Windows 8, 10 and Server 2012 R2 upgrade stops at “Setting up a few things”

I’ve done upgrades on several computers and for the most part never had an issue, but everyone now and then I have found that while the Windows install goes all the way through the installation and device setup, it then seems to get stuck during the very last “Setting up a few more things” stage, sometimes stopping at a frustrating 79%!

I’ve tried leaving them for several hours but it never gets past that point. A hard reset is the only option, after which Windows restores the previous version. So at least nothing is lost other than time.

In all cases though, I’ve found the problem is having the Hyper-V role installed. There must be something about the Hypervisor that causes a problem.

After the OS rolls back, go into roles and features and remove the Hyper-V role, then try the upgrade again. After it completes just add the Hyper-V role back in again and it should pick up all the previous settings.

Windows 7 / 8 OSD pauses on Installing Software Updates

Last update: 6/2/2014 Link to Microsoft TechNet article response

When runnning a Windows 7 or Windows 8 OSD install task sequence on ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 (CU2 and CU3), I’ve noticed that it seems to get stuck and appears to hang for a while when it gets to the “Install Software Updates” step. Typically it will sit there for 5- 10 minutes or so with no apparent activity before it starts applying the updates as required. The updates do eventually apply and the build completes as normal.

Some users unable to connect with ActiveSync

So here’s one that had me stumped. I can’t get ActiveSync connections working for some users on some devices. I’ve found a lot of posts around the internet talking about it being an issue related to self-signed SSL certificates, but I don’t think that is what my problem is.

The environment:

• 1 x Exchange 2013 running on Server 2012
• 1 x Internal private Windows PKI handling certificates
• 3 x Active Directory based user accounts
• 2 x Windows RT Surface tablets
• 1 x iPad Mini
• 2 x PC running Windows 8
• 1 x iPhone
• 2 x Windows Phone 7

A fair collection of devices to compare the issue across.

So what does/used to work?