Windows OS Hub
  • Windows Server
    • Windows Server 2022
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2012 R2
    • Windows Server 2012
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • SCCM
  • Active Directory
    • Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
    • Group Policies
  • Windows Clients
    • Windows 11
    • Windows 10
    • Windows 8
    • Windows 7
    • Windows XP
    • MS Office
    • Outlook
  • Virtualization
    • VMWare
    • Hyper-V
    • KVM
  • PowerShell
  • Exchange
  • Cloud
    • Azure
    • Microsoft 365
    • Office 365
  • Linux
    • CentOS
    • RHEL
    • Ubuntu
  • Home
  • About

Windows OS Hub

  • Windows Server
    • Windows Server 2022
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2012 R2
    • Windows Server 2012
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • SCCM
  • Active Directory
    • Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
    • Group Policies
  • Windows Clients
    • Windows 11
    • Windows 10
    • Windows 8
    • Windows 7
    • Windows XP
    • MS Office
    • Outlook
  • Virtualization
    • VMWare
    • Hyper-V
    • KVM
  • PowerShell
  • Exchange
  • Cloud
    • Azure
    • Microsoft 365
    • Office 365
  • Linux
    • CentOS
    • RHEL
    • Ubuntu

 Windows OS Hub / Windows 10 / The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected loop error on Windows 10/11

September 14, 2021 Windows 10Windows 11

The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected loop error on Windows 10/11

In some cases, during a clean Windows installation, upgrading to a new Windows 11, installing a new Windows 10 build, or creating a reference OS image using Sysprep, you can receive the error “The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed”. When you click OK, the computer restarts, and the error window appears again, and so it goes again and again… What can you do in this case to continue Windows installation?

This problem may appear after reboot during the Windows installation (or update) and looks like this:

The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click “OK” to restart the computer, and then restart the installation.

error loop: The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed

As I said before, if the “computer restarted unexpectedly” error occurs, neither the click on the OK button nor the restart of the Windows installation wizard helps – the error still gets looped.

To fix the problem, you don’t need to close the error message or click OK:

  1. Press Shift + F10 right on the screen with the error. On some laptops, you need to use a keyboard shortcut Shift+Fn+F10, or disable the System Configuration -> Action Keys Mode = Disabled option in the BIOS settings;
  2. In the command prompt that appears, start the Registry Editor using the regedit command;
    run regedit in winpe
  3. In the Registry Editor, go to the reg key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion;
  4. In the right panel, find the parameter named setup.exe. Its value is likely to be 1. Change it to 3 and save the changes;
    Note. Thus we make force the Windows installer to go to the next installation phase.
    windows registry key ChildCompletion setup.exe
  5. Close the Registry Editor, and restart your computer by clicking OK in the error windows or using this command: shutdown -r -t 0 or wpeutil reboot

After the restart, the Windows 10 installation/update process should continue normally.

windows 10 installation just a moment

This problem is typical not only for Windows 10 and Windows 10. This solution of the interrupted installation of the operating system works well in Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server.

Other reasons and solutions for the automatic restart problem in Windows

Issue: The computer automatically restarts and you have no time to make changes to the registry.
Fix: Make a change to the system registry on disk in offline mode by booting from the installation media or boot/rescue disk.
  1. Boot from the Windows installation media;
  2. Press Shift + F10 on the first install screen to open the command prompt;
  3. You need to get the drive letter assigned to your Windows volume;
  4. Run the command:
    diskpart
    List vol
    In my example, the Windows is located on Volume 1 (according to partition size). This partition is not assigned a drive letter. Let’s assign the letter W manually:
    Assign letter=w:
    exit
    diskpart: assign drive letter to offline windows partition
  5. Now run regedit and load the registry hive HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM of your offline Windows image;
  6. Select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the Registry Editor and click the File -> Load Hive. Select the file W:\Windows\System32\Config\Systemregedit loading hklm system hive from offline file
  7. Set the hive name (mylocal). As a result, an offline copy of your Windows registry will be loaded in the registry editor;
  8. Go to the reg key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Mylocal\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion and change the value of the setup.exe parameter to 3;ChildCompletion setup.exe set to 3 to fix The Computer Restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error
  9. To save changes to the offline registry file, select File-> Unload Hive;regedit save change by unloading offline hive
  10. Switch to the command prompt window and restart the computer using the command: wpeutil reboot
  11. The Windows installation will then continue normally.
Issue: Windows installation continues, but after 64% of Windows installation system automatically restarts and goes on loop. Windows installation stuck at 64% and goes into a reboot loop
Reason: Most often, the problem is the damaged/incorrect/modified Windows install image.

Solution: burn the original Windows install image using the official Media Creation Tool (How to create a bootable UEFI USB drive with Windows 10 Setup?).

Run a clean install of Windows from a new bootable USB stick, be sure to delete all partitions on the drive you want to install Windows on (if you have your data on the drive, copy it before removing the partitions). Install Windows to the Unallocated space. Windows Installer will create all the necessary system partitions by itself (read more about system EFI and MSR partitions in Windows 10).

clean windows installation to unallocated space

Also:

  • Check your local disk for errors: chkdsk W: /F /R
  • Disconnect all unnecessary USB devices (including the keyboard, flash drive, and mouse), disable LAN and Wi-FI network adapters (physically or in BIOS/UEFI settings)

15 comments
11
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
previous post
Installing RSAT Administration Tools on Windows 10 and 11
next post
How to Install VMWare ESXi in a Hyper-V Virtual Machine?

Related Reading

How to Deploy Windows 10 (11) with PXE...

June 27, 2022

Checking Windows Activation Status on Active Directory Computers

June 27, 2022

Configuring Multiple VLAN Interfaces on Windows

June 24, 2022

How to Disable or Enable USB Drives in...

June 24, 2022

Adding Domain Users to the Local Administrators Group...

June 23, 2022

15 comments

Joe Lockhart February 13, 2020 - 10:17 pm

This happened to me and I tried for days to fix it, help from HP, etc. etc. I was just about to give up and take my HP laptop to Best Buy when tried this. I searched for the exact phrase:
“The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows click “OK” to restart the computer and then restart the installation.”
This came up and it worked PERFECTLY! Thank You!!!

Reply
Aashid PS May 23, 2020 - 4:25 pm

Ty it woirked

Reply
John Rodgers June 28, 2020 - 12:50 am

Worked upgrading Server 2008 R2 to Server 2012 R2 DataCenter as well!

THANKS SO MUCH!

Reply
Ami August 2, 2020 - 3:38 pm

Wpeutil is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

Reply
ALFONSO August 6, 2020 - 9:59 pm

Worked like a charm! Installing Win 10 on Hyper-V

Reply
Joan August 9, 2020 - 10:34 am

My laptop keep shutting off before i can even finish editing registry. Pls help

Reply
Jan Michael Del Castillo February 7, 2021 - 11:52 pm

Thank you it worked! BTW the “wpeutil reboot” to restart the computer is not working so just click the “OK’ button on the error message to restart the computer.

Reply
agustin March 25, 2021 - 2:49 pm

not work for me , in fact not showes this path . noly show Setup but \Status\ChildCompletion not
any suggestion?

Reply
Dulaj May 27, 2021 - 8:16 pm

It worked. Really helpful
Thank you.❤

Reply
Vee September 12, 2021 - 12:12 pm

Didn’t work for me, tried for hours. Still have the message and the little dotts turning in a circle.
Don’t know what to do now. i have a computer i can’t use.

Reply
Anne Marie September 20, 2021 - 12:37 pm

It worked. THANK YOU.

Reply
Vladifsh May 3, 2022 - 5:03 am

Worked for me ! Thank you !

Reply
guy May 3, 2022 - 11:45 pm

worked

Reply
Mikael June 21, 2022 - 11:03 pm

this fucking worked!!!! i did not believe it would work but I followed all steps and BAM! thanks so much man, information is so valuable.

Reply
Garrett June 26, 2022 - 11:51 pm

After going through 4 brand new units that would pop up with this error message, I was at a complete loss. That is, until I found your web page. One run and all was up and running, just as it had been.

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Categories

  • Active Directory
  • Group Policies
  • Exchange Server
  • Microsoft 365
  • Azure
  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • PowerShell
  • VMWare
  • Hyper-V
  • MS Office

Recent Posts

  • How to Deploy Windows 10 (11) with PXE Network Boot?

    June 27, 2022
  • Checking Windows Activation Status on Active Directory Computers

    June 27, 2022
  • Configuring Multiple VLAN Interfaces on Windows

    June 24, 2022
  • How to Disable or Enable USB Drives in Windows using Group Policy?

    June 24, 2022
  • Adding Domain Users to the Local Administrators Group in Windows

    June 23, 2022
  • Viewing a Remote User’s Desktop Session with Shadow Mode in Windows

    June 23, 2022
  • How to Create a Wi-Fi Hotspot on your Windows PC?

    June 23, 2022
  • Configuring SSH Public Key Authentication on Windows

    June 15, 2022
  • How to Run a Program as a Different User (RunAs) in Windows?

    June 15, 2022
  • FAQ: Licensing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019/2016

    June 14, 2022

Follow us

woshub.com

ad

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Popular Posts
  • How to Allow Multiple RDP Sessions in Windows 10 and 11?
  • How to Repair EFI/GPT Bootloader on Windows 10 or 11?
  • How to Restore Deleted EFI System Partition in Windows 10?
  • Network Computers are not Showing Up in Windows 10/11
  • How to Run Program without Admin Privileges and to Bypass UAC Prompt?
  • How to Create a Wi-Fi Hotspot on your Windows PC?
  • How to Sign an Unsigned Device Driver in Windows?
Footer Logo

@2014 - 2018 - Windows OS Hub. All about operating systems for sysadmins


Back To Top