Fix Windows 10 Error Code 0x800703e3

In today's IT world, if you want a computer for typical day-to-day actions and gaming, there are 3 primary ways you can go. An Apple computer with its proprietary hardware and operating system or a typical machine with Windows or Linux operating system.

Each system has both advantages and disadvantages and picking the right one might be difficult for some users. From hardware differences to specific software and operating system, each system is aimed at a different type of work, and in this article, we will explore each one and help you in choosing the right one for you.

Apple ecosystem

Apple has managed to create a unique ecosystem of its own devices, from its iMac desktop computers to more professional MAC studio and power MAC and all the way to tablet iPad and iPhone are powered by Apple's own operating system that connects all of these devices into one large system. So if you really need one singular ecosystem this is a huge advantage.

The ecosystem on the side, MAC computer systems are great, some would argue best for coding, design, video work, and sound editing. MAC M2 chip is optimized for all of these tasks and a specially tailored operating system is just the icing on the cake. Specific Apple-made software like a logic pro or final cut also helps a lot to position MAC systems on top of the line.

Reading all of this you might think hey this is the computer for me, it does everything! Sadly the truth is not like that. The first thing that is difficult on MAC systems and a maybe big reason that it is not so adopted outside professional working environment is lack of games. If you are a gamer or plan on using MAC for gaming, well I have some bad news. The second big turn-off is that MAC systems tend to be more expensive than PC systems, yes components are of higher quality but rest assured that you will pay for also for branding.

Get MAC as your workstation for serious work and for good tech support, if you need a plain home computer keep reading.

Windows PC machine

There is no better feeling than assembling your own computer, tweaking hardware to make a monster and despite haters hating, Windows is the best all-around operating system on the market. It is supporting the largest variety of hardware and the largest variety of software.

The best platform for serious gaming and streaming Windows machine has cemented itself as a multimedia powerhouse. But, this kind of computer is not alien to being also a professional machine, you can practically do everything that you can do on Apple or Linux machine inside Windows, yes some things might require extra steps or will be slightly slower but in the end, being able to do anything is the greatest strength of Windows machine.

Of course, every system has its flaws and Windows is not immune to that. One of the biggest is being the operating system for every hardware ever made and every software as well while keeping legacy support for old software and hardware, basically, its biggest strength is in the same time its biggest weakness leading to sometimes stability issues. Also being able to place any kind of hardware can also lead to the same stability issues. Executing something a little slower than other systems and having some extra steps can also be looked upon as weaknesses.

Linux system

First and perhaps for some people, the biggest advantage of the Linux operating system is its price, it is completely free! Other advantages include the great server and networking included in the OS itself, the large amount of customization, and unmatched stability. The ability to write scripts inside the OS terminal is also a great thing and coding is much more streamlined and friendlier than on other machines.

The power of Linux is the ability to change anything, even on the system layer, no other operating system will let you change the basic functionality of the OS itself while Linux will let you do this. It is also the only operating system you can fully use by booting it up from a USB stick and having the same experience as it was installed on a local hard drive. Among other OS mentioned earlier, Linux is by far the lightest one, taking the smallest amount of memory among the three.

The bad side of the Linux machine is the steep learning curve, among the three mentioned operating systems rest assured Linux is the most difficult to learn and be comfortable in it. The operating system will require you to know the hardware and how computers work in order to fully use its potential. Other things that place it behind are not so wide hardware support compared to Windows and the somewhat confusing distro model.

Linux versions come in form of different distro packages and first-time users will face many of them being left in awe of which one to choose. Also installing drivers and software via a package system can also be a tedious task as well, often being that some version of the driver will not work on the newer version of the Linux distro.

Get a Linux machine if you are well versed in computer technology, if you want great customization of the OS itself or if you do not want to spend money on OS and software since almost entire Linux software is open source.

If you encounter the DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING_OPERATION Blue Screen error with an error code of 0x000000CE then it means that a driver failed to cancel the pending operations before unloading. Some of the driver files that might be the culprit include the intelppm.sys, intcdaud.sys, tmxpflt.sys, mrxsmb.sys and asusptpfilter.sys. This kind of Blue Screen error occurs when the driver failed to cancel lookaside lists, worker threads, DPCs, and other items before unloading. You can usually identify which driver file is triggering the BSOD error in the BSOD error itself since its name would be printed on the blue screen and stored in memory at the location (PUNICODE_STRING) KiBugCheckDriver. Refer to the possible solutions given below to fix the DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING_OPERATIONS error.

Option 1 – Perform a System Restore

Performing System Restore might help you in fixing the SYNTP.SYS Blue Screen error. You can do this option either by booting into Safe Mode or in System Restore. If you are already in the Advanced Startup Options, just directly select System Restore and proceed with the next steps. And if you have just booted your PC into Safe Mode, refer to the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
• Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
• After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and check if the problem is fixed or not.

Option 2 – Disable the BIOS Memory options

Disabling the BIOS Memory options such as Caching and Shadowing can help you in fixing the DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING_OPERATIONS Blue Screen error. All you have to do is enter the BIOS first and then use the Arrow and Enter keys to select your choices. And if you can’t seem to find it, look for specific instructions from your OEM or you could also look out for instructions from the manufacturer of your motherboard.

Option 3 – Update or rollback your device drivers

If the first option didn’t work for you, then it’s time to either update or roll back the device drivers. It is most likely that after you updated your Windows computer that your driver also needs a refresh. On the other hand, if you have just updated your device drivers then you need to roll back the drivers to their previous versions. Whichever applies to you, refer to the steps below.

• Open the Devices Manager from the Win X Menu.
• Then locate the device drivers and right-click on them to open the Properties.
• After that, switch to the Driver tab and click on the Uninstall Device button.
• Follow the screen option to completely uninstall it.
• Finally, restart your computer. It will just reinstall the device drivers automatically.

Note: You can install a dedicated driver on your computer in case you have it or you could also look for it directly from the website of the manufacturer.

Option 4 – Try to run the CHKDSK utility

Running the CHKDSK utility might also help you resolve the DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING_OPERATIONS Blue Screen error. If your hard drive has issues with integrity, the update will really fail as the system will think that it’s not healthy and that’s where the CHKDSK utility comes in. The CHKDSK utility repairs hard drive errors that might be causing the problem.

• Open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• After opening Command Prompt, execute the following command and hit Enter:

chkdsk /f /r

• Wait for the process to be completed and then restart your computer.

Option 5 – Run the Memory Diagnostic Tool to check for Memory leaks

• Tap the Win + R keys to open Run and type exe and hit Enter to open the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool.
• After that, it will give two options such as:
  • Restart now and check for problems (Recommended)
  • Check for problems the next time I start my computer
• Once your computer has restarted, perform a basic scan or you could also go for the “Advanced” options such as “Test mix” or “Pass count”. Simply tap the F10 key to start the test.

Note: After you select the option, your PC will restart and check for memory-based issues. If it finds any issues, it will automatically fix them and if there’s no issue found, then it’s most likely not a memory-based issue so you should try the other options given below.

Option 6 – Try analyzing the Memory Dump Files

You can also try to analyze the Memory Dump files as it can help you identify the root cause of the DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING_OPERATIONS error.

Option 7 – Try checking the Registry settings

You might also want to try disabling the concerned driver file if it is mentioned in the Stop error. For example, if the stop error mentioned the “intelppm.sys” driver file then you have to disable this driver file since it is most likely the culprit. To do that, follow the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Next, type “Regedit” in the field and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• After that, go to the this registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Services > Processor
• From there, double click on Start and change its value to “4”.
• Now go to this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Services > Intelppm.
• Set its value to “4” and then restart your computer to apply the changes made.

Option 8 – Run the Blue Screen Troubleshooter

The Blue Screen troubleshooter is a built-in tool in Windows 10 that helps users in fixing BSOD errors like DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING_OPERATIONS. It can be found on the Settings Troubleshooters page. To use it, refer to these steps:

• Tap the Win + I keys to open the Settings panel.
• Then go to Update & Security > Troubleshoot.
• From there, look for the option called “Blue Screen” on your right-hand side and then click the “Run the troubleshooter” button to run the Blue Screen Troubleshooter and then follow the next on-screen options. Note that you might have to boot your PC into Safe Mode.

Error Code 38 – What is it?

Error Code 38 is a device driver error that users encounter on any Windows 2000 operating system and its following versions.

It occurs when the peripheral device that you connect to your PC cannot be accessed due to an inability of the Windows system to acknowledge the driver as a previous record of the driver being loaded is found in its memory.

It is a common error that users come across and appears on your PC with the following message:

“Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38)”

Solution

Error Causes

Error Code 38 is prompted when incomplete program files are left in the Windows system which damage or corrupt its files. There are various factors that contribute to this, some of which are:

• An incomplete program installation
• An incomplete program uninstallation
• Hardware is not removed properly
• System recovery from viruses
• An improper system shut down

The above triggers are very likely to create incomplete files within the Windows registry thereby leading to its damage and corruption.

This is especially true in the case of your PC when it has recovered from viruses when using anti-virus software. The anti-virus in its effort to remove the virus also could remove the files which contain them thereby increasing the risk of the error code.

These damaged files can severely impact the health of your PC and are imperative to fix it immediately to prevent further problems.

Further Information and Manual Repair

Although this error code may pose serious problems for your PC, thankfully, it is very similar to other PC driver errors and thus is an easy one to get rid of. Here are various methods that you can use to get your PC running smoothly again.

Method 1 – Restart your PC

The easiest method you can use to solve your PC error code is to simply restart your PC. It may be that the error prompted upon connecting the device you have connected is merely a temporary problem, and upon restart, will resume functioning smoothly.

Method 2 – Run the Troubleshooting Wizard

If restarting your PC does not help, you will have to find the exact nature of the problem by running the troubleshooting wizard for the device and then address the problem accordingly. To do this, proceed with the following steps:

1. Run Device Manager on your PC
2. Click on the program under the installed programs that is creating problems for you
3. Click on the ‘General’ Tab
4. Click ‘Troubleshoot’
5. Upon opening, the Troubleshooting Wizard will ask a series of questions regarding the error. Answer the questions and follow its directions for solving the error code.

After following the directions of the Troubleshooting wizard, make sure to restart your PC for the changes to take effect. Now check if your device is still causing problems.

Method 3 – Use System Restore

If the error persists, you can use system restore to eliminate the problem. Here is how to do so:

1. Log in using an Administrator account
2. Click ‘Start’ button and select All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore
3. Click ‘Restore my computer to an earlier time’ and click ‘Next’
4. Select the last Windows to restore point from the ‘On this list, click a restore point’ list, and click ‘Next’
5. Click ‘Next’ on the confirmation window to proceed
6. Restart your PC after restoration is complete

By restoring the system via a last saved system checkpoint, you can obtain undamaged Windows system files that can help resolve the error code.

Method 4 – Manually uninstall and reinstall the device driver

If using system restore does not work either, you may have to resort to manually uninstalling and then reinstalling the device driver causing the problem.

This would be necessary since the remaining incomplete files due to a partial removal or installation of programs are responsible for the error code. By uninstalling and reinstalling the device driver program, it would lead to the completion of the files.

You can do this by firstly logging in as Administrator and opening Device Manager. Select the device that is causing the problem and double click it; make sure that the peripheral is connected properly to the PC.

Upon opening, click on the ‘Driver’ tab and then select ‘Update Driver’. Make sure to refer to the system documentation that you received with your PC or computer to check for the motherboard details and driver specifics.

Method 5 – Use software to automatically download the driver

Manually uninstalling and reinstalling the driver will do the trick; however, it may be time-consuming especially when you would have to resort to your hardware user manual.

Using a program such as DriverFIX can save you a lot of time and frustration in having your device to work properly on your computer.

DriverFIX, with its user-friendly approach to help you fix your PC issues, comes with an integrated database that detects which drivers you need to reconfigure within just a few seconds and downloads it automatically.

It further ensures that your drivers are installed in their entirety leaving no room for any incomplete files to remain that create Error Code 38, or any other driver-related errors for that matter.

It also has the added advantage of being able to backup and restores your files should there be the slightest possibility of system file damage. DriverFIX is the answer to fixing your PC error codes accurately and quickly.

Click here to download DriverFIX to fix Error Code 38 quickly and effectively!

We’ve already covered disabling Security Questions If you want to disable Security Questions on your Windows 10 computer then you’ve come to the right place as this post will guide you in doing exactly that. In this post, you will be disabling Security Questions using a PowerShell script. This PowerShell script is called “Update-AllUsersQA”. It is designed to remove or disable the security questions and answers for local users on a Windows 10 computer. It lets administrators take control of the security questions in the environment and at the same time minimizes the risk that comes with them. If a user has a Microsoft account that’s configured to sign in to Windows 10 then he will not probably notice the Password Recovery questions. On the other hand, if he has a chosen local account for installing Windows, he will e prompted to create three security questions that can be used to reset the password and log into the Windows 10 account in case there is any misfortune. However, if you do not have much use for these Security Questions, then you can definitely have them disabled using a simple PowerShell script which you can download from GitHub. For more details on how to disable security questions in a Windows 10 machine, refer to the steps provided below. Step 1: You need to first download the .ps1 file from the GitHub repository. Step 2: Once you’ve downloaded the file, open the PowerShell window with admin privileges. Step 3: After that, navigate to the folder where you had saved the .ps1 file. Then copy the address of the folder location. Step 4: Next, change the directory by using the following command:

cd "folder location address"

Step 5: After that, enter the following script to disable the security questions:

Update-AllUsersQA

Once you’ve completed the steps above, the Security Questions should be disabled and you will be notified with a message stating that the feature has been disabled. On the other hand, if you have a change of heart and you want to enable the Security Questions back, here are some steps you need to take: Step 1: First, open the PowerShell window as admin. Step 2: Next, run the same script with one more parameter such as:

Update-AllUsersQA -answer SecretAnswer

Step 3: And that’s about it. Do not forget to replace the Secret Answer with your preferred one and once you’re done, it will be set as the answer for all the Security Questions. Step 4: Now all that’s left to do is go to the Settings app to change the answer to the questions and you should be good to go.

Microsoft Edge may be about to win a lot of fans by introducing a new feature that it says could prevent one of the most annoying things about being online. A new update to the browser suggests it is looking at a way to block auto-playing videos by default when a user navigates to a website. People spotted a new entry to the Microsoft Edge Canary browser where the company tries out its in-progress updates, that suggests auto-playing videos may have had their day at last. The new addition, for Mac, Windows, and Linux systems, is called “Autoplay Limit Default Setting”, with the description suggesting that Microsoft Edge would set the media autoplay setting to "Limit" as a default - stopping videos from starting up when a user lands on a website. Currently, Edge offers two options for users to control media autoplay - "Allow" (the current default setting), where all videos on a website will play automatically with sound, and "Limit", where media won’t be autoplayed on sites that a user has previously visited. It appears that Microsoft is looking to test the feature in Canary before rolling it out to a wider user base - as blocking autoplaying videos can cause issues for some websites. The same Canary entry also hints at a future "Block" option, which would presumably stop any videos or media from playing when a user lands on a website. However, this feature, which is also listed as being available for Mac, Windows, and Linux systems, doesn't appear to be enabled as yet. If you would like to read more helpful articles and tips about various software and hardware visit errortools.com daily.

RAM drive is basically a hard drive made of your RAM memory. Altho this kind of drive can not and is not available to save any data when the computer is shut down its advantage is lightning fast speed since the application is installed in RAM itself, it is loading from there and executing from there. Creating this kind of drive which will use your RAM memory, well part of it can not be done natively in Windows, you will need some kind of application for this task. Luckily there is a free open source application for this kind of task. ImDisk, you can download the application here. ImDisk Toolkit is an application for managing virtual drives. It also includes a utility that allows the creation of RAM drives. Download the application and install it, make sure that you select all components on the installation selection screen. After installation is finished double click on icon labeled RamDisk Configuration. Once the application is running adjust the disk size in the box at the top of the window for your RAM drive. Click “OK” at the bottom of the window. This will create your RAM drive, which is just a virtual disk that’s assigned to your computer’s RAM. The process happens transparently, so there’s nothing you need to do. If you get a warning about shutdown settings, click on the “Shutdown Settings” button. Then unlock the settings pane with your administrator password. Finally, uncheck the checkbox next to “Turn on fast startup (recommended)” and click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the window. Your RAM drive is now ready for use. Fast Startup speeds up the process of turning on your computer by saving a system state between completely off and hibernation to your hard drive. This happens when the computer writes the contents of your RAM to a stable hard drive. As you may guess, this could mess with your RAM drive’s ability to preserve and track its data. With Fast Startup off, boots may take slightly longer, but it’s doubtful that you’ll notice much. Disabling a fast startup will satisfy the warning window, but let’s consider why. This will also allow ImDisk to save your RAM drive’s data to an image file when you shut down your computer. If you don’t, the contents of your RAM drive will be erased completely every time, with no saved image storage. It would also disable the RAM drive’s ability to load the previous content. Basically, the drive would act much more like RAM and much less like a disk. Depending on your use case, that may be disappointing or unusable. You can access and use it just like any normal hard drive. It shows up in Windows’s file explorer just like any other drive. However, a Ram drive is exponentially faster than traditional types of storage. And we mean exponentially. Whereas an SSD might offer 300 to 500 MB when reading from the disk, a RAM drive can offer more than 5000 MB, even on mediocre memory sticks.

One of the most common hardware issues with any PC usually has something to do with the hard drive so if your hard drive experiences some errors, you could end up losing a lot of important information that’s stored in your computer. This is why Windows provided users with the CHKDSK utility which helps in looking for bad sectors on the drive. However, there are times when the CHKDSK utility could also face issues like the following error:

“Failed to transfer logged messages to the log event with status 50.”

According to security experts, this error is most likely due to the hard drive or RAM being in a “Read-only” state. It could also be due to some physical issues with the hard drive. On the other hand, it could be that the system is prevented from creating logs by some drive, service, or malware. To fix this error, you have to check if the hard disk is writable. You could also try to run the CHKDSK utility in Safe Mode or you could also check the physical status of your hard disk or external drive.

Option 1 – Check if the hard disk is writable

Although the CHKDSK utility checks for bad sectors in the hard drive, it also has to create logs of the result. And as states in the error message, the CHKDSK utility is not able to log the logged messages. This kind of error occurs when the log can’t be written to an installation disk. You can find the log in this location, “C:WindowsSystem32LogfilesSrtSrtTrail.txt”. Now you have to check if the drive writable by following these steps:

• Log in as administrator and right-click on the system drive.
• Select Properties and then go to the Security tab. Here, check if you are allowed to modify the drive. If not, click on Edit (as an administrator).
• Now edit the permissions for the SYSTEM and Administrators group. Note that these are the only default settings for these two groups or usernames.
• Then click on the Apply button save the changes made and exit.

Option 2 – Run the CHKDSK utility in Safe Mode

You could also try to run the CHKDSK utility in Safe Mode as this might solve the error.

• Boot your computer in Safe Mode.
• Next, open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• Then type and enter this command to execute it: chkdsk c: /f /r
• Wait until the process is completed and boot your computer normally and then run the CHKDSK utility again and check if the “Failed to transfer logged messages to the log event with status 50” error is now fixed.

Option 3 – Try to check the hard disk or external drive physically

If the first two options didn’t work, you might want to check the physical status of your hard disk or external drive as the problem could root from there. You can try to tighten the wires that connect the hard disk to the motherboard. However, if it doesn’t help, you should seek out assistance from a hardware technician.

As you know, Bluetooth headphones allow users to connect to their mobile devices wirelessly. This allows you to talk on your mobile device or listen to music without having to connect any cords or wires. Additionally, it even allows you to adjust the volume of a left or right speaker. However, Bluetooth headphones in Windows 10 are another story as their scope is limited. For instance, the left and right pieces can’t have different volume levels. But if you still want to change the dual control of the volume of headphones separately in Windows 10. And in this post, you will be guided on how exactly you can do that. In addition, in this post, you will also be guided on what you can do if the Windows Update messed with the Bluetooth volume control and what you can do to disable the absolute volume in Windows 10. In case you don’t know, the Absolute Volume feature is actually incompatible with a number of Bluetooth devices which can result in the inability of the Bluetooth device to adjust its volume. Thus, if you experience this kind of issue, you’ll notice that the volume slider in the taskbar and the device volume control neither have any effect in adjusting the volume. And each time you try to adjust the volume level for one speaker, the volume of another speaker also automatically changes. In such a case, it would be difficult for you to separately change the dual volume control headphones. Worry not for there is an easy registry tweak you can try to make this possible to do. But before you proceed with the instructions provided below, make sure that you create a System Restore first. Once you have that covered, follow the steps below carefully. Step_1: Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “Regedit” in the field and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor. Step_2: Next, navigate to this registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001ControlBluetoothAudioAVRCPCT Step_3: After that, look for the entry named “DisableAbsoluteVolume” which should be located in the right pane. But if you’re unable to find this entry, you can just create it by right-clicking on the CT key and selecting New > DWORD (32-bit) value, and then assign “DisableAbsoluteVolume” as its name. Step_4: Once done, double click on the “DisableAbsoluteVolume” DWORD and set its value from 0 to 1. Step_5: Now exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer. On the other hand, you can also disable or enable the Absolute Volume feature by executing a command in the Command Prompt.

• If you want to disable the Absolute Volume feature, just execute this command: reg add HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlBluetoothAudioAVRCPCT /v DisableAbsoluteVolume /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
• If you want to enable the Absolute Volume feature, just execute this command: reg add HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlBluetoothAudioAVRCPCT /v DisableAbsoluteVolume /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

After you execute the command, just restart your computer.

After your computer restarts.

Once you’re done executing the given instructions above, you have to right-click on the speaker icon located in the system tray and select Open Sound Settings and click on Manage device settings – the same controls will be visible to you like earlier. Now when you change the volume level for one speaker, the other speaker should now remain as it is and won’t change alongside the speaker.

In case you don’t know, a teletype network, also known as Telnet, is a protocol that is meant for internet or LAN communication which is used primarily to control other computers effortlessly. And it is available as a command-line utility in Windows and helps users in opening a command-line interface for the remote computer. However, a lot of users have reported an error that states, “Telnet is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file” when you try to use it. If you are one of these users, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will guide you on how to fix this error in Windows 10. This kind of error means that the Telnet utility is not installed on your computer but Telnet is a default feature in Windows 10 so the protocol mainly is not enabled yet. The Telnet client is disabled by default in Windows 10 and to fix this error, you can try to enable the Telnet Client via Programs and Features or try to install Telnet using an elevated Command Prompt.

Option 1 – Try to enable the Telnet Client via Programs and Features

The first thing you can do is to enable the Telnet client using Programs and Features since it is disabled by default. To do that, follow the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “appwiz.cpl” in the field and hit Enter to open the Programs and Features window.
• Next, select the “Turn Windows features on or off” from the options given on the left-hand side.
• After that, look for the Telnet client from the list and check the checkbox next to it and then click on OK to save the changes made.
• Now restart your computer.

Option 2 – Try to install Telnet via an elevated Command Prompt

If enabling the Telnet client using Programs and Features didn’t work, then you can try to do it using Command Prompt instead. To get started, follow the steps given below.

• In the Windows Search bar, type “command prompt” in the field and right-click on Command Prompt from the search results, and select the “Run as administrator” option.
• Next, execute this command to enable the Telnet client: dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:TelnetClient
• Once the command has been executed, close the Command Prompt and restart your computer.

There are cases when your Windows 10 PC can encounter an issue where it gets stuck and will display a message that says, “Preparing Security Options”. If this is happening to your Windows 10 PC, you won’t be able to use your keyboard or even mouse and your screen will only be stuck on the screen as mentioned above. As your computer is still stuck, you will be left with no choice but to shut it down and restart it. Tap the F11 key as soon as your PC powers on. This will take you to the Advanced Startup options where you can carry out some steps. If it still didn’t work, you have to boot your Windows 10 PC into Safe Mode and then try out the troubleshooting options below.

Option 1 – Try using System Restore

You can do this option either by booting into Safe Mode or in System Restore. If you are already in the Advanced Startup Options, just directly select System Restore and proceed with the next steps. And if you have just booted your PC into Safe Mode, refer to the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
• Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
• After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and check if the problem is fixed or not.

Option 2 – Uninstall the Windows Updates you’ve installed recently

The issue could be caused by Windows Updates so you need to check if it’s indeed the case. The best way you can do so is via Safe Mode.

• Boot your PC into Safe Mode and then tap the Win + I keys to open Settings.
• After that, click on Update and Security and then select Windows Update from the left side menu column.
• Next, select the “View installed update history” option on the right-side column and click on Uninstall Updates which will open a window that will show the list of all the installed updates on your PC.
• From there, select the update you want to uninstall and click the Uninstall button located in the lower right corner of the window.

Option 3 – Try disabling the Fast Startup

• Boot your PC into Safe Mode.
• Then tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Next, type in “control” to open Control Panel.
• After that, select Hardware and Sound and click on Power Options.
• Select “Choose what the power buttons do” from the left side menu pane and click on Change settings that are currently unavailable.
• Afterward, uncheck the “Turn on fast startup (Recommended)” entry and click on Save Changes.
• Now restart your PC and check if the problem’s fixed.

Option 4 – Try running both the SFC scan and CHKDSK utility

You can do both SFC and CHKDSK using Safe Mode and Advanced Startup options. For Advanced Startup options, click on the Command Prompt option and proceed with the steps. And if you have booted your computer into Safe Mode, follow these steps:

• Tap the Win + X keys or right-click on the Start button and click Command Prompt (admin).
• After that, type in this command and tap Enter to run the System File Checker or SFC – “Sfc /scannow”.
• Alternatively, you can use this command instead if the previous command didn’t work – “sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c: /offwindir=c:windows”.
• Wait until the SFC scan is done with the process and then restart your PC.
• Next, run the CHKDSK utility and once it’s done checking your disk for errors and then reboot your PC to save the changes made.

Option 5 – Try resetting Windows 10

You can reset your Windows 10 PC using either the Advanced Startup Options or by booting into Safe Mode.

• Tap the Win + I keys and go to Update and Security > Recovery.
• Then click on Get Started under the Reset this PC section.
• After that, follow the on-screen instructions with how you want to reset your PC and what files and settings you want to revert.
• Then it will reset your PC by reinstalling it

Option 6 – Try to rename the SoftwareDistribution folder

In this option, the Command Prompt is supposed to be like the one in option 4. You can use both ways there to open the Command Prompt.

• Open an elevated Command Prompt as admin and type in the commands below and tap Enter right after you typed in each one of them
• net stop wuauserv
• net stop bits
• rename c:windowsSoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak
• net start wuauserv
• net start bits

Note: You can also rename the SoftwareDistribution folder to “SoftwareDistribution.bak” or “SoftwareDistribution.old” after you boot your PC into Safe Mode.

Option 7 – Try rebuilding BCD

Rebuilding the BCD can help you in fixing the stuck Windows 10.

• You can start by booting into the installation environment for Windows 10 from an installation media.
• After that, click on Repair your computer and on the blue screen, select Troubleshoot and then select the Advanced options menu.
• Next, select Command Prompt and type in the commands below one by one, and tap Enter right after you do so.
• exe /FixMbr
• exe /FixBoot
  • exe /RebuildBcd