Accidentally Uninstalled Biometric using Device Manager and its not coming back

Anonymous

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).

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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114 answers

Anonymous

2020-04-01T14:26:22+00:00

Thank you Smittychat.

You helped me think straight.

Contacting the manufacturer helped me go straight to their site.

And i found the drivers to download for my Windows Hello Face.

Thnak you very much.
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Anonymous

2020-03-25T08:25:56+00:00

I tried every solutions here but nothing works.

Luckily I suddenly remembered the good old fashioned Windows Recovery.. and it was fixed! :D

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Recovery
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Anonymous

2020-03-08T18:09:46+00:00

This fixed the issue! Thank you so much for the fix! Great day.
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Anonymous

2020-02-18T23:24:54+00:00

FWIW, after the last major Windows 10 update, back in November, 2019, or thereabout, my Biometric Devices folder reappeared in Device Manager. Before that, nothing short of a Windows reinstall would return the Biometric Devices folder, and doing a Windows reinstall just wasn't worth it to me just to get Hello Face back.

However, even though the Biometric Devices folder is back and I again have the Windows Hello Face setup available in Sign-in Options, I still have the original problem where the camera doesn't turn on in the setup screen. Note that all my drivers are up-to-date, and Hello Face worked fine at one time. The camera works fine with everything except Hello Face. Maybe it will work on my next computer. :)
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Anonymous

2020-02-18T23:06:23+00:00

Did you go to the top in Device Manager and Scan for hardware changes?

Hi there,

I did everything as advised and suggested in this thread. I am just stuck with the fact that I am unable to install the helloface.inf as mine is a .DLL file.

Not sure what to do...
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