Microsoft – Stuck in Windows (OOBE) setup screen

Microsoft – Stuck in Windows (OOBE) setup screen

Problem

After some Windows update a user may be presented with a screen to provide answers to setup quesionts which they cannot exit to use their computer.

Resolution

  1. These setup screeens are called Out Of the Box Experience (OOBE) .  Generally it is best to try and proceed through them although they may not work well with Freedom Scientific JAWS/ZoomText/Fusion.  In such cases one may need to bypass these screns altogether to regain full use of the system.
  2. Use the steps below to exist the screens to return the computer system to normal operation.  The instructions work best on systems where you are prompted to input a system password or PIN number.  After using the steps below the system should again boot straight into the desktop.

  1. Start the computer system as normal and wait for the OOBE screen.
  2. When at the setup screen pressing CONTROL+SHIFT+ESCAPE to open Task Manager.
  3. Press ALT+F for File menu then press ENTER on New Task.
  4. At the edit prompt enter the command below as shown and click OK button: 

    cmd

  5. Click the checkbox to run the command as Administrator, then click OK button.
  6. At the command prompt enter the command below then press ENTER:

    oobe\bypassnro

    (Note:  no spaces are used in the above command line.)

  7. If the system attempts to restart the command was successfully applied the computer should restart to the desktop after signing in.
  8. If the above command does not work type the command below then press ENTER: 

    cd \windows\system32

  9. Then try the command from step 6 above again to have the system bypass OOBE.
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