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Fix PIN / Sign-In Issues After Disabling Hyper-V

Restore access to Windows if your PIN or Windows Hello stops working after disabling Hyper-V.

Use this guide if you cannot sign in to Windows after disabling Hyper-V with our .bat file. This is a rare and very specific issue. If your Windows sign-in works normally, you can skip this guide.

Important

This process modifies the Windows Registry from the recovery environment. Follow every step carefully and do not change any values other than the one specified in this guide.

Open Registry Editor from Windows Recovery

  1. On the Windows lock screen, click the Power icon in the bottom-right corner.

  2. Hold down the Shift key and click Restart.

  3. Keep holding Shift until the Windows Recovery screen appears.

  4. Select Troubleshoot.

  5. Select Advanced options.

  6. Open Command Prompt.

  7. Enter the following command:

regedit

  1. Press Enter to open Registry Editor.

Load the Windows Registry Hive

Because Windows is not running normally in the recovery environment, you must load its registry manually.

  1. In Registry Editor, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the left pane.

  2. Click File in the top menu.

  3. Select Load Hive…

  4. Locate the drive containing your Windows installation.

  5. Open the following folder:

Windows\System32\config

  1. Select the file named:

SOFTWARE

  1. Click Open.

  2. When asked to enter a key name, enter:

msoftware

  1. Click OK.

Note

Your Windows installation may use a different drive letter in the recovery environment. If you receive a “Cannot Load” error, follow the troubleshooting section at the bottom of this guide.

Disable Forced PIN Sign-In

  1. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the left pane.

  2. Open the newly loaded msoftware key.

  3. Navigate to:

msoftware\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device

  1. Select the Device key.

  2. In the right pane, double-click DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion.

  3. Change Value data from 2 to 0.

  4. Click OK.

Important

Do not modify any other registry keys or values.

Unload the Registry Hive and Restart

  1. In the left pane, select the msoftware key.

  2. Click File in the top menu.

  3. Select Unload Hive…

  4. Click Yes to confirm.

  5. Close Registry Editor.

  6. Close Command Prompt.

  7. Select Continue to boot into Windows normally.

You should now be able to open Sign-in options and use your Microsoft account password instead of the unavailable PIN or Windows Hello method.

Cannot Load the SOFTWARE Hive

If you receive the following error:

Cannot Load X:\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

The X: drive contains the Windows Recovery Environment and is not your actual Windows installation.

  1. Click OK to close the error.

  2. In the Load Hive file browser, select This PC.

  3. Check the available drives, such as C:, D:, or E:.

  4. Find the drive containing your actual Windows installation. It should have a large storage capacity and normally contain the following folders:

Program Files
Users
Windows

  1. Open:

Windows\System32\config

  1. Select the SOFTWARE file.

  2. Click Open.

  3. Enter the following key name:

msoftware

  1. Click OK.

  2. Return to Disable Forced PIN Sign-In and continue from there.

Note

The correct path should look similar to C:\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE. The drive letter may be different, but it must not be X:.

Fix PIN / Sign-In Issues After Disabling Hyper-V | synthera docs