Windows 10 installation stuck at Just a moment

Question

I am trying to install Windows 10 on my old HP Envy laptop, but it is stuck at the "Just a moment" screen; I waited for a long time for it to proceed, but it didn't, so I restarted my machine and even if my bootable USB is plugged in, it goes straight back to the same "Just a moment" screen.

I am trying to restart the installation by booting to the USB installer, but I think the installer has updated the boot settings to boot from hard disk. After restarting, I have tried to CTRL, F2, F10, F10, ESC, but nothing works.

How do I access the BIOS settings to change the boot sequence?

Solution

When Windows 10 installs, it by default sets Fast Boot as Enabled. Fast Boot uses sort of Hybrid Sleep internally but may come with its own disadvantage that Firmware access by means of keyboard interface may not be active during startup. Generally Restarts are not supposed to be affected though.

To access Firmware on a Windows 10 PC with Fast Boot ON, generally you have to go to Windows 10 Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery --> Advanced Startup and let it Boot to Firmware Setup.

In this particular case, Windows 10 install was interrupted and with Fast Boot possibly enabled, it was skipping the Firmware Setup (BIOS/UEFI) access. One possible approach could have been to let it nullify the fast boot/startup by completely removing the laptop battery and removing any residual power by long press power button for 20 - 30 seconds. This may hopefully cause the laptop to boot normally when you do a cold start next time.

As confirmed by OP, this trick worked and OP could gain access to BIOS.

This only addresses 'How to access the BIOS?' part of the question. The other issue in the title of the topic, whereby installation is stuck at 'Just a Moment' may have other reasons and might even need BIOS update for successful Windows 10 install.

Comments

[Tetsujin]

"I waited for a long time" .. how long? So many times people think this should be 10 minutes, when in fact it can be 'overnight' on a slow machine with spinny rust HD.

[Haris]

a few hours like 3 to 4 hours. i have i7 with 16gb ram and SSD drive

[Admin]

Try to repeatedly press the Esc key right after pressing the Power button. This should interrupt the boot sequence long enough for you to press F10 and enter the BIOS. (Sometimes, you have to keep your finger on the Esc key instead of pressing it several times; try both)

[patkim]

Do you have easy access to remove the Laptop Battery? If so, disconnect the power plug, remove the battery and re-insert, then long press power button for 30 seconds to drain any residual power and try again. This is just to nullify the effects of Fast Boot if Windows 10 during its whatever partial installation it did, configured it that way. Just a thought though.

[JW0914]

There's likely an error causing the install to hang... is this a clean install or an upgrade (if the latter, it's likely driver related, as many OEM Windows <=8 drivers are not compatible with Windows 10; to resolve, clean install). You'll want to check the install logs from WinPE [the installation media]: once setup GUI loads, press SHIFT+F10 to open a terminal, then notepad <file path> (OS partition is normally not C: in WinPE - variables like %WinDir% will not work)

[Haris]

thanks everyone for your help, @patkim's solution did the trick for me. Please add your answer and i will select it as the right one. thanks again!