Fix “Setup is Preparing Your Computer for First Use” on Every Reboot

There are 3 ways to do it

Have you ever run into the problem where every time you start up Windows, you get the following message:

This happened to me on a Windows 7 machine. Actually, I had created an image of Windows 7 and then restored that image to a different machine. When I booted up the machine, I kept getting this message every time and it was really annoying.

You’ll probably only ever see this error if you tried to restore an image of Windows 7 to different hardware. In this article, I’ll mention a few possible solutions that hopefully will get rid of the message on startup.

Method 1 – Registry Keys

The solution that worked for me involved checking the registry for a few keys and making sure the values were correct. Navigate to the following key in your registry:

Here you will see a few keys related to the system setup. The registry keys and their values should look like this:

Here is a screenshot on my computer of what the registry keys and their values should be. I have highlighted the important ones that cause this error:

If you’re having this problem, then you might have something likeoobe/windowsdeployin the CmdLine key. It should be blank like shown above. Also,SystemSetupInProgressandOOBEInProgressalso should be set to 0, not 1.

Hopefully, this will fix the setup is preparing your computer for first use message on every startup. If not, there are a few other thins you can try, but your best shot is the registry edit.

Method 2 – Perform a Startup Repair

You can also try to perform a startup repair in Windows 7, which might be able to fix the setup problem. You can check out thisarticle from Microsofton how to do a startup repair.

Method 3 – Do a Clean Boot

The only other way you could be getting this message is if there is a program or service that is causing it to occur. By performing a clean boot, you can quickly determine whether it indeed is a program or service. You can read the following post from Microsoft that details the steps toperform a clean boot.

Hopefully, one of the above solutions fixes your problem. If not, post a comment here and let us know what you tried. Enjoy!

Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications.Read Aseem’s Full Bio

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Fix “Setup is Preparing Your Computer for First Use” on Every Reboot#

Method 1 – Registry Keys#

Method 2 – Perform a Startup Repair#

Method 3 – Do a Clean Boot#

Fix “Setup is Preparing Your Computer for First Use” on Every Reboot

Method 1 – Registry Keys

Method 2 – Perform a Startup Repair

Method 3 – Do a Clean Boot