11 Fixes to “Getting Windows Ready. Don’t Turn off Your Computer”

User Case

Windows 10 is not as stable as you think, and when you turn on, turn off, or restart your computer, you may encounter the problems described in this case. In fact, it's just Windows doing the prep work. Some users may be ready in minutes, but many more take hours, looking like it's stuck in a loop. You can try to fix it by referring to the following methods, but before doing so, it is recommended that you first understand the cause of this problem.

What Causes ‘Getting Windows Ready. Don’t Turn off Your Computer’?

Understanding why computer is stuck on "Getting Windows ready. Don’t turn off your computer" window can help us solve this problem. The following are common reasons:

● Internet connection is too slow or network outages.
● Your computer is running too slowly.
● The operating system needs to be installed with a large number of updates due to a long period of non-update.
● The update file is corrupted.
● The update file is not compatible with your operating system.
● Software incompatibility.
● External device conflict.

Solved: “Getting Windows Ready. Don't Turn Off Your Computer” – 11 Ways

“Getting Windows ready. Don't turn off your computer”. How long to wait? The answer given by Microsoft officials is a few minutes. But according to the feedback from a large number of users, it usually takes 1-3 hours. The exact time will depend on your computer, but it will take you a long time anyway. To save time, here are 11 methods you can try in turn to fix this problem.

• Way 1. Wait for A While
• Way 2. Force Shutdown and Restart Your Computer
• Way 3. Check Your Internet Connection
• Way 4. Delete Problematic Files
• Way 5. Perform Windows 10 Startup Repair
• Way 6. Uninstall Recently Installed Windows 10 Updates and Software from Safe Mode
• Way 7. Reset Windows 10 Update Components
• Way 8. Run the System File Checker (SFC Scan)
• Way 9. Perform A Windows 10 System Restore
• Way 10. Reset Your Windows 10 System
• Way 11. Reinstall Windows 10 System

Way 1. Wait for A While

This problem is easy to encounter when you haven't updated your operating system for a long time. From the feedback from Microsoft technicians, they recommend that you wait a little longer for the computer to download and install the update file. The advice we give is to wait 2-3 hours. If the “Getting Windows ready” stuck problem persists beyond this time, it is recommended that you try other methods to fix it.

Way 2. Force Shutdown and Restart Your Computer

You can reset your computer by pressing the power button, which will clear all information in memory. The good thing is that it doesn't affect disk data. It's a worthwhile method to try and maybe fix your computer stuck on getting Windows ready.

1. Press and hold the console's power button to turn off the computer.
2. Disconnect all external devices, including external hard drives, headphones, USB flash drives, etc.

3. Unplug the power cord from the console and press and hold the power button for 30 seconds to drain any residual current. If you are using a notebook computer and the battery is removable, remove the battery from the battery compartment.
4. Reconnect the power cord and press the power button to restart the computer (reinstall the battery for laptops). See if the "Getting Windows ready. Don't turn off your computer" issue is successfully fixed.

Way 3. Check Your Internet Connection

When your internet connection is too slow, it can cause Windows update times to take longer. To do this, you need to check if the internet connection is working. And if necessary, try to disconnect the internet connection.

Whether you're using a wired or Wi-Fi connection, check your router. You can first unplug the cable and plug it back into the router to see if it works. If you're in a hurry to use your computer, you can also try simply shutting down the router, disconnecting from the internet. Then seeing if that fixes "Getting Windows ready. Don't turn off your computer" problem.

Way 4. Delete Problematic Files

1. Enter the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) by forcibly shutting down and then rebooting twice.
2. On the Windows Startup Options menu, click Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> Command Prompt.

3. Type the following command and press Enter in the Command Prompt window:

• C: cd Windows\System32\LogFiles\Srt. SrtTrail.txt

4. If you see something like Boot critical file c:\windows\system32\drivers\vsock.sys is corrupt, use the Command Prompt to navigate to the specified location and enter the Del command to delete the problematic file.

Way 5. Perform Windows 10 Startup Repair

Startup Repair can help you fix many system problems, you can try this method when you encounter "Getting Windows ready. Don’t turn off your computer".

1. Enter the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) by rebooting twice after a forced shutdown.
2. On the Windows Startup Options menu, click Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> Startup Repair.

Way 6. Uninstall Recently Installed Windows 10 Updates and Software from Safe Mode

Incorrect Windows updates and software can cause compatibility issues, triggering issues like "Computer stuck on getting Windows ready". To do this, you can uninstall them in Safe Mode.

1. Enter the Windows Recovery Environment, click Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> Startup Settings, and press F4 to enter Windows Safe Mode.

2. In Safe Mode, right-click the Start icon, select Control Panel from the expanded menu. Click Programs -> Programs and Features -> View installed updates, select the most recently installed update, right-click it and select Uninstall.

3. Then select Uninstall a program in the left menu, select a recently installed program, right-click it and select Uninstall. Then restart your computer.

Way 7. Reset Windows 10 Update Components

SoftwareDistribution is the folder where Windows downloads and stores update files. If any of the files in this folder become corrupted, it may cause problems like "Getting Windows ready. Don’t turn off your computer". For this, you can fix this problem by resetting Windows 10 update components.

1. Enter the Windows Recovery Environment, click Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> Startup Settings, and press F4 to enter Windows Safe Mode.
2. Use the Windows + R key combination to open the Run window, type services.msc and press Enter to open Windows Services.
3. Check that Windows Update Services, BITS and SysMain services are running. If they are running, right-click on it and select the Stop option from the expanded menu.

4. Open This PC -> Local Disk (C:) -> Windows -> SoftwareDistribution. Right click on this folder, select the Rename option, change the name to SoftwareDistribution.old. Click on empty space again to make changes. Finally restart your computer and see if the problem is fixed.

Note✍: After renaming the SoftwareDistribution folder, the next time Windows will automatically create a new SoftwareDistribution folder for downloading and storing error-free update files.

Way 8. Run the System File Checker (SFC)

If your system files are corrupted, it can also cause Windows update times to be extended indefinitely. To do this, you can run the System File Checker (SFC) to repair corrupted files.

1. Enter the Windows Recovery Environment, on the Windows Startup Options menu, click Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> Command Prompt.
2. Type the following command in the Command Prompt window and press Enter to execute the command:

• sfc /scannow

This command will take you some time, wait for the process to finish. Then restart your computer and see if the problem is fixed.

Way 9. Perform A Windows 10 System Restore

If you have created a system restore point using the Windows snap-in tool, you can fix this problem by means of system restore when you encounter "Getting Windows ready” stuck problem.

1. Enter the Windows Recovery Environment, and in the Windows Startup Options menu, click Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> System Restore.

2. Next, you just need to perform a system restore according to the system restore wizard and wait for the computer to restart to see if the problem is fixed.

Way 10. Reset Your Windows 10 System

If System Restore doesn't work, you can also try resetting your computer to fix issues like "Getting Windows ready. Don’t turn off your computer".

1. Enter the Windows Recovery Environment and click Troubleshoot -> Reset this PC.

2. You can choose to Keep my files or Remove everything according to your needs, choose the first item here.

3. Finally, click the Reset button and wait for the computer to reset automatically. Restart your computer and see if the problem is fixed.

Way 11. Reinstall Windows 10 System

If none of the above methods can help you fix the problem, then you are left with the last method - reinstalling the Windows 10 system, which can help you fix this problem effectively.

1. Insert the Windows 10 installation disk and start your computer.
2. Enter your language and other preferences and click “Next” to continue -> Install now -> Enter the product key (you can also skip it directly) -> Select the version of Windows 10 you want to install -> Accept the license terms -> Select the Windows installation type, which can be customized according to your needs.

3. Next, you need to select the disk where you want to install the Windows 10 system, click Next, wait for the installation program to complete. And finally set up according to the prompts, and wait for Windows 10 to start.

Add A Line of Security to Your System - AOMEI Backupper Standard

I believe the above 11 methods can help you fix "Getting Windows ready. Don’t turn off your computer" issue. But if you have to reset the computer or reinstall the system to fix this problem, you will need to spend a lot of time and face serious data loss. Therefore, it is recommended that you use AOMEI Backupper Standard for system backup.

When you face system problems or system crashes, you can use the system image file to quickly restore to the previous state (including installed programs and personal data, etc.). This method not only saves time and effort, but also keeps your data safe.

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a professional system backup software that can easily backup system partition, boot partition, recovery partition, etc. to an image file. But before making a system backup, it is recommended that you do the following preparations:

▶ You can clean the system first and delete useless files in it to save your space. If you upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional, you can also use differential backup, which can further save your storage space while improving backup efficiency.
▶ You need to download and install AOMEI Backupper Standard on your computer first:

1. Run AOMEI Backupper Standard, select the Backup tab on the left, and select System Backup on the right.

2. In the System Backup window, you can click the pencil icon in the upper left corner to modify this "Task Name" to distinguish it from other tasks. Next, you need to choose a destination path to save the system backup, and click the Start Backup button when done.

Tips✍: Before starting the backup, you can customize the settings by clicking the three options in the lower left corner.
◑ Options: You can annotate the current backup to better distinguish it from other backup tasks. You can also choose whether to enable encrypted backups and email notifications, where encrypted backups are a paid feature that requires an upgrade to the Professional version.
◑ Schedule: You can enable scheduled backups, and customize daily, weekly, monthly, event-triggers, and USB plug in. The last two can be used in Professional.
◑ Scheme: You can choose the backup method (incremental backup, full backup and differential backup), or you can turn on automatic cleanup backup. Among them, differential backup and automatic cleanup backup require you to upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional.

3. During the system backup process, you can click the setting icon in the lower left corner to select the corresponding operation after the job is completed according to your needs. After waiting for the system backup to complete, click the Finish button.

Note✍: If your system is stored in the C drive, when the system is backed up, the programs, files and personal data (photos, music, text files, etc.) in the C drive will be backed up with the operating system.

In addition to system backup, AOMEI Backupper also has the following features that may interest you:

✡ You can create bootable media in case the system crashes or fails to boot. And use the previously created system backup image file to quickly restore the system to the previous state through the system restore function.
✡ If you want to migrate your system or data to another hard drive (such as your newly purchased SSD), you can use the Clone function of AOMEI Backupper, which can easily achieve a complete migration in a few simple steps.
✡ You can also use the Disk Backup feature of AOMEI Backupper Standard if you want to provide security for all the data in the disk.

Conclusion

How to fix "Getting Windows ready. Don't turn off your computer"? You need to understand the cause of this problem first, and then try to fix it by referring to the above 11 solutions. When you have successfully fixed this issue, you can use AOMEI Backupper Standard for system backup. So next time you encounter a similar problem, you can use the system image file to quickly restore your system.

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a professional system backup software that can complete system backup in just a few simple steps, even a computer novice can easily get started. Besides, it can also help you fix other errors such as “Windows 10 inaccessible boot device after clone”.