Hello there! Or, maybe not this time around! In a development that Obi-Wan Kenobi would certainly not be proud of, there are reports that the Windows 11 2022 Update is breaking down Windows Hello.
This is another feature that the first feature update for the OS is not playing nicely with.
And Microsoft itself has confirmed this.
According to the latest from the software giant, users rocking the 22H2 release could experience problems with Windows Hello authentication, with the various sign-in methods for the feature like face recognition, fingerprint, or regular PIN not working as intended.
Redmond makes clear that this new bug affects folks that set up Windows Hello before installing the Windows 11 2022 Update. The problem will not surface for those that have enabled Windows Hello after upgrading to this newest version of Windows 11.
But there is a bit of a silver lining amidst all this, if you will.
That being the fact that botched Windows Hello does not result in users fully locked-out of their systems. Windows 11, as you can imagine, falls back to Microsoft Account or those good old offline account passwords if it finds the feature unavailable.
That said, Microsoft has applied a compatibility hold to protect users from what is very much a frustrating experience. Meaning, affected systems will not get the Windows 11 2022 Update until the company provides a permanent fix to this pesky problem.
As for when that will happen, there is a timeline. Microsoft plans to remove the safeguard sometimes in the middle of October 2022, but you can expect the bugfix to arrive in the Patch Tuesday updates that arrive today.
Good thing is that you can bypass this particular problem by installing KB5017389, which the keenest mind among you may recall is the first optional cumulative update that the company is testing for Windows 11 22H2.
Nevertheless, Windows Hello has joined the growing list of known issues in Microsoft’s latest operating system. Which is why it might be better to not force the update, wait it out and stay on the initial version of the OS until the company gets a better handle on things.
