Accidentally Uninstalled Biometric using Device Manager and its not coming back

Anonymous
2019-01-10T04:37:08+00:00

Hello,

I seem to have permanently deleted the "biometric devices" category in the Device Manger. Windows Hello using a biometric device no longer works. 

I have a home built desktop with a Mouse Cm-01a Window Hello camera. It was working very well for about a year. Some combination of the 1809 update and new AMD Graphics Card Drivers stopped it from working consistently.

I began trying to roll back graphics card drivers and do other troubleshooting. I even performed a recovery and it did not solve the issue. I read that I could uninstall the camera and have Windows reinstall the drivers. When this didn't work, I attempted to uninstall biometric devices and have it reinstall the divers. Unfortunately this category has never returned.

Now my Window Hello setting in Sign-in options says "Face and fingerprint recognition are not available on this device".

I have tried a lot of the steps you would see from other troubleshooting sites (edit group policy settings, restart the Windows Biometric Service), but no luck. 

I'm at my wits end here. I would rather not have to do another restore (that state wasn't working perfectly well as it was). Perhaps I have to do a Repair Install. Let me know if I have any other options (or if I just need to bite the bullet). Thanks!

Here are some system stats:

Processor: Intel i5-4690

RAM 16 GB

OS: Windows 10 Pro

Version: 1809

Build: 17763.253 (I am in the release preview track)

GPU: Radeon RX 580 Series (XFX brand)

Radeon Software Version: 18.40.21.06

Edit: Some of the responses have asked that I contact the manufacturer. Unfortunately, that would be me since this is a home-built desktop. I will see if I can find anything through Intel or ASRock (motherboard manufacturer).

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-10T10:13:01+00:00

    Thanks a lot, thanks a lot, and a bit more. This absolutely worked. What you should have added was how to cd. Most people do not know how to do that. Just type cd and enter C:\Windows\System32\WinBioPlugIns\FaceDriver and hit enter.

    And, by the way, thanks again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-10-25T04:01:59+00:00

    This is not working for me. I have installed from the helloface file, got a message saying the operation was successful. Then, I scanned for hardware changes in device manager. But still, I could find the biometrics option. Please help.

    Specs:

    Surface Pro 5

    Intel core i5, 7th gen.

    16 GB RAM

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-10-24T18:31:08+00:00

    Thank you soooo much for this advice. I did it and everything was immediately back to normal. Didn't have to search for files or worry about losing my documents! BTW this also resets windows hello and made it work again. My problems started when I was trying to fix it with the device manager.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-09-26T00:05:00+00:00

    Thanks this fixed my issue.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-09-14T02:06:15+00:00

    I got it to work again. Hallelujah

    Hi Mike, what did you do to make it work?

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