Picture Password not working: Shows gesture input but nothing happens.

Question

We have a user that has a picture password set for her domain profile. When she tries to use it, she can see the gestures being put in, but nothing happens. She doesn't get an error message that the input was incorrect or anything. It just let's her continuously put in the gestures. This is on a domain joined Dell Precision workstation (not a touchscreen laptop or anything, so touch wouldn't be the issue).

There are no GPOs causing the issue; we've already checked. For instance, no setting has been applied to the Interactive Logon: Do Not Display Last User Name group policy, etc. No registry changes that could have caused the issue have been made either.

I've tried several fixes, such as clearing out the picture password folder in her %APPDATA% and using a different picture. Nothing has helped. We had a different user a few months ago have the same issue happen, and the only fix we could find was to completely remove and recreate their account profile. I'm hoping not to do the same for this user. A system restore is also out of the question.

Has anyone else run into this situation before with any suggestions? Perhaps a certain folder or setting to check / clear?

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for your question and reaching out.

I understand that you're having issues with the Windows picture password. Have you tried checking this registry path Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System and see if the BlockDomainPicturePassword: REG_DWORD has a value of 0?

If yes, it is really possible that the current user profile is faulty so you might want to consider creating a new user profile then transfer the files from Windows C > Users folder. If you don't prefer doing so for now, I recommend performing a repair installation process. This is a repair installation process that will repair your Windows system and at the same time fix all the possible corruptions and complete missing components - that could cause the issue.

If you're using a Windows 10 device, you may follow the steps below:

1. Visit the site below to start downloading the Media Creation Tool. We will use Internet Explorer to download in this guide. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
2. Watch this video to perform an in-place upgrade. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/videoplayer/embed/RE201WL

If you're running Windows 11, you may follow the steps from this link https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-run-in-place-upgrade-in-windows-11/4d469147-2747-4dcb-88a4-aae9273a4500

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