It is recommended that you wait for 2 hours. The time it may take depends on your hardware specifications. So just give enough time to your Windows system to handle all the updates. If you haven’t installed Windows updates for a long time, it may take some time to install all the updates. If your PC seems to get stuck on the screen of “Preparing to configure Windows”, it may indicate that your Windows system is installing and configuring the updates.
He/she would also know, maybe by intuition or experience, that something is amiss with the updates and make a System Image using third party software before attempting updates. If a second install is necessary, then the user, hopefully, would uncheck “Check for Updates” and finish the “clean install” without the latest updates.
If not, then another install would be required there wouldn’t even be a chance to make a system restore point.
If the computer boots and works with the latest updates, good. With that in mind, all of the latest updates installed during the initial install would either work or not work. The scenario seems a bit unlikely as most users when making a “clean install” leave “Check for Updates” checked. Not quite sure how Microsoft expects the user to get to Settings if he/she “cannot return to the Windows desktop.” Probably missing something here. Use Windows-I to open the Settings application. To avoid the issue altogether: Microsoft suggests that system restore is run using the Windows Recovery Environment and not through the Settings application.ġ. As stated: “You restart the computer, but the system cannot return to the Windows desktop.”