How to Fix Windows 11 Stuck on Loading Screen or Spinning Circle (6 Ways)

"Stuck on loading" can mean several different screens. The fix depends on where Windows stops, so match yours first. It saves time and prevents unnecessary repairs.

Do not force a restart too early. If the screen says "Working on updates," shows a percentage or "Restarting," Windows is installing an update, which can take 30 to 60 minutes or longer, especially on a hard drive. If the drive light blinks or the fan is active, wait. A good rule of thumb is to wait up to an hour for update screens.

If you see only spinning dots with no update message and nothing has changed for 15 to 20 minutes, or there is no drive or fan activity for an hour in any case, Windows is likely stuck and it is time to act.

Time: 5 min  |  Best for: Spinning dots on the logo, device conflicts

This is the safest first step. A faulty USB drive, printer, dock, card reader or extra monitor can interrupt the handoff from firmware to Windows. Leftover memory data from a previous boot can also cause a hang, and a power drain clears it.

Steps

1. Hold the power button for about 10 seconds to turn the PC off.
2. Unplug the charger and every accessory: USB drives, external disks, printers, controllers, dongles, dock and extra monitors. Leave only the keyboard and mouse if needed.
3. On a laptop with a removable battery, take it out. Hold the power button for 30 seconds to drain leftover power, then reconnect the charger.
4. Disconnect from the internet by unplugging Ethernet. This stops a stuck update or network sign-in from delaying startup.
5. Start the PC. If it loads, plug devices back in one at a time to find the culprit.

Desktop PCs only

If the dots still spin, turn off and unplug the PC, open the case and reseat the RAM sticks firmly. Test one stick at a time if you have more than one.

Time: 2 min  |  Best for: Black screen or spinner after you sign in

If you can sign in but the desktop never appears (black screen, sometimes with a cursor), the Windows shell, explorer.exe, probably failed to start. You can start it by hand from Task Manager. Microsoft listed this as the temporary workaround for the black screen and desktop loading issue reported after recent 2026 updates (see the 2026 section below).

Steps

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc (or Ctrl + Alt + Delete → Task Manager).
2. Click Run new task (or File → Run new task).
3. Type explorer.exe, tick Create this task with administrative privileges if available and click OK.
4. If the desktop appears, go to Settings → Windows Update and install the latest updates so the problem does not return.

If it does not work

1. Press Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B to reset the graphics driver (you may hear a beep).
2. In Task Manager's Details tab, if explorer.exe is running but the screen is blank, right-click it, choose End task and run it again.
3. Sign out and back in, or restart from the Power icon on the sign-in screen.

Time: 5-15 min  |  Best for: Spinning dots at startup, repair loops

Startup Repair is Microsoft's first recommended tool when Windows will not start or keeps loading. It scans for missing or damaged boot components and tries to fix them. To use it, you first need the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).

Open Windows RE

1. Press the power button. When the Windows logo or spinning dots appear, hold the power button until the PC turns off.
2. Repeat two or three times until you see Preparing Automatic Repair and then the blue recovery screen.
3. If it never appears, boot from a Windows 11 USB drive (created on another PC with Microsoft's Installation Media tool) and choose Repair your computer.

Run Startup Repair

1. Choose Advanced options → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Repair.
2. Select your account, enter your password if asked and wait for the scan to finish.
3. Restart and test. If it says it could not repair your PC, go to Way 4 and Way 5.

Time: 10 min  |  Best for: Driver or software conflicts

Safe Mode loads Windows with only essential drivers and services. If Windows reaches the desktop in Safe Mode, a driver, program or startup item is causing the hang, and you can remove it from there.

Open Safe Mode

1. Open Windows RE (see Way 3).
2. Choose Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart.
3. Press 4 (Safe Mode), 5 (Safe Mode with Networking) or 6 (Safe Mode with Command Prompt).

What to do in Safe Mode

1. Uninstall recent software and drivers: open Settings → Apps → Installed apps, and use Device Manager to roll back the graphics, storage or network driver you updated recently.
2. Remove the latest update: Settings → Windows Update → Update history → Uninstall updates.
3. Turn off Fast Startup: Control Panel → Power Options → Choose what the power buttons do → Change settings that are currently unavailable, then clear Turn on fast startup.
4. Find what stops the boot: press Windows + R, type msconfig, open the Boot tab, tick Boot log, restart normally, and after it hangs again, read C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt from Safe Mode. The last entries name what was loading when it stopped.
5. Run a clean boot: in msconfig → Services, tick Hide all Microsoft services, click Disable all, then disable startup items in Task Manager's Startup apps. Re-enable them in small groups to find the cause.
6. Repair system files in an administrator Terminal:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

Time: 10-20 min  |  Best for: Problems that started after an update

If the problem began right after an update, removing it is the most effective fix. Windows RE can do this even when Windows will not start, and it does not delete your files or apps.

Uninstall the latest update

1. Open Windows RE (see Way 3).
2. Choose Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Uninstall Updates.
3. Select Uninstall latest quality update and confirm. If that does not help, repeat and choose Uninstall latest feature update.
4. Restart. If Windows Update tries to install the same update again, pause updates for a week once you are back on the desktop.

Use System Restore

1. In Windows RE choose Troubleshoot → Advanced options → System Restore.
2. Pick a restore point from before the problem started, click Scan for affected programs to see what will be removed, then confirm.
3. Your documents and photos stay, but apps and drivers installed after that restore point are removed.

Try Quick Machine Recovery

On Windows 11 24H2 and later, Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Quick machine recovery can connect to the internet from recovery (Ethernet works best) and apply a fix from Microsoft if one exists for a widespread problem.

Time: 20-60 min  |  Best for: Corrupt files, disk errors, boot configuration

If the earlier ways fail, repair the offline Windows installation from Command Prompt in Windows RE. Drive letters in recovery are often different from normal Windows, so first confirm which drive holds Windows.

Open Command Prompt

In Windows RE choose Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Command Prompt.

Find the Windows drive

diskpart
list volume
exit
dir C:\

Use the volume that contains the Windows and Users folders. It is often C: but may be D: or E:. Replace C: in the commands below if yours is different.

Repair disk errors and system files

chkdsk C: /f /r
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows
DISM /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Note that chkdsk /r can take hours on a large drive, so leave the PC plugged in.

Undo a stuck update

DISM /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions

Rebuild the boot files (UEFI PCs)

diskpart
list volume
select volume N      (the small FAT32 volume, N = its number)
assign letter=S
exit
bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI

If your PC uses legacy BIOS, you can also run bootrec /scanos and bootrec /rebuildbcd. On UEFI systems bootrec /fixboot often shows "Access is denied," so bcdboot is the better choice. Restart when finished.

If none of the ways above work, protect your data before doing anything drastic. From Command Prompt in Windows RE you can copy files to a USB drive without starting Windows.

Copy files to a USB drive

xcopy C:\Users\YourName\Documents E:\Backup\Documents /E /I /H /C
xcopy C:\Users\YourName\Desktop E:\Backup\Desktop /E /I /H /C
xcopy C:\Users\YourName\Pictures E:\Backup\Pictures /E /I /H /C

Replace YourName with your user folder and E: with the USB drive letter shown in list volume. If the drive is BitLocker-encrypted, unlock it first with manage-bde -unlock C: -RecoveryPassword YOUR-48-DIGIT-KEY.

Reset or reinstall

1. In Windows RE choose Troubleshoot → Reset this PC → Keep my files. Choose Cloud download if local files may be damaged.
2. If Reset fails, boot from a Windows 11 USB drive and do a clean install.
3. If the new install also hangs or the drive disappears, the SSD or hard drive may be failing and should be replaced.

Check whether your problem started after one of these updates. Microsoft's Windows release health page has the latest status for your version. The details below are from Microsoft statements reported in the press, and article details such as KB numbers can differ between sources, so verify the one that matches your build.

Quick hardware checks

1. Open the BIOS/UEFI setup (often F2, F10, Del or Esc at power-on) and confirm the internal drive is listed.
2. Check that the first boot device is Windows Boot Manager.
3. Run the maker's built-in diagnostics (many Dell, HP and Lenovo PCs have a hardware test at startup).