Windows 10 endless boot issue solved
Lately, we have received several reports where some laptops got stuck in a Windows 10 endless boot screen. Windows 10 starts loading but it never gets to the login screen. The problem appeared after unsuccessful windows update installation.
I have tried to recover the system in many ways but none of those were successful.
– Last known good configuration – didn’t work (strangely)
– Startup repair – didn’t work
– System Image Recovery – didn’t have any images
– System Restore – even though I had 2 restore points before problematic updates were installed, selecting each of those resulted in an error.
– Uninstall Updates – I have tried to uninstall cumulative and quality packs and both of these actions didn’t help. I’m guessing that these updates couldn’t be properly uninstalled by the setup. I have also received the following message:
Uninstall latest quality update – You have pending update actions and we won’t be able to uninstall the latest quality update of Windows. Try running Startup Repair instead.
– Safe Mode – didn’t work (at least at this point)
Finally, I have managed to run a command prompt from the recovery screen. To achieve this please do the following.
Hold the power button until the system shuts down
From the recovery menu select Troubleshoot | Advanced Options and then Command Prompt.
In the command prompt screen type the following:
del C:\Windows\WinSxS\pending.xml
del C:\Windows\WinSxS\cleanup.xml (this file might not exist in the system)
del C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\ *.*
Now reboot the system into the Safe Mode**. You should get to the login screen and you will probably see this message:
We couldn’t complete the updates. Undoing changes. Don’t turn off your computer.
Once you get to the login screen, log-in with your local account. After you have successfully logged on to Windows, reboot. After the next reboot, you should be able to get into Windows normally.
**Note: you might need to run the Safe Mode twice because sometimes it won’t work at the first try.
UPDATE: If you’re stuck in endless reboot after you have successfully logged on to Safe Mode you should enter the Safe Mode again and delete the contents of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder and then reboot again.
Hopefully, with this guide, you’ll be able to solve Windows 10 endless boot issues if you run into the same problem.
“delete the contents of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder”
How do I do that? I see a lot of directories in the download folder.
What is the command?
del C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\ *.*
I followed all the steps and was successful but when I reboot it through safe mode it is stuck on Windows Logo what to Do?
Hi, please try to repeat the steps again.
I did get these steps to work, but not to fix the problem. First of all, my C drive was under H for some reason, so I had to figure that out. You can check the folders in a drive by typing “dir H:\” for example, and it should be obvious which one actually has the correct folders. For me, X only had a couple of folders, and not the files I wanted to delete. Hope that helps someone some day.
After that, I was able to reboot to safe mode consistently, but never did Windows ever show the message “couldnt complete the updates, undoing changes.” Now, Windows takes longer on the automatic repair startup as if it has found something it didn’t before, but still does not boot except to the repair bit, and safe mode does not remove the updates.
Oh my good grief thank you so much. This is exactly what I needed. None of the YouTube videos cover cancelling problematic updates.
For more context that maybe others will relate to:
I think one of my updates included an upgrade to Windows 10 version 21H1
I also think this problem might have been caused by a Windows speedup app by “Chris Titus Tech” that i had applied
You are a life saver Nick. Let me know how I can buy you a cup of coffee
I’m glad it helped Louange 🙂
As i was doing the commands in the command promo i had a problem with the software distribution download, it just says Access denied and then it says “the process access the file because it is being used by another” any fixes?