Why does diagnostic boot disable/break the PIN login

That did not work. It just removed my user login option. It boots up, I get to the wallpaper with the time, I click and the screen blurs, and typically I see an enter password sign, but there is nothing there but the 2 buttons on the bottom right one being the power/reset options. I tried it again to no avail.

I am just reloading windows now. This is an extremely big bug to leave in the wild and it seems like an easy thing to fix.

Hi, Michael,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue.

This is a known issue when you enable the "Diagnostic startup" in the msconfig, Windows disable all services including Windows Hello service, and run with only the basic services, this is why you have problems signing in on Windows with your PIN.

Renaming the NGC folder using the command prompt should remove all PIN settings and fix the problem.

1-Restart your computer while holding the SHIFT button

2-The Advanced Startup menu will open on the boot.

3-Go to Troubleshoot.

4-Now, go to Advanced Options >Command prompt

5-Run this command to take ownership of the folder:

icacls C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Ngc /T /Q /C /RESET

6-Run this command to rename the folder:

Ren C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Ngc Ngc.old

7-When finished close the command prompt then click to return to the first screen

8-Click to continue to normal boot

9-Then you should be able to sign in on Windows using your password

Another option that you can try if you haven't already tried is to use the System Restore and restore your computer to a previous point.

1-Restart your computer while holding the SHIFT button

2-The Advanced Startup menu will open on the boot.

3-Go to Troubleshoot.

4-Now, go to Advanced Options > System restore

5-Select a restore point and click on next to restore

If this option also fails, you will need to factory reset Windows it the option "Reset this PC"

1-Restart your computer while holding the SHIFT button

2-The Advanced Startup menu will open on the boot.

3-Go to Troubleshoot.

4-Click on "Reset this PC" and select the option "Keep my files"

You can see more information at this link in the section "Reset your PC".

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/rec...

Another option is to perform a custom installation of Windows. As long as you do not format the C: drive in the Setup, you will not lose your data, but they are moved to another location. After the installation, you can find a folder Windows.old in the root directory of C: drive. All your files are saved there.

Note: This procedure only will keep the personal files, all software and apps need to be reinstalled.

1-Create a USB device with an installation image.

You can create using the media creation tool, download it on this link.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

2-Enter on BIOS/UEFI and change to boot from the USB device.

3-Click "Install Now".

4- Type your product key or skip it. Usually, your computer will be activated automatically when it's connected to a network if you install the same version of Windows 10 as before.

5- Select the installation type "Custom".

6- Select the C: drive and click Next to proceed. Then, wait patiently until the installation is complete 100%.

Microsoft keeps working on updates to improve their products, sending your feedback in the Feedback Hub or finding feedback similar to yours and upvoting it, will help Microsoft to identify bugs and identify which features the users most want.

You can see how to send feedback in the Feedback Hub at this link.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/sen...

Some online tutorial indicates the option to enable the "Diagnostic startup" but this is not the right option when you are trying to identify if a third-party app is causing the problem. You need to use the "Clean boot" procedure instead of the "Diagnostic startup", you can see how to do it at this link.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-t...

I had the same problem. I was able to fix the problem and log in to Windows after following instructions in this 2021 post in this Microsoft answers forum:

Diagnostic Mode "Something happened and your PIN isn't available" Boot - Microsoft Community

The instructions are very well written. Probably due to newer Windows version, I had to modify a couple of steps.

• I needed my Bitlocker key to unlock the drive (device encryption was default enabled for my 2-year-old Dell laptop).
• Renaming files must now be done with the command line interface because the "install a driver" interface now limits enumerating anything except .inf files. Even manually entering a filename in the Explorer window will not work.

Is there any other way? I can only access "Startup Settings" in Advanced Options, so I cannot follow most of the instructions because I only have "Startup Settings" in Advanced Options.