Which are the most common causes for being stuck at Welcome ?

BadHellie

BadHellie

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Hi, I am playing hard to obtain a barebone Win10 (22H2, x64) install devoid of "side effects". As a premise, I had to remove all protections, *under my whole responsibility*, so I am NOT blaming NTL in any way of course, which in good hands is a valuable tool (my hands evidently are still a bit clumsy lol). Just, I wanted to attempt understanding what is up in certain cases and in detail.

With some combinations of removed things, the install screen remains stuck at the "Welcome" after the first log in. My goal was simply understanding the cause, what happens exactly, to proceed accordingly. I am not a guru yet, so I wondered if you can suggest me some way to debug things or to gather more clues. I can't attach a preset by now, because as I said few minor tweaks on a same presets seem enough to cause or to fix this issue, but I could not detect a single culprit yet. I can just say that with "barebone" I mean I have removed all microsoft apps, updating services, ads services, social cr@p incl. Azure, intrusive stuff, most things named "experience", defender, firewall, lock screens and OOBE (which is what I hate the most); also I have created my admin account in Unattended. Note: the target machine is NEVER connected to the Internet, if that may be relevant.
Thanks in advance
 
Hi
No one can guess the answer you're looking for.
In NTL folder there's a Preset folder - load up latest preset (be sure you delete any personal info).
After that who care can test your settings in NTL and can give feedback.
Don't worry, most members here are just tired of getting same Q's all the time that NTL don't work as intended just from description of a problem - even user should learn the tool first and try solve the problem by them self.
No affence - thank you.
 
No offence but please allow me to disagree on your reply. First, who has not an answer to a question should simply avoid to reply ;) Second, how can I rule out for sure that this "welcome" problem is maybe well known and has often been experienced instead, so that a hint could be given to help me narrow down the cause ? Just that ^_^
 
Feel free to post your preset as often asked - then someone will respond after looking in to it testing. You're welcome ;)
 
Most threads like these (link1) can be prevented and resolved by testing in layers, and the Quality Control (link2) guide has more details on that. Anything that prevents a user from reaching the desktop on a clean install, is typically related to a misconfigured unattend file, bad driver integrations, corrupt Windows Update integrations, uninstalling basic drivers in NTLite, OEM and licensing issues, disabling certain services, improper post-setup commands, or removing too many NTLite compatibility protections.

The reason the forum rules (link3) require people to upload their preset, is because there are simply too many ways a user can break things, and any experienced helper will agree that most questions rarely have all the pertinent data necessary to solve them, so we ask for basic things up front in return for our troubleshooting assistance and because it greatly speeds up how long it takes for a thread to reach a conclusion.
 
I apologize for not providing a preset, I do understand its importance for debugging. But this case, if I am allowed to say it, is different. Mine just wanted to be a generic question, in case somebody had a vague idea about a problem which AFAIK might show up frequently (but evidently not ;) )
Another reason why I prefer not to post my preset by now is to avoid flames and criticisms ;) I am attempting some *very radical* debloats, with all NTL protections deliberately disabled and under my own total responsibility (I reiterate: NO BLAMES TO NTL BY MY END for this !!!) So it is obvious that I removed a lot of components and stuff, including all appx-related, all stuff inherent to M$ accounts and OOBE. And I realize perfectly how crazily components are interwined.
If I published the preset, I would be suddently told "you were warned not to remove this and that" - agreeably enough - but that would NOT help me understanding the cause ;)
However what I am trying to do IS feasable, period. Just, there is that little "Welcome" annoyance, so I just wanted to understand WHAT exactly happens in the meanwhile, what Windows is trying to do, since I have no debugging tools or means to "watch under the Welcome screen" !
Namely, here is what happens.
Sometimes the Welcome screen lasts about 80 secs - which is a time I judge average and "fine" - then it boots in the desktop.
Sometimes else the Welcome screen lasts... forever ? Well, yesterday I waited before resetting, and it actually booted in about 10 minutes.
Another bizarre finding is, this behavior seems RANDOM !!! I.e a SAME ISO, i.e SAME USB STICK, sometimes results in a Welcome screen lasting 80 secs, sometimes 10 minutes (or however a long time).

In short: my hope was that some users with experience of "brave" and/or "radical" debloats had a similar experience and his take on it ;)
 
BadHellie said:
I apologize for not providing a preset, I do understand its importance for debugging. But this case, if I am allowed to say it, is different. Mine just wanted to be a generic question, in case somebody had a vague idea about a problem which AFAIK might show up frequently (but evidently not ;) )
Another reason why I prefer not to post my preset by now is to avoid flames and criticisms ;) I am attempting some *very radical* debloats, with all NTL protections deliberately disabled and under my own total responsibility (I reiterate: NO BLAMES TO NTL BY MY END for this !!!) So it is obvious that I removed a lot of components and stuff, including all appx-related, all stuff inherent to M$ accounts and OOBE. And I realize perfectly how crazily components are interwined.
If I published the preset, I would be suddently told "you were warned not to remove this and that" - agreeably enough - but that would NOT help me understanding the cause ;)
However what I am trying to do IS feasable, period. Just, there is that little "Welcome" annoyance, so I just wanted to understand WHAT exactly happens in the meanwhile, what Windows is trying to do, since I have no debugging tools or means to "watch under the Welcome screen" !
Namely, here is what happens.
Sometimes the Welcome screen lasts about 80 secs - which is a time I judge average and "fine" - then it boots in the desktop.
Sometimes else the Welcome screen lasts... forever ? Well, yesterday I waited before resetting, and it actually booted in about 10 minutes.
Another bizarre finding is, this behavior seems RANDOM !!! I.e a SAME ISO, i.e SAME USB STICK, sometimes results in a Welcome screen lasting 80 secs, sometimes 10 minutes (or however a long time).

In short: my hope was that some users with experience of "brave" and/or "radical" debloats had a similar experience and his take on it ;)
Click to expand...
If you want to barebones; it would be better to do it live after you install your iso instead of everything being applied at iso install. There are many things that can be removed after windows is installed that cannot be while installing.
 
Thanks to OP for explaining but still observe random loadtimes - even it go though - but does install still work as intended after bypass Welcome (Screen)?
Typical problem using NTL is user don't use Compatibility tab protecting Oobe components.
 
Necrosaro said:
If you want to barebones; it would be better to do it live after you install your iso instead of everything being applied at iso install. There are many things that can be removed after windows is installed that cannot be while installing.
Click to expand...
I must reiterate that as a beginner I may still ignore some details about NTL and Windows in general, so I still apologize.
You are pretty suggesting to apply some tweaks or fine-tuning after installation; but this IMHO is quite against NTL phylosophy... I mean, my (our ?) goal should be coming to a final, customized ISO which is already devoid of everything we want to get rid of, really to avoid further manual tweaks on every PC after installation, other than installing specific drivers and software...
 
francis11 said:
Thanks to OP for explaining but still observe random loadtimes - even it go though - but does install still work as intended after bypass Welcome (Screen)?
Typical problem using NTL is user don't use Compatibility tab protecting Oobe components.
Click to expand...
OOBE is for me one of the worst bloats, and I feel better removing it completely ;) One of my goal is really having an ISO deprived of unwanted stuff, not just disabling stuff by Registry or Settings or Services section.

In the end, after much experimenting it looks like the randomly short or long wait at Welcome has no (visible) side effects. In both cases I am booting in a system where everything *seems* fully functional, from Start Menu to Search Box. I am testing my installation carefully, everything seems to install and run fine as well, but obviously I cannot rule out that some hidden problem may show up later. I may consider publishing my "butcher's" preset eventually, but not before I am 100% sure it is fully reliable :)
 
Well, it is now clear that the long pause at Welcome... after login lasting several minutes depends on Internet connection. If I block Internet, the pause lasts up to 5-6 minutes. If I allow it instead, the pause lasts just one minute or so. Despite I removed pretty everything (OOBE, M$ Store, M$ accounts, Update service, ads & other intrusive components, all taskbar bloats, for a total of more than 470 components removed), something during Windows setup is still trying to connect to the Internet :mad: And when it can't, here's the long delay. As I suspected. In fact, I blocked the PC in the router and watched the firewall log: tons of connections attempts, and to several different IP addressess !!!
Any idea ? What else should I do/remove to prevent these attempts ? Preset attached. Any help is appreciated.
 
OK case closed, solved. I found the culprit, it was App Readiness component ! It must be *removed* with my particular (very "brave") preset for the system to boot properly. Otherwise, it keeps doing strange things, connects to the Internet and causes a very long wait of several minutes after login, at the Welcome... stage, before booting - and sometimes the system boots in an incomplete state, with the TaskBar and Personalization apps not working. Discovering it was not easy, considering how crazily things are interwined, and that the whole process is therefore a long, iterative trial & error (also, every iteration of creating a new ISO and installing it for testing takes at least 15 minutes).
I don't remember why I left in place that piece of ehr... but it is all a guesswork. Unfortunately, starting from Win 10 several system components are evidently provided in appx/wpe/whatever; therefore, removing appx support completely can be problematic.
I still detect some Internet connection attempts during Setup which I can't prevent yet, but they seem harmless.
Sadly the Appx Deployment Service can't be removed instead, otherwise those system components won't install properly.
 
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