I just had a discovery that maybe can save some others some grief.
I hadn’t done Windows 10 updates in a while, and needed to in order to install the latest video driver for my system. So, I did all the Windows updates, but after that Cubase (nor Cakewalk) would start up. They would begin to start but then an installer would appear saying “Preparing to Install”, and just sit there.
I found it was because I had to reinstall my audio interface drivers (Steinberg UR44).