Winsetup.dll error while booting

[Brian_99]

Hey guys,

I have a slightly older laptop I was hoping to pass along to a friend, a Dell Inspiron 7559 running Windows 10. I went into settings and started a factory clean install in order to reset the computer before I handed it over. It's now been running in a startup loop for several hours, giving me the Dell loading screen, then sending an error message (Windows could not load the required WinSetup.dll. File may be corrupt or missing. Error code 0x45A) and restarting the process. Dell Support Assist ran a scan of my computer after rebooting a couple times and confirmed all the hardware is in working order. Currently, the only thing I can access on that computer it the BIOS Setup, everything else is unreachable. Suggestions?

 

[Shektron]

If you have the product key written somewhere, just create a bootable USB for Windows 10 and use that to boot.

 

[Brian_99]

I may have screwed myself on this one, but no, I failed to write down the product key for Windows 10. Is it possible to recover it from BIOS? I believe that is where it is stored since Microsoft started encrypting and hiding them since Windows 8.

 

[Shektron]

I may have screwed myself on this one, but no, I failed to write down the product key for Windows 10. Is it possible to recover it from BIOS? I believe that is where it is stored since Microsoft started encrypting and hiding them since Windows 8.

If there is, I don't know about. It's best you start a new thread, so that someone more knowing about Windows 10 may help you out...