Web Talk

Sometimes after booting  your computer up, Windows 7 hangs and gets  stuck on the welcome screen or login screen. This is a very frequent issue which affects a lot of users and tends to show up even after you  restart the machine. Behind this failure there are a lot of causes. Some of them are well known such as VMWare (Virtual machine) installation while other ones are more difficult to spot. Despite Windows 7 is a pretty stable and robust operating system, it is still affected by some of the old bugs and issues common to all Windows OS such as for example the Blue Screen of Death also known as BSOD. This article will try to analyze some solution to this issue by showing you simple solution which in most cases  get unnoticed as they may be a little obvious.  I won’t talk about problems which involve Windows 7 that stops on Welcome Screen after installation of incompatible software such as antivirus, antispyware etc. as the only thing to do in these cases is to remove the offending software or application.

Faulty Driver

If you bought a printer,  scanner,  mouse,  keyboard or another piece of hardware for your computer maybe that could be the issue. In fact, the driver to connect it to your Windows 7 could be responsible for the frequent hangs and stops your Windows OS experiences at startup. Just try to remove the driver and the hardware, restart your machine and see if you notice any difference.

Messy Patches or Hotfixes

If you computer is set to download hotfixes from Microsoft servers automatically or you downloaded one of the latest fixes for your computer maybe you ran into the computer freeze problem. Sometimes Windows patches meant to solve a incompatibility problems or fix a security bug  arise other problems mostly due to incompatibility with software installed on your computer. Uninstall the hotfixes one by one and see if Windows 7 manages to overcome the login screen successfully.

Power Outage

If your computer experienced a power outage  or it was turn off in a irregular way (improper shutdown) then you should take into consideration that a portion of its hard disk may be corrupted. Leaving aside the cases where some hard disk sectors are irreversibly corrupted, you can try to fix it with the following procedure.

1. Click Start.
2. In the Search field (or Run… if you have Windows Vista or XP) Type cmd and press Enter.
3. The Command prompt window should appear on your screen.
4. Now, type chkdsk /f    and press  Enter.
5. This command will analyze your hard disk and will also try to fix corrupted or bad sectors.

To protect your computer from Power Outages you should buy a UPS  system (Uninterruptible Power Supply)

Unknown Reasons

If you can’t  get the right cause of your problem and your Windows still hangs and stop at the logon screen, then you should try to use the StartUp repair utility which comes embedded in your Windows system. Have a look at this article which talks and explain what the StartUp Repair utility is.

Additionally, you can try to follow these two mini guides and see if they work for you:

Please check whether you get the stuck issue while logged in the safe mode. Maybe a not well coded software (incompatible application)  or a corrupted or not compatible driver is causing the freezing issue. Boot your computer into  safe mode and have a check. If you are able to successfully boot in safe mode, then you can try a clean boot and see if you can find the problem.

First Guide

1. Boot up your computer.
2. Keep pressing the F8 key on the keyboard repeatedly as soon as the computer starts. This will let you gain access to the Windows 7 Advanced Boot Options screen.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the Safe Mode option.
4. Press the Enter on the keyboard to boot into Windows 7 Safe Mode.
5. The computer will restart letting you gain access to the Windows 7  Safe mode.
6. Try to open some applications and see if everything is OK. Also, this is the right time to backup your important files in case you won’t be able to gain access to your computer after this test. Now reboot your PC again. This will restart your computer in Normal Mode.

Second Guide

Perform a Clean Boot Troubleshooting method to see what application is causing the stuck issue.

1. Click Start. Now, type msconfig in the Search field under the Start menu (or Run… if you have Windows Vista or XP), and then press Enter.
User Account Control permission.
2. Under the General tab, Choose the Selective Startup.
3. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup items check box.
4. Click the Services tab, click  Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
5. Click OK.
6. If prompted, click Restart.
7. Check if your computer manages to overcome the Welcome Screen.
8. After you have done with the troubleshooting procedure, follow these steps to let the computer start in Normal Mode.
9. Click Start, type msconfig.exe in the Start Search box, press Enter.
10. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue. Under the General tab, click the Normal Startup option, and click OK.
11. Restart the computer.