Windows 10: Preparing to install every time I open file explorer or call command prompt as admin

I needed to update Windows, but the updater told me of a conflict with McAfee Endpoint Security

provided by my uni, so the corporate version, I guess. I tried to uninstall that but failed completely,

it just wouldn't uninstall. Eventually I tried Windows Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter

which happily reported back that it succeeded uninstalling all components of McAfee. However,

on restart I discovered that McAfee was still running, it just disappeared from the list of installed

programs.


What's worse, now whenever I click on file explorer or try to run command prompt as administrator,

this immediately causes a little Windows Installer window to pop up with "Preparing to install" in it

and this freezes all other functions. Whether this fails after a long while or whether I interrupt it,

this behavior restarts right away just as soon as I try to hit file explorer or command prompt works

in the usual regime, but not as admin. It also starts by itself sometimes. Starting the computer

in the safe mode does not help either--same behavior.


Would appreciate a good advice--I am at the end of my tether. Need this HP laptop for work

from home.

:)

 

File Explorer not opening via pinned Taskbar icon on Windows 10

Hi Leon,



Thank you for posting on Microsoft Community. I understand the inconvenience you faced. I apologies for delay in reply. I will certainly help you with this.

I suggest you to unpin the File explorer from the task bar and re-pin the File Explorer and check If issue is resolved. If issue persist, I suggest you to follow the below given steps and check if it helps:



I suggest you to run System file checker. System File checker (SFC) scan is done to check if there are any corrupted system files that could be causing this issue. Kindly follow the below given steps:

• Press Windows key + X, select
  Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.
• In Command prompt type sfc/scannow and press enter.
• Restart the computer.

If no corrupted system files were found in the previous state, then I suggest you to try the following steps:

• Open command prompt by pressing Windows key + X and selecting “Command prompt admin”.
• In command prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each command:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

• Close the command prompt and restart the PC and check if it works.

Hope this information helps. Please post back with the results, we will be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.

 

command prompt will not open in safe mode with command prompt

Would I just follow the same steps within safe mode after hooking up to the other system?

 

command prompt will not open in safe mode with command prompt

I am repairing a laptop for a friend and I need to access windows in safe mode and the owner has forgotten the password to the main user. I tried logging on with the administrator profile in safe mode but it is not showing up so I was going to use command prompt in safe mode with command prompt but command prompt will not open when I boot that option. Does anyone have any hints for me to figure this out?