Windows 8.1 Hangs at Welcome screen

Your problem must be very frustrating! But I might have a solution...

1. Insert a Windows 8 DVD, or a flash drive with the Windows 8 installation files on it, into your computer.
2. Boot from the disc or boot from the USB device, whatever your situation calls for.
3. From the Windows Setup screen, tap or click on Next.
4. Tap or click on the Repair your computer link at the bottom of the window.
5. Advanced Startup Options will start, almost immediately.

Windows asks you to choose an option. Press Troubleshoot.

In the Troubleshoot screen, press Advanced options.

In the Advanced options screen, press Startup Settings.

You are informed that you are about to restart in order to change several Windows options, including enabling Safe Mode. Press Restart.

Your computer or device restarts again and displays nine startup settings, including Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Press the F4 key on your keyboard, to enable Safe Mode

Once booted into Safe Mode:

• Hit Window Key + R. A run dialog box appears.
• Type gpedit.msc into the box and hit Ok. The Local Group Policy Editor appears.
• Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Tools -> Control Panel -> Personalization in the left pane of the window.
• Double click (or tap) on Do not display the lock screen. Another dialog box appears.
• Select Enabled and click Ok.

The above will disable the lock screen so upon start-up you should bypass it.

Hope this works, let me know!

I only have a Windows 8.1 DVD.

It does not show me a Startup Settings option under advanced options. The other options are there, but not Startup Settings. :(

Thank you for the suggestion, though!

When I restart, it hangs at the Login screen. It says Welcome with little spinny dots next to my avatar...

Can you think of anything else?

But you can get into the Command Prompt?

If you can, try this:

1. Type - Bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes       (take note of spaces)
2. Type - exit
3. Reboot
4. At the boot screen select F8
5. Select Safe mode with Networking

If that doesn't work, then try:

• bootrec /fixmbr
• bootrec /fixboot
• bootrec /scanos
• bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart, then go back to CMD:

Enter the “bcdedit” command. A lists of items will appear under Windows Boot Manager and under Windows Boot Loader. Look for the following items:

• Under Windows Boot Manager, the Device item should be set to unknown.
• Under Windows Boot Loader, the Device and os device items should be set to unknown.

Type:

• bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
• bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
• bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:

After all of that, go back and do the first 5 steps I mentioned at the start of this reply.

When I try any of those things (bcdedit, bootrec) from the command prompt I get a variety of answers telling me that the Windows system drive is locked or not accessible; but when I take out the Windows 8.1 DVD and reboot, Windows loads from the drive and sits there on the Login screen saying Welcome with little spinny dots.

I left the machine on overnight (it went into sleep mode) the night before. When I came in yesterday morning and woke it up, it was at the lock screen. When I clicked the lock screen, the login screen was not spinning. I click my avatar and it just went to spinning and spinning again, so I shut it down, and started again. But I noticed that there had been a power button tile in the lower right corner.

So I slept the machine overnight last night, and this morning after I clicked the lock screen, I SHIFT+Clicked the Power Button tile, because I had seen people mention that. I restarted from that, and it said it would restart in Safe Mode. I chose Safe Mode with Networking (because I had seen a solution that suggested that), but when it booted, it gave me a nice Login screen, with a big, fat avatar and a nice big Welcome ... with little spinny dots that wouldn't go away. :(

I will let it sleep again, and see if after work I can try to boot Safe Mode with Command Prompt to try the other stuff.

I am sure you don't want to hear it, but this is annoying having a troubleshooting problem that only lets me try ONE solution every 6-8 hours.

Thank you for hanging in there. I will let you know in about 8-9 hours whether anything worked.

Cheers!

****, so booting into safe mode won't work... Thanks for letting me know that you successfully booted into safe mode but with no progress beyond a normal boot. I did a little bit of research for you and if you run these commands:

Bootrec /fixMBR

bootrec /fixBoot

bootrec /rebuildBCD

Then that should unlock the drive on which Windows 8.1 is installed. If, for some reason, that removes the "repair your computer" option and you want to use that, then run:

ReAgentC /disable

ReAgentC /enable

Then run the computer repair and try to restore Windows to a previous date when everything was working fine.

EDIT: The first word in this post isn't actually a word I would consider as a swear word. (c-r-a---p)

I left Safe Mode sit and spin for a while, the monitor went to sleep, but the computer lights still indicated it was awake. Just before I went to work (many minutes had passed) Windows came up to a Safe Mode desktop with a message that it had logged me in with a temporary profile.

It says I will not have access to my files, but I can see them in the folder. I have not tried to copy them yet, but I will try that next.

Also, even though I said to do Safe Mode with Networking, it did not/was not able to connect through my USB network adapter.

I will try to copy off my files, and report back.

If I can do Refresh, should I try it? Before, refresh would say the drive was locked, should I try it again here?

Once booted into Safe Mode:

• Hit Window Key + R. A run dialog box appears.
• Type gpedit.msc into the box and hit Ok. The Local Group Policy Editor appears.
• Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Tools -> Control Panel -> Personalization in the left pane of the window.
• Double click (or tap) on Do not display the lock screen. Another dialog box appears.
• Select Enabled and click Ok.

This is what I recommended at the beginning of this thread and I believe you should go ahead with it as once the lock screen has been disabled then you shouldn't have your problem anymore. No need for a repair/restore :-)

I am just trying to make sure, Jay. 

My problem was happening on the Login screen, but you are suggesting that I disable the Lock screen. And this is supposed to make it so that I will no longer get spinny dots at startup on the Login screen?

... OK. I tried it. Double checking my spelling... Nope. I get an alert box that says, "Windows cannot find 'gpedit.msc'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, ... "

Meanwhile, I WAS able to copy my files out of my personal user directory even though the alert message told me that I would not have access to those files from a temporary profile. Hmmmm. I am glad I got the files, but I wonder about the security in Safe Mode...

Thank you for your continued help.

Now what? If I just restart, will it be fixed?

If it's the login screen rather than the lock screen then try the steps explained here: http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/how-to-bypass-the-windows-8-log-in-screen/

Right, it's great that you managed to copy your files out of your user directory but that DOES raise concerns about Safe Mode's security, but that's a completely other discussion.

Hopefully things will be sorted by now but if they aren't then try the steps on that website I mentioned - you should still be able to execute them while in Safe Mode. I apologise that the code I gave you previously doesn't work, but I don't think it's that important if there's another way to bypass the log in screen upon start up.

Keep me updated with how you're getting on!

Looks like I will have to try that after work today. :(

I left my machine on overnight again, and this morning it was at the user lock screen--that gave me hope that maybe it had logged me in finally successfully; but when I click the lock screen, it gave me the login screen with a back-arrow to let me switch users. Thinking that maybe it was successfully logged in, I hesitantly clicked my avatar, only to be greeted with an alert that the machine was "low on resources" and couldn't log in any new users...er, what? (My system is  64-bit with 6 GB RAM--and technically only one user was "logged in".)

So I clicked Switch user, and got a "new" login screen that looked just like the old one (without the back-arrow) and when I clicked my avatar there ... spinny dots. Ugh.

I will try the other stuff after work today and report back!

I hope you have a great day!