2015 @ 6:20 am

    Thanks friend, I spent several nights wrestling with this problem.

    Reply

  60. Steven
    December 12, 2015 @ 7:50 pm

    Hi there,

    I went through windows to wipe all the files and start fresh with just my Windows 7 on the drive.

    I am experiencing the endless loop of "Windows could not finish configuring the system."

    I used your method and after it configured Windows, it displayed the prompt again. I restarted it, and the loop has begun again.

    Reply

    • lakonst
      December 13, 2015 @ 11:10 am

      @Steven: Try this procedure: Press F8 and enter Safe Mode. The error should come again… Restart your machine and let it to boot normally.
      Tell us the results…

      Reply

  61. Hadi
    December 11, 2015 @ 12:17 pm

    Hey man your post work 100% in my workgroup pc.
    Thank a lot.
    You're genius????

    Reply

  62. Morgan Sim
    December 3, 2015 @ 9:54 am

    Thanks alot man, your clear, step by step instructions saved my day. Why haven't I found the right solution for 1 whole week? Lol

    Very grateful with your advice!
    Thank you very much

    Reply

  63. Nigel
    December 1, 2015 @ 4:35 am

    Thanks… this worked perfectly!

    Reply

  64. robert
    November 25, 2015 @ 7:45 pm

    This works great on Windows 7 but I am getting this message in Windows 10. It will just cycle back to the option for express settings and sits at "just a moment….". There is no other options like with Windows 7!

    Reply

  65. chuck
    November 16, 2015 @ 4:28 pm

    Awesome. Owe you a beer!!!!!

    Reply

  66. marcia
    November 15, 2015 @ 6:48 pm

    Tkanks a lot.Muito obrigadaaa.

    Reply

  67. Chris
    November 14, 2015 @ 11:17 pm

    It worked but my old profile was gone and I cant find the rest of the file

    Reply

  68. anitha
    November 14, 2015 @ 1:22 am

    thank you sooo much

    Reply

  69. Katy
    November 13, 2015 @ 2:43 pm

    Hi. Thanks for the advice! I'm just having one problem. The wifi network driver has vanished. I've managed to connect to the internet through a cable for now but I really need the wifi driver. Can I download it from the acer website and if so do you know where I can find the link for that? Thank you

    Reply

    • lakonst
      November 14, 2015 @ 8:11 am

      @Katy: Hi Katy. What is the model of your notebook?

      Reply

      • Katy
        November 14, 2015 @ 4:54 pm

        Hi. It's an Aspire 5336. I've actually managed to get the wifi driver back on but now my Internet is incredibly slow. The pages aren't loading at all. My anti virus protection has ran out so I wonder if it's related to that.

        Reply

  70. Sarkodie
    November 12, 2015 @ 12:16 am

    Many thanks sir. It worked!!

    Reply

  71. RTSIT
    November 10, 2015 @ 10:28 am

    Thanks so much for this, spent tons of time on my gold image and then this happens. Really appreciate it!!

    Reply

  72. Lincoln
    November 2, 2015 @ 7:32 am

    Thank you so much it worked for me! Your the best.

    Reply

  73. james_shih
    October 16, 2015 @ 4:57 am

    OS: windows 2008 r2
    Thank you so much. All the best! :)

    Reply

  74. Ali
    September 10, 2015 @ 9:18 am

    Thanks!You saved my hours!

    Reply

  75. SAMOD
    September 9, 2015 @ 9:41 pm

    Thx =)

    Reply

  76. Jay
    September 7, 2015 @ 4:52 am

    Absolutely helping out your advise wonderful great but having one problem for code 28 windows 7 driver download. I can not get internet wifi connection until get on the net please suggest me appropriate direction…Thank you very much!

    Reply

    • lakonst
      September 7, 2015 @ 9:29 am

      @Jay: From another computer download and install the WiFi network driver. Then let Windows to install the rest drivers.

      Reply

      • Jay
        September 8, 2015 @ 2:01 am

        Hi Lakonst , thanks got it!

        Reply

  77. Veronica
    September 6, 2015 @ 3:12 am

    Thanks so much….You have given me life;-)

    Reply

  78. Zeletin
    September 5, 2015 @ 4:22 pm

    Fantastic! Problem solved.
    Thank you so much. All the best!

    Reply

  79. Celeste
    September 3, 2015 @ 4:17 pm

    Definitely the best advice from everything that we read so far.!! Thankx so much … your advice ACTUALLY WORKED !!!!

    Reply

  80. Rush
    September 3, 2015 @ 2:43 am

    Your the man…thank you so much….cheers…I will be posting your URL on all my social media sites. God bless

    Reply

  81. Fatboys
    August 15, 2015 @ 12:01 am

    I have tried this but get stuck at the Shift + F10 I am getting the same dialog box but when it's up I can get a cmd prompt to show, it just does nothing

    Reply

    • lakonst
      August 15, 2015 @ 11:13 am

      @Fatboys: I don't know why this happens.

      Reply

  82. NISHKAR
    August 14, 2015 @ 9:42 am

    Hi there. This worked perfectly. However I cannot find any of my documents, videos, music etc. yet the C:Drive is showing the same amount of space remaining before the reboot

    Thanks

    Reply

    • lakonst
      August 15, 2015 @ 11:15 am

      @NISHKAR: All your documents and data are on the old user profile. Look under C:\Users folder to fine them.

      Reply

  83. Karen
    August 13, 2015 @ 10:11 pm

    THANKS!!!

    Reply

  84. Joe
    August 12, 2015 @ 4:27 pm

    Thanks man. You're a genius. This very simple trick works well. Thanks again.

    Reply

  85. drake
    August 7, 2015 @ 7:51 pm

    holy sh*t dude you dont know how many times this error has happened and i didnt know how to fix it

    Reply

  86. Angela Lloyd-Mostyn
    August 5, 2015 @ 10:21 am

    Thank you so much for posting this fix in plain English! It worked first time!

    Reply

  87. Rodger
    August 4, 2015 @ 8:30 pm

    Thank you very much for posting this!!

    Reply

  88. Alex
    August 3, 2015 @ 10:27 pm

    Tried a dozen methods in half a dozen forums, none worked. Then by chance I stumbled upon your article. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this, many grey hairs saved. Much appreciated

    Reply

  89. Yvonne
    August 2, 2015 @ 8:32 am

    Thank you very much for this information. It helped me a lot! You saved me a bunch of time.

    Reply

  90. Vas
    July 28, 2015 @ 2:19 pm

    Very helpful thankyou

    Reply

  91. Micky
    July 24, 2015 @ 11:46 pm

    I just want to say thank you big time for this . I almost lost hope after syspreping my hard drive and i almost cried when the warning message appeared , but you saved it thanks again .

    Reply

  92. Stefan
    July 24, 2015 @ 11:02 pm

    thank you so much i thought i was screwed when the error message showed up and i thought i was gonna lose all my files. thank you so much i owe you one

    Reply

  93. Bryce
    July 19, 2015 @ 4:37 am

    Thank you sir this worked for me!! :)

    Reply

  94. J. Morgan
    July 16, 2015 @ 2:13 pm

    You're a lifesaver man…been having a headache because a laptop I was reinstalling got stuck at that annoying screen, God bless you immensely.

    Thanks.

    Reply

  95. Eric P
    July 10, 2015 @ 6:20 pm

    Just wanted to say thank you so much. I was replacing my motherboard and wanted to use my same HDD, so I did a sysprep. After hours of searching for a solution last night, I gave up and went to bed. Woke up this morning thought I try again. Then I came by your article. I followed the instructions and it worked like a charm. Thank you again.

    Reply

  96. Minh Nguyen
    June 19, 2015 @ 4:41 am

    You are wonderful !

    Reply

  97. Abu
    June 7, 2015 @ 3:46 pm

    Thanks, but will it erase the data on your hard disk?

    Reply

    • lakonst
      June 9, 2015 @ 8:48 am

      @Abu: Your data will not affected.

      Reply

  98. Alex
    May 26, 2015 @ 11:27 am

    Thanks! You save my day! It is working now.

    Reply

  99. Joe
    May 25, 2015 @ 9:17 am

    Unreal man I've been looking for hours now and this did it. Thanks so much!

    Reply

  100. WILDAN
    May 23, 2015 @ 8:07 am

    Thanks man,,,iam from indonesia,,your posting its work 100%

    Reply

  101. luis
    May 23, 2015 @ 2:44 am

    after "windows finalizing your settings, it goes back to the command promt :/ how can i get it to start?

    Reply

    • lakonst
      May 23, 2015 @ 9:15 am

      @luis: I have already said: If after pressing Restart nothing happens, then close all open windows or perform a cold Shutdown by pressing the Power key for several seconds.

      Reply

  102. Severus Nwar
    May 18, 2015 @ 10:31 am

    Man, this is so useful !!
    So many THANKS !!

    Reply

  103. Stephen
    May 9, 2015 @ 8:10 pm

    Thanks man this works!!!!

    Reply

  104. Raul
    May 4, 2015 @ 3:45 am

    Hay una forma mas practica y es restaurar el registro. Pues en mi caso el msoobe no funciono.

    Reply

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