Windows 10 logging in says - "Preparing Windows"

Question

I have a dual-boot with Windows 7 and Windows 10. On the partition with Windows 10 I used to have Windows 8.1.

Once in a while (when I had Windows 8.1), I would login to find the it say Preparing Windows instead of Welcome.

When it finished, I read a notice at the bottom that said something like You have logged into a temporary account, to login to your normal account sign out and sign back in. So I would do so and voila it would work.

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Now on Windows 10...

However I recently felt like updating back to Windows 10. It worked successfully and I was automatically logged into my normal account. I then rebooted and on the next day to find the problem which I mentioned above.

I done what it told me to do Sign Out and in however it still gave me the same problem.

Things I have tried:

• Logged in and out
• Connect to the internet
• I tried to create another account however it wouldn't let me (No error)
• Allow to scan for errors during boot.

Note: This like the search doesn't work, the Start Menu doesn't load and all apps on the PC have gone

Answer 1

This is regarding your Start Menu not working correctly, or at all. I am not sure about the temporary profile issue.

You need to boot Windows from a DVD or USB stick,whatever, but not the hard drive.

If your system is working back these files up! You need to get here C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository

06/13/2017  05:00 PM         5,111,808 StateRepository-Machine.srd
06/13/2017  06:32 PM            32,768 StateRepository-Machine.srd-shm
06/13/2017  05:00 PM                 0 StateRepository-Machine.srd-wal

These files are probably the culprit. Problem is you can just delete them, unless your willing to run sysprep to re-create them.

1. The best answer is get a working copy from another computer.
2. Run sysprep, boot from DVD,USB, or etc delete files When sysprep completes they will be regenerated.
3. SQL Lite Browser Portable. You can attach to these database files, and try to fix them manually. If it ask for a password disconnect, and try again as this means files are in use, they are not password protected. I am not quite sure what causes the malfunction so editing the database takes a bit of guess work.

In some cases replacing the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer folder or deleting it works, but that is hit and miss.

Answer 2

I am posting this as a community wiki because although this is not a permanent fix, I can use this as a work around. Hopefully some one can edit this to give correct answer

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Well for the time being I created a new account using Command Prompt. I am able to log into it however most things on the taskbar doesn't work :(

http://operating-systems.wonderhowto.com/how-to/create-admin-user-account-using-cmd-prompt-windows-0125689/

That is a link to a tutorial on how to do so

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Edit

I have reinstalled Windows 10 so everything is back to normal. I will still not accept this answer in the case that this happens again (looking for an actual fix...)