How to Fix Installer Error 1603

You might have experienced a situation when you restarted your Windows 10 PC after an upgrade and you tried logging into your account but only a screen with a message saying, “Preparing Windows”. If the screen only stays that way, this indicates that Windows 10 is trying to complete the upgrade or waiting for some files to load up so that you can use your account. Some users also reported that when they tried logging into their accounts, they also get the same message on their screens. To resolve this issue, read on as this post will show you what you can do if your Windows 10 PC is stuck on the “Preparing Windows” screen. A lot of users have tried logging back into their account once more but to no avail as the same screen still greets them. And even when they tried the Ctrl + Alt + Del combo, it still didn’t work. This only goes to show that your account might somehow be corrupted.

Option 1 – Try booting your PC into Safe Mode

The first thing you can do to resolve the issue is to try booting your computer into Safe Mode and then log in using an Admin account. If it seems like your admin account has caused the problem, you need to create an admin account first and then log in after you reboot into the account and then log off. After that, restart your PC normally and check if the problem’s resolved or not. If not, refer to the next given option below.

Option 2 – Try to repair your corrupted profile via Registry

In this second option, you can try to repair the corrupted profile using the Registry but before you proceed, make sure to create a System Restore Point and then follow the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Then type “regedit” in the field and hit Enter or click OK to open the Registry Editor.
• Next, go to this registry key: ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProfileList
• Once you’ve opened the registry key, you should see a list of all the user profiles on your computer. Now click on each S-1-5 folder and look for the “ProfileImagePath” entry and double-click on it to check which user account it is related to. You will see a path like “CUsersACK” where “ACK” is the username.
• You should know which among the user account is corrupted. Just look for a key named “RefCount” and change its Value data to “0” and click OK. And if it isn’t available, simply right-click on the right pane and create it.
• After that, double click on the key named “State” and make sure that the Value data is “0” and click OK.
• Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer to apply the changes made.

Option 3 – Try running the System File Checker

System File Checker or SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files with good system files that might be the cause why your screen is stuck at “Preparing Windows”. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Tap Win + R to launch Run.
• Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow

The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:

1. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

Option 4 – Try to repair hard disk errors using the Chkdsk utility

You can also run the Chkdsk utility to resolve the problem. 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 commands listed below, and don’t forget to hit Enter right after you type in each one of them.
• chkntfs /t
• chkntfs /t:10

There are times when the WMI Repository gets corrupted which results in the Provider Load Failure. To resolve this issue, you need to repair or rebuild the WMI Repository in your Windows 10 computer. In this post, you will be guided on how exactly you can do that. In case you don’t know, the WMI which stands for Windows Management Instrumentation is a set of specifications from Microsoft to consolidate the management of devices and applications in a network. The WMI is a database that stores meta-information and definitions for WMI classes. Using only these, the conditions of the systems can be known. You can find the WMI Repository in %windir%System32WbemRepository. It provides end-users with the status of the local or remote computer system. Keep in mind that you must not use this on the Server 2012 Cluster machine. Although there are command-line tools that can fix or restore the Windows Management Instrumentation repository. However, Microsoft suggests that it’s better if you verify if there is corruption. Here are a list of errors as well as permission issues you might encounter:

• Unable to connect to root default or rootcimv2 namespaces. It fails with the error code “0x80041002” pointing to “WBEM_E_NOT_FOUND.”
• 0x80041010 WBEM_E_INVALID_CLASS
• When you open Computer Management and Right Click on Computer Management (Local) and select Properties, you get the following error: “ WMI: Not Found” or it hangs trying to connect
• Trying to use wbemtest , and it hangs
• Schemas/Objects missing
• Strange connection/operation errors (0x8007054e)

To verify if there is corruption, you can try running the following command in an elevated Command Prompt:

winmgmt /verifyrepository

 After you enter the command, if there is a response saying, “repository is not consistent”, then the repository has an issue. If not, then something else is causing the problem. Since you are certain that corruption exists in the WMI repository, then here are some suggestions you need to check out to repair or rebuild the WMI repository.

Option 1 – Try to reset WMI Repository

• Type “command prompt” in the Start Search and right-click on Command Prompt from the search results and then select “Run as administrator”.
• After opening Command Prompt with admin privileges, type and enter this command: winmmgmt /salvagerepository

The command you entered is used when the winmmgmt command performs a consistency check. So if an inconsistency is detected, it will rebuild the repository.

• Next, execute this command to see if the WMI repository now comes back as consistent: winmgmt /verifyrepository

This command will perform a consistency check on the WMI repository.

• If it states that the WMI repository is not consistent, then you need to type and enter this command: winmgmt /resetrepository

This command is used to reset the repository to its initial state when the operating system was first installed.

Option 2 – Try to force recover the WMI Repository

The WMI Repository comes with a built-in self-recovery process so when the WMI service restarts or detects any corruption, it will automatically trigger the self-recovery procedure. This can happen in two ways:

• AutoRestore: This will use the backup images if the Volume Shadow copy or VSS backup is turned on.
• AutoRecovery: The rebuilding process will generate fresh images of the WMI repository based on the registered MOFs. The MOFs are available in the registry located at HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWBEMCIMOM: Autorecover MOFs

Note: Autorecover MOFs is a key so double click on it to check its value. On the other hand, if the self-recovery procedure does not work, you can try to use the force-recovery process instead. How? Refer to these steps:

• First, you need to check the reg key value is empty or not under this registry path: HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWBEMCIMOMAutorecover MOFs
• If the reg key value is empty, you have to copy-paste the reg key value from another computer. Just make sure that it’s from the System which is equivalent to the computer in question.
• Next, type and enter this command: Winmgmt /resetrepository
• After you enter the command, if you get an error that says, “WMI repository reset failed. Error code:0x8007041B. Facility: Win32”, then you have to stop all the Dependency Services on the WMI service by running the following commands:
  • net stop winmgmt /y
  • Winmgmt /resetrepository

This should fix the problem.

Hello and welcome to another great tutorial from errortools.com. Today we will be making Windows START menu full screen. First introduced in Windows 8.1, the start menu has been shifted from full screen to gadget like in Windows 10 but if you prefer to have it over the entire screen with all of its glory and large icons you can do so and we will be happy to show you how. Press ⊞ WINDOWS and choose settings. From the settings screen, choose Personalization. Under personalization options click on START. And then on the right part click on the button under Use Start full screen to turn it ON That's it, your start menu is now full screen.

In case you don’t know, Microsoft Edge, the new default browser of Windows 10, is equipped with the essential tools that are needed to help web developers in testing their websites in the Edge browser. However, it is not without its flaws as there are instances when you could also encounter some errors when using DevTools. One of these errors is the “An error occurred while starting the profiling session” error. You can see this error message in the DevTools Memory Panel, worry not for this post will help you resolve it. A memory panel is one that primarily measures your memory resource usage and compares heap snapshots in different states of code execution. The Memory panel also provides profiling of three different types, such:

• Head Snapshot
• Record Allocation timeline
• Record Allocation profiles

Using a memory panel, you can find issues that affect the page performance in the most common scenarios like bloats and memory leaks. There are two steps you need to carry out to fix this error that’s associated with the Memory Panel of Microsoft Edge (Chromium) DevTools. First, you need to access the Microsoft (R) Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector Service. Second, you need to restart this service. For detailed steps, follow the instructions provided below. Step 1: Access the Microsoft (R) Diagnostic Standard Collector Service To access the Microsoft (R) Diagnostic Standard Collector Service, follow these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Then type “services.msc” in the field and hit Enter or click OK.
• This will open the Services Manager. Here, look for the Microsoft (R) Diagnostic Service from the Services panel that opens on the right-hand side.

Step 2: Now restart the Microsoft (R) Diagnostic Hub Standard Collector Service

• After accessing the Microsoft (R) Diagnostic Standard Collector Service, right-click on it and select the Restart option.
• Once it’s done, exit the Microsoft Edge Developer Tools as well as the tab.
• Next, open a new tab and navigate to your page and tap the F12 key.
• Now, try to check if profiling begins.

Recently, a number of users reported that they were not able to use the “Run as administrator” context menu option when they tried using it or opening a program with administrator privilege. If you are one of these users facing this problem, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will guide you in fixing this issue. At the time of writing, it isn’t clear what the cause of the issue is but there are potential fixes you can try to fix the problem. You can try turning on the User Account Control or clean up the Context Menu items change the Group Membership. On the other hand, you can also perform both SFC and DISM scans via Command Prompt or troubleshoot the problem in a clean boot state as it is possible that some third-party programs are the ones that are causing the problem. You could also run an anti-malware scan using Windows Defender or your antivirus program.

Option 1 – Try to turn on the User Account Control

When you open a program with administrator privilege, the User Account Control or UAC prompt will pop up asking you to confirm the permission. However, if you have disabled the User Account Control by mistake or some malware has disabled it, then it’s no wonder why the “Run as administrator” option is not working. Thus, you need to check if UAC is turned on or not. All you have to do is go to the User Account Control settings.

Option 2 – Try changing the Group Membership

• First, you need to sign in with your administrator account or ask your administrator to sign in for you. So if you only have a Standard User account, you have to add that account to the Administrators group.
• In the taskbar search box, type “netplwiz” and check the search results.
• From there, select your user account and click the Properties button.
• After that, go to the Group Membership tab and select Administrator.
• Now click on the Apply and OK buttons to save the changes made and then sign in to your computer again and see if the “Run as administrator” option is working or not.

Option 3 – Try to create a new Administrator User account

If you have a standard account, you can try creating a new account but this time, you create an administrator user account and then see if you can now use the Run as administrator option or not. Note that you have to sign in with your main account before you can create an admin account.

Option 4 – Run the DISM tool

You can run the DISM tool as well to help fix the problem with the “Run as administrator” option. Using this built-in tool, you have various options such as the “/ScanHealth”, “/CheckHealth”, and “/RestoreHealth”.

• Open the Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• Then type in the following commands and make sure to hit Enter right after you type each one of them:
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
  • exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
• Do not close the window if the process takes a while as it will probably take a few minutes to finish.

Option 5 – Perform a System File Checker scan

The SFC or System File Checker scan could detect and automatically repair damaged system files that could be causing the problem with the “Run as administrator” option on your Windows 10 computer. SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files with good system files. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Tap Win + R to launch Run.
• Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow and hit Enter.

The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:

1. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

• Once done, restart your computer.

Option 6 – Put your computer in a Clean Boot State

You can also troubleshoot the problem in a Clean Boot state. It could be that there are some third-party applications in your computer that are preventing you from using the “Run as administrator” option and to isolate this possibility, you need to boot your computer in a Clean Boot State and then try to use the Run as administrator again. Putting your computer in this state can help you identify which program is the culprit and thus isolates the problem. In a Clean Boot state, your computer will start using only the pre-selected minimal set of drivers and startup programs. Note that you have to disable and enable one process at a time.

• Log onto your PC as an administrator.
• Type in MSConfig in the Start Search to open the System Configuration utility.
• From there, go to the General tab and click “Selective startup”.
• Clear the “Load Startup items” check box and make sure that the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” options are checked.
• Next, click the Services tab and select the “Hide All Microsoft Services” check box.
• Click Disable all.
• Click on Apply/OK and restart your PC. (This will put your PC into a Clean Boot State. And configure Windows to use the usual startup, just simply undo the changes.)
• After you’ve set your computer into a Clean Boot State, try to check if the error is now fixed and that you can now view the Properties.

Option 7 – Try scanning your computer using Windows Defender

As mentioned, if your computer was recently infected with some malware, it is possible that the malware changed the User Account Control settings which is why you’re not able to use the Run as administrator option. Thus, you need to scan your computer using Windows Defender.

• Tap the Win + I keys to open Update & Security.
• Then click on the Windows Security option and open Windows Defender Security Center.
• Next, click on Virus & threat protection > Run a new advanced scan.
• Now make sure that Full Scan is selected from the menu and then click the Scan Now button to get started.

You might be trying to play music files using the Windows Media Player, but were unable to do so since you encountered an error saying, “Windows Media Player Error – Server Execution Failed” error. If you encountered this error, worry not for this post will guide you on how to fix it using some potential fixes. In the error message, the “Server execution failed” indicates that the “wmplayer.exe” is still running or shutting down at that point and it is possible that it is stuck which is not able to close properly. To fix this error, there are several potential fixes you can try. The first one is to run the Video Playback troubleshooter. While you could also try to disable the WMP Network Sharing Service or register both the jscript.dll and vbscript.dll files. For more information, refer to the options provided below.

Option 1 – Try to run the Video Playback troubleshooter

The first thing you can do to fix the problem, you can try to run the Video Playback troubleshooter instead. To run it, simply go to Settings > Update & security > Troubleshoot. From there, scroll down until you see the Video Playback option and then click on the “Run the troubleshooter” button to get started. This troubleshooter will detect and automatically fix any problems related to video playback so it should help fix the error.

Option 2 – Try to disable the WMP Network Sharing Service

If the Video Playback troubleshooter didn’t work in fixing the problem, the next thing you need to do is disable the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service. The WMP Network Sharing Service is used to share the libraries of the Windows Media Player to other users on the network as well as media devices using the Universal Plug and Play. And since you are not using any network here, then you can disable this service to fix the problem. How? Refer to the given steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “services.msc” in the field and tap Enter to open the Services Manager.
• Next, look for the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service from the list of Services and right-click on it.
• After that, click on the Stop option and see if it fixes the Windows Media Player error.

Option 3 – Try to register the jscript.dll and vbscript.dll files

• Tap the Win + X keys and from the menu select the Windows PowerShell (Admin) option to open an elevated Command Prompt.
• Next, type this command to register the jscript.dll file and click on the confirmation box: regsvr32 jscript.dll
• After that, execute the regsvr32 vbscript.dll command to register the vbscript.dll file.
• Once you’re done, these DLL files will be re-registered and should fix the Windows Media Player error.

Gaming can be sometimes a very cheap hobby, sometimes can be really expensive. It really depends on your preferences or gaming habits. So for all of you game spenders, we have compiled a little list of WEB sites where you can find games cheap. Provided sites are checked ones and not scam. You can purchase without concern. Also, note that some of these sites will require you to create an account in order to be able to make a purchase.

List of WEB sites for cheap purchases

Is There Any Deal

https://isthereanydeal.com/ Is there any deal really behaves as it sounds, it is basically a search engine tailored to find existing deals on required games. Type in the desired game and see if anywhere you can find a deal on it. The site also features wait for better price options as well as the price history of the game and the trend of its sales.

Cheap Shark

https://www.cheapshark.com/ On cheap shark by typing game name, you will get its listing on different online retailers, like Steam, EPIC, etc. so you can compare prices among them and pick the best deal. Site packs are also the cheapest ever feature so you can check the lowest price ever on the wished title and you can get alerts and notifications on prices.

Humble Bundle

https://www.humblebundle.com/ Humble bundle got famous for its pay what you want approach due to its origins where it was selling games and donate money to charities. Even today they go by this logic once they decide to place great games on sale for charity purposes and you can donate any amount you wish (there is the minimum amount, but it is very cheap). And regular cheap bundles make this site one of the best out there.

Fanatical

https://www.fanatical.com/ Fanatical is a site that will offer you to get titles in a bundle with a discount, the good stuff is that you can create your own bundle and get a discount on bulk purchases. And the site also offers flash deals and holds sales where you can buy stuff cheaper.

Slick Deals

https://slickdeals.net/deals/games/ If you are looking for the best deals on daily basis slick deals is the site for you. We could not found a better website that offers cheaper deals on a daily basis and you can subscribe to get notified in email about daily discounts.

Green Man Gaming

https://www.greenmangaming.com/ Green Man Gaming is one of the best stores and game discount sites out there, it might not be the cheapest but one very important thing about it is that keys for Stream and Xbox come directly from the game publisher so you can rest assured that they are all 100% legal and do not come from some third party benefits and resellers. And that's it for now. We hope to see you again on our site for more articles and error fixing tips.

When you run a program in Windows 10, error 0xc000012f may pop up, mentioning that the files and binaries you’re trying to run are corrupted. Error 0xc000012f means Bad Image, denoting that the program’s executable or one of the supporting modules is corrupt. Or there is probably a DLL mismatch. This error usually manifests itself after a windows update or after installation of some application, in order to fix it follow the steps below:

1. Perform SFC scan

   Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open the Windows menu From the menu choose command prompt (admin) In command prompt type sfc /scannow and press ENTER Leave the computer for the operation to be completed and Reboot your computer

2. Run DISM

   Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open the Windows menu From the menu choose command prompt (admin) in command prompt type: DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and press ENTER wait for the process to be finished and Reboot your computer

3. Reinstall application

   If this error has been popping up after the application install remove the installed application and install it again. There is the possibility that the application installer has by accident corrupted some files, reinstalling it might fix the issue.

4. Uninstall Windows update

   In some cases, Windows update can introduce this issue, go to Windows updates, into advanced options, and uninstall the latest update to see if this will fix the error.

5. Install Visual C++ Redistributable

   Go to the official Microsoft website and download C++ redistributable package and install it

6. Install new windows update

   If there is a new Windows update install, there is a chance that in the last update something went wrong and it is very likely that it was fixed in the last one.

For a while now, Microsoft has been working hard to add various built-in troubleshooters in Windows 10. In fact, there is a troubleshooter for almost every standard or common error in Windows 10. And now with the newly released Windows 10 v1903, Microsoft has added the Recommended Troubleshooting which allows Windows 10 to automatically fix a lot of critical issues on your computer, and in this post, you will be guided on how you can turn on or off the Recommended Troubleshooting in Windows 10. The Microsoft Diagnostic & Feedback data only provides two settings – Basic and Full. So if you want to turn off the Recommended Troubleshooting for some reason, the only way to do so is to stop it from collecting complete data from your PC. And to turn it on or off, you can choose to switch between them. To do that, navigate to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback and from there, select Basic under the Diagnostic Data section. After that, go back to Settings and go to Update & security > Troubleshoot. Once you’re there, you should see a warning message saying, “Share Full Diagnostic data to get additional troubleshooting recommendations”. Based on the message, Microsoft will only offer the recommended troubleshooting based on the Full Diagnostic data which it collects from your computer. On the other hand, if you know how to navigate and use the Windows Registry, then you can enable or disable the Recommended Troubleshooting via Registry Editor but before you proceed, make sure that you create a System Restore point. Once that’s covered, follow these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “regedit” in the field and tap Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• Next, navigate to this registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoft
• From there, look for the key named “WindowsMigration”. If you can’t find it, just right-click on the left pane and create a new key and then name it “WindowsMigration”.
• After that, create a DWORD “UserPreference” and double click on it to set its value to “0” if you want to turn it off or “1” if you want to turn it on.
• Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer to apply the changes made.

Note: The Recommended Troubleshooting functionality can look into the error logs sent back to the Microsoft team and use an algorithm to set up a solution for you and they’re nothing but Diagnostics and Feedback data that Windows collects and sends back to Microsoft. Moreover, the recommendations are only visible if you are connected to the internet, else it will show the same message.

To make the Windows 10 operating system a lot more user-friendly, Microsoft introduced the Tablet Mode for Windows 10 devices, especially the 2-in-1 devices like Surface Pro and Surface Book. Despite the Tablet Mode’s efficiency, it also encounters some errors from time to time. One of the issues users reported about tablet mode is that they can’t turn off or exit tablet mode. If you are one of these users, read on as this post will guide you in what you can do to fix the issue. To fix the problem with Tablet Mode, there are several suggestions you can check out. You can try to check the full-screen setting, or perform a full shutdown or perform two buttons to restart the Surface devices. You could also disable Tablet Mode via Registry Editor or perform System Restore or change the settings in the System tab or the Action Center.

Option 1 – Try to check the full-screen setting

• Tap the Win + I keys to open the Windows Settings app.
• Then navigate to this path, Personalization > Start.
• Next, scroll down to toggle off the “Use Start Full Screen” option.
• After that, restart your computer and see if the problem is fixed.

Option 2 – Perform a full shutdown

• Open Command Prompt with admin privileges first.
• Next, execute this command to perform a full shutdown: shutdown /s /f /t 0
• The command you entered will shut down your computer and once it’s turned off, wait for a couple of minutes and then turn it back on.

Option 3 – Try to perform a two-button restart on your Surface device

• Tap and hold the power button for about 30 seconds.
• Then release them after 30 seconds.
• After that, tap and hold the volume up + the power button for 20 seconds. This will cause the display to flash a few times but you have to keep those buttons pressed until your Surface device is turned off.
• Wait for a couple of minutes and your Surface will turn back on. This should resolve the problem.

Option 4 – Try to disable the Tablet Mode via Registry Editor

• In the Start Search, type “registry editor” and right-click on the Registry Editor from the results, and then select the Run as administrator option. This will open the Registry Editor with admin privileges.
• Next, navigate to this registry key: ComputerHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionImmersiveShell
• From there, look for the DWORD named “SignInMode” and double click on it.
• Set its value to “1” and its base as hexadecimal.
• After that, click on OK to save the changes made. This will make sure that you are signed in to the desktop mode when you log into your account.
• Now look for the DWORD named “TabletMode” and double click on it and set its value data to “0” and it's base as hexadecimal.
• Click on OK to save the changes made and then restart your computer.

Option 5 – Run System Restore

• 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 6 – Try changing the settings in the System tab or the Action Center

• Go to Settings and navigate to System > Tablet Mode.
• After that, scroll down to set the “Use desktop mode” from the drop-down menu under the “When I sign in” section.
• Now restart your computer and see if the issue is fixed.