System Preparation Tool

[Fizzgig]

Hi, I received my PC yesterday, been downloading and installing updates and wotnot. Everytime I start it up though, I get the "System Preparation Tool" pop up, I have no idea what this is. What should I do about it? Also when I boot up sometimes, it tells me that the admin account has been disabled, I reboot it again and I can log in with no problems.

Heres my specs, just in case:

Case
PCS P209 ARGB MID TOWER CASE
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Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700KF (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B760-PLUS D4 (LGA1700, PCIe5.0, USB 3.2)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB) (I changed this to 32GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
I also added a 2nd drive 8TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 200 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]

 

[Martinr36]

Can you post a screenshot of the windows update page and also the optional updates page

 

[ubuysa]

That rather sounds to me as though there was a glitch in the OOBE (the Out Of Box Experience, the setup you go though on first powering it on). That's not unheard of, we've seen problems with the OOBE before (note, that's a Microsoft tool, not a PCS tool).

My best advice is that you clean install Windows again, deleting all existing partitions (via a custom install).

BTW. The 'System Preparation Tool' (sysprep) is used by OEMs and others to generalise an image before deployment. The end user should never see it, and that what makes me think this is a OOBE glitch.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

That rather sounds to me as though there was a glitch in the OOBE (the Out Of Box Experience, the setup you go though on first powering it on). That's not unheard of, we've seen problems with the OOBE before (note, that's a Microsoft tool, not a PCS tool).

My best advice is that you clean install Windows again, deleting all existing partitions (via a custom install).

BTW. The 'System Preparation Tool' (sysprep) is used by OEMs and others to generalise an image before deployment. The end user should never see it, and that what makes me think this is a OOBE glitch.

Absolutely, if the admin account has been disabled, then you're going to be a bit stuck installing anything anyway, clean install will be the quickest resolution. Use the latest image direct from Microsoft, not the one in your PCS downloads.

 

[Fizzgig]

Come to think of it, I didn't get any set up options when I first turned it on, it just went straight into admin account. But I have been having problems installing some things. So you're saying I need to download windows 11 from the Microsoft site and run a clean install?

 

[TonyCarter]

Sounds like it wasn't 'reset' once testing was compete? So I'd definitely do a complete wipe & reinstall, as you'd want a completely clean base to start from.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Come to think of it, I didn't get any set up options when I first turned it on, it just went straight into admin account. But I have been having problems installing some things. So you're saying I need to download windows 11 from the Microsoft site and run a clean install?

Yes.

 

[Fizzgig]

Ugh, busy day ahead then! Thanks for the replies! I'm not that technically minded, I only really know the basics, so wasn't really sure what I should be doing. I've done a Windows install a few times before though, so I think I should be ok 👍

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Ugh, busy day ahead then! Thanks for the replies! I'm not that technically minded, I only really know the basics, so wasn't really sure what I should be doing. I've done a Windows install a few times before though, so I think I should be ok 👍

Takes about 30 mins to clean install, it's not like it used to be.

 

[Fizzgig]

Takes about 30 mins to clean install, it's not like it used to be.

Hah, showing my age there I think! I remember windows installs taking most of the day! I also remember a time when there was no windows, just MS-DOS

 

[TonyCarter]

Those were the days...putting of reinstalling Windows because it would take like 4 hours for Windows to install and then another few running updates. Ah, I'm going to spend all afternoon reminiscing now

It still takes that long on some of the 'throwaway' laptops my cousins are always buying (i.e. those with really small/slow eMMC drives).

 

[Fizzgig]

Those were the days...putting of reinstalling Windows because it would take like 4 hours for Windows to install and then another few running updates. Ah, I'm going to spend all afternoon reminiscing now

Definitely! I am sitting here now amazed at how fast that install was. Took about 20 minutes. My first time using Windows 11, my old PC, that I haven't been able to upgrade for years (i5, GeForce 970) kept telling me it wasn't good enough for windows 11!

I do have another question though. I have two drives, one SSD for the main stuff, and then I added an 8TB drive for games. There's a folder on there called "BurnInTest test files", with two files in it, "~bittestD00001" and "~bittestD00002". They're taking up 1.29TB, is it safe to delete that folder? I'm assuming they're just left over from the tests they did on that drive.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Definitely! I am sitting here now amazed at how fast that install was. Took about 20 minutes. My first time using Windows 11, my old PC, that I haven't been able to upgrade for years (i5, GeForce 970) kept telling me it wasn't good enough for windows 11!

I do have another question though. I have two drives, one SSD for the main stuff, and then I added an 8TB drive for games. There's a folder on there called "BurnInTest test files", with two files in it, "~bittestD00001" and "~bittestD00002". They're taking up 1.29TB, is it safe to delete that folder? I'm assuming they're just left over from the tests they did on that drive.

You don't want games on an HDD, it's just too slow for modern games, it's best to get a dedicated M2 drive for games.

But yes, you can format the HDD, those are just remnants from the testing they've done.

 

[Steveyg]

Definitely! I am sitting here now amazed at how fast that install was. Took about 20 minutes. My first time using Windows 11, my old PC, that I haven't been able to upgrade for years (i5, GeForce 970) kept telling me it wasn't good enough for windows 11!

I do have another question though. I have two drives, one SSD for the main stuff, and then I added an 8TB drive for games. There's a folder on there called "BurnInTest test files", with two files in it, "~bittestD00001" and "~bittestD00002". They're taking up 1.29TB, is it safe to delete that folder? I'm assuming they're just left over from the tests they did on that drive.

Yeah most modern games are designed assuming you have an SSD running them. You'll notice some fairly significant problems with stuttering because a HDD just cant keep up with what the games are expecting

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Yeah most modern games are designed assuming you have an SSD running them. You'll notice some fairly significant problems with stuttering because a HDD just cant keep up with what the games are expecting

Even SATA SSD's have now been made a no no as it will severely bottleneck direct storage which is going to be fundamental as we move forwards

 

[Scott]

It's the pricing of SSDs that don't make any sense now, for me at least. I would always spend an extra couple of £ to get an M2 drive, the performance difference is huge.

 

[Fizzgig]

Well, I've just been playing Jedi Survivor on this new PC for about 2 hours, with settings at Epic, and ray tracing turned on. And it ran perfectly, no stuttering. Which is what I wanted. So I'm pleased.