Fix: Windows could not finish configuring the system OOBE error message

Posted on 2011-01-03 in troubleshooting • 377 words • 2 minute read

Last updated on 2011-01-03

Tags: Deployment, Microsoft SCCM, Windows 7

Happy new year everybody! We are starting 2011 battling with Windows Deployment Services, Windows 7 and the Out Of the Box Experience (OOBE); and what an experience!. Just after preparing our image and capturing it we are not able to log in anymore; apparently something has went wrong during the system prepare process and OOBE is unable to finish computer’s setup.

A message stating Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer, appears when OOBE is preparing the computer for first run no matter if you restart or try the safe mode onthe next boot.

After doing a little bit of research, we’ve seen that this is a quite common WDS issue when deploying Microsoft Windows 7 from Server 2008. As per Microsoft “this issue occurs if the original operating system contains a registry key that is larger than 8 kilobytes (KB)” but this error might also be caused by other factors (not yet specified by Microsoft).

We’ve tried the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles below and patched our images unsuccessfully:

• A Windows 7 or a Windows Server 2008 R2 image deployment process stops when you try to deploy the image on another computer
• Error message when you press CTRL+SHIFT+F3 to enter audit mode from the OOBE Wizard in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

If you are in the same situation, here you have a good workaround to identify the registry key that is stopping OOBE:

1. Start the affected computer with a WinPE USB drive.
2. Navigate to C:\Windows\Panther.
3. Find the Setup.etl file and copy this file on your USB drive.
4. Copy it to your computer (choose an easy location C:\oobefile).
5. Open a Command Prompt on your computer and navigate to C:\oobefile
6. Type tracerpt setup.etl -o logfile.csv (check TechNet’s tracerpt full syntax) 
7. Close the command prompt and open up logfile.csv in your text editor.
8. Look through the log file (towards the end probably) for messages that say “Failed to process reg key or one of it’s decendants” 
9. Once you locate the registry key delete it.

To delete the registry key do the following:

1. On the error message screen, push Shift+F10 to get to a Command Prompt.
2. Type: REG DELETE
3. Restart the computer.

That’s it, enjoy your Windows deployment experience…