Many persistent errors in Event Viewer after Windows 11 build 22598.ni_release.220408-1503: "Autopilot.dll wil error was reported"

Question

I used to be part of the the Windows 11 Insider Beta channel. After updating to build 22598.ni_release.220408-1503 I began to see the same error in Event Viewer extremely frequently:

The errors are all the same and read as follows:

Autopilot.dll WIL error was reported.

HRESULT: 0x80070491

File: onecoreuap\admin\moderndeployment\autopilot\dll\dllmain.cpp, line 128

Message: NULL

I have never used any program called Autopilot or Modern Deployment. After seeing this problem I immediately left the insider program and am now queued for enrollment. However no new Windows update has happened and these errors persist. How do I prevent these errors?

Answer 1

This only began for me a few weeks ago when I upgraded to Win11. I'd been running Win10 22H2 since July (KB5015878) but I'd had a change to read about changes in Win11 22H2 and thought I would give it a go. **** I was disappointed with several things which is content for another post elsewhere. So I decided to roll back to Win10 22H2 and have been having this come up frequently ever since. I've already reported it but thought I would share here as well in case and maybe hash through some ideas for those interested in really trying to sort it out.

I really don't care to see more people writing nonsense like "They just need to fix it" because it just isn't that simple. To illustrate that point, and for a sanity check, my girlfriend has a 2 yr old HP beast and it's not on her machine either. She keeps telling me that the problem with my machine is ME. She's right in a way. My sister and her boyfriend....not there either. My daughter? No. My son? AHA..... There it is. He has a 10th gen Acer Nitro 7.

So it's not a simple problem.

What I've done is dug out my old Fujitsu T938 (Intel Core i7 8th gen) and did a clean install of Win10 Pro and well, the problem didn't present there either. So I'm gonna say this. Depending on your usage and how far from factory you are, a factory reset may solve the problem.

On the Fujitsu my plan was to install things and check for the error and eventually I should run into it. Simple, right? lol

Well, I had a thought a little while ago and if it's right, I'm not going to run into the problem. So rather than test on that machine, I'm going to test on this one. I've seen all the websites coming up pointing out that disabling certain things "fixes" the problem, but I think that's consequential and if I'm right, many people are barking up the wrong tree.

Stepping back to my peculiar run-in with this, as I said, I didn't have this error until I installed Win11. I don't know exactly when however. I had a number of things go wrong, mostly playing with manual registry edits while multitasking and not backing up the registry... I know... I should know better... I started having problems that were flaky. I thought they had to do with some custom tools installed that were supposed to make 11 work a little more like 10. (I want my double-stack taskbar with quicklaunch and if they don't put it back, I'm gonna hold out for Win12). I thought these things were the problem so I removed them, then downgraded back to Win10 but still had a few bizarre problems. I went to the event log and found this and a few other issues. I corrected the rest but this one remains. Meanwhile I have weird things that happen like a random occasional error on the SSD, USB ports that drop and reconnect, the screen face recognition going momentarily blind I guess and locking the screen 10-15 seconds after I stop typing....once every 4-6 hours. It's weird, intermittent, and flaky.

Dllmain.cpp is an entry point. It's shared among a number of programs. Used by Open Shell Menu Manager, Process Explorer, heck, UltraSearch turns up 11 copies. Most are 0 bytes but a couple are .1MB. So not only is the file being called during the error an issue but where it calls it from.

As I sat and pondered what's different between the machines, one thing dawned on me. To support various pieces of software that I use, I have a boatload of .Net distributables installed which on upgrade to Win11 were causing problems.

So i suspect that these libraries being installed in win10 was making my system work properly. I have a batch script that I wrote a long time ago that installs and sets up a lot of stuff on new machines and saves me time. But with dotnet included my other laptop seems to be just fine. My son does a lot of gaming and has several installed as well. He upgraded to 11 and has the same issue. My daughter, girlfriend, and parents though do NOT have dotnet installed and have no trouble.

That sounds confusing. Basically, I'm wondering if certain dotnet libraries are getting corrupted and this is the source of the problem. Mine would have corrupted during upgrade or downgrade. My son - about the same.

So I'm gonna slowly go through and re-install a lot of software today and tomorrow. If something fixes it I'll pass it on. Meanwhile it would be interesting to know what other software and addins are common if anyone cares to share. ....I may make a public spreadsheet tonight for that if others would be interested in such a comparison.

Machine	Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga X1 Gen5
Model	20UB0067US
Processor	Intel Core i5-1021)U (4 cores, 8 logical processors)
BIOS	Lenovo N2WET37W (1.27 ), 7/4/202
Bios Mode	UEFI
RAM	16GB
Secure Boot?	Yes
OS	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (22H2)
Version	10.0.19045
Build	19045
Hardware Abstraction Layer	Version = "10.0.19041.1806"

Answer 2

I had a total of 3 green screens today, all during video calls using Edge. I didn't have similar issues before, but also did not use this particular computer as extensively (using private PC due to unexpected home office).

Will use Chrome tomorrow to see if the situation changes.

I'm on 22623.741 and the event log is full of Autopilot.dll errors (~600 today), also just before the green screens happened.

Answer 3

Dude, this is scary.

For weeks now I have had the same problem. My PC would crash (without log entry), play sound for a few seconds and then reboot to a black screen. I had to kill the PC and do a cold start to get it working again. I replaced my GPU and mainboard and still get the crashes. Sometimes when I do something basic on my Desktop, but when playing games always after a few seconds to minutes.

Then I saw all those autopilot error messages in event viewer and suspected it has to do with that, but it seems my problem might be power related, too, since my PC just goes into emergency mode and shuts itself down, before even being able to write a minidump or even a log entry.

I'm getting a new high quality PSU and hope that will fix it.

Answer 4

I'm also getting this error; "Autopilot.dll WIL error was reported.

HRESULT: 0x80070491

File: onecoreuap\admin\moderndeployment\autopilot\dll\dllmain.cpp, line 128

Message: NULL"

It started when I went to windows 11 22H2. Since then I received the cumulative update and still exists.

Need to know what to do to prevent this error.

Answer 5

Over 6 months since this thread started - still no response I have seen from Microsoft - par for the course. We are only mere users - why should MS care about problems we are suffering due to their actions.