Recently, I was installing Windows 2008 R2 on a HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server. Found that the server was throwing an error message stating “Windows could not finish configuring the system.”. When you click on “OK”, servers gets automatic reboot and shows again the same error.
When searched on google, I found that this error message occurs with Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems if the system contains a registry key that is larger than 8 kilobytes (KB). A Hotfix for this problem is available from Microsoft
In my case it was during a clean install of Windows OS, hence it was fixed following the steps listed below:
When you find the error message stating that the “Windows could not finish configuring the system” appears on your screen:
1. Hold down the SHIFT key and press F10 (SHIFT + F10) to open command prompt.
2. At command prompt type: cd oobe (& press Enter).
3. Then type: msoobe (& press Enter).
4. Finally Restart your computer.
You will see your machine back with CTRL+ALT+DEL screen.
Thanks,
WintelAdmin
