Fingerprint reader not working on Windows 11: "This option is currently unavailable"

Reported
Anonymous
2021-11-28T21:29:19+00:00

I recently got a Dell Inspiron with Windows 11 preloaded. The fingerprint reader was working fine at first, but now it appears to not be working with windows hello. The option to add a finger or remove the fingerprint are greyed out and not clickable.

I've seen posts about this issue in Windows 10, but the fixes aren't working for me.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Accounts, profiles, and login

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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  1. Anonymous
    2022-06-04T08:43:49+00:00

    Try disabling Core Isolation Memory Integrity and restarting. It's the only thing that worked for me.

    Open Windows Security, then Device Security -> Core isolation details -> Memory Integrity. Turn that off. Restart and see if it works. After I configured my fingerprint reader I was able to re-enable it and my fingerprint reader kept working.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-05-13T07:49:39+00:00

    So, you going through this whole process of setting up a new account and all of a sudden the fingerprint option is back just shows us all that this is a Windows problem, not a device problem, not a driver problem, not a third party problem but a totally in house Microsoft problem. What are they going to do about it?

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-08T00:59:52+00:00

    Here's what I did. I've got a Samsung Galaxy S notebook/laptop with the Snapdragon mobile chipset instead of an Intel, wifi one. I upgraded to Windows 11 and shortly thereafter the fingerprint scanner went kaput (stopped working). I actually posted on here earlier in the year about my issue, but thank God it was resolved before any replies came in.

    Try this if you haven't. First put Windows into troubleshooting mode, which may or may not spot the issue. Do a hard reboot (diff ways, but I just hold the power button on for like 10 seconds, and it'll cycle on, off, and on again). Go into Windows Hello settings and remove all fingerprints that you had saved. Do another hard rebooting, then go back to Windows Hello (fingerprint/security) and rescan your fingerprints. After this you may need to power off/power on PC, and then hopefully you'll be at the sign-in screen and can use your fingerprint.

    I hope this helps. From my understanding Windows tries to reinstall/update drivers through Windows Updates AND when you do a hard (or maybe it's considered soft?) reboot. Have a little patience, as you may have to do this a couple times (rebooting, uninstalling / reinstalling fingerprints) because I did. It would let me get halfway through scanning my fingerprint and then just quit accepting input, not sure why, I'm not a technician, but this way worked for me. Theres also some great other fixes in this thread as well.

    God bless my friend!

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-02-21T04:58:34+00:00

    Hello my name Septiana,

    i have the same problem my fingerprint can not use, i have try to open my device manager and biometric devices but there's no update driver

    then what should i do to fix it?

    thank you

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-02-08T18:51:13+00:00

    Hi Calro,

    Tried your steps of using the old driver, still the fingerprint reader did not show up, then I followed other steps updating the driver and restarting... damnnn it worked like a charm :D so happy about it now finally!!!!

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