Windows 10: Diagnostic Mode "Something happened and your PIN isn't available" Boot Loop - Cannot Login

I have restarted my laptop enabling diagnostic boot and then my laptop cannot be opened from lock screen and It says "something went wrong you pin is not available". watching one YouTube video ,I have created an new local account and I logged in .Now It just opens file explorer and I can see my files from my locked account. Nothing else is working .

:)

 

Diagnostic Mode "Something happened and your PIN isn't available" Boot Loop - Cannot Login (SOLUTION)

Does not seem to work on the latest version of windows. New install and updated yesterday. Today I wanted to do a diagnostic start and ended up in the same loop.

On step 13 nothing happens, no command prompt or the Utilman, rebooting back into that explorer window from step 7 shows that the Utilman (now the cmd disguised) ends up deleted. Microsoft must have put some checks. I was able to restore a cmd version from the x: drive, and repeated the steps but the result is the same: the fake Utilman gets erased.

 

Diagnostic Mode "Something happened and your PIN isn't available" Boot Loop - Cannot Login (SOLUTION)

Huge thank you for taking the time to post your pain to help others, really appreciated.

I was helping my son with an unrelated win11 issue, I tweaked a win11 boot setting to hopefully help progress diagnosis and fell into exactly this pin boot loop issue.

Your post dug me out of the hole I had fallen in. We can login again without needing any reinstall. Thank you.

 

Diagnostic Mode "Something happened and your PIN isn't available" Boot Loop - Cannot Login (SOLUTION)

=> I hope these will be helpful notes to not_a_bot1001’s post with his/her fantastic solution to the “Something happened, and your PIN isn’t available” error/logon loop. Cannot thank him/her enough.



=> These notes basically give further detail and show the minor changes that show up in Windows 11 Preview. Incredible thank you again to not_a_bot1001. Excellent solution.

=> Everything not_a_bot1001 posted is accurate. This is just a little icing on the cake.

=> Notations 2021-12-08, are based on Windows Preview build: 22509.1011, Feature Experience Pack 1000.22509.1011.0.

• Step 1 Alternative: On Lock Screen where the error message says "PIN is unavailable", click on Power Button in bottom right corner. Then, before doing anything, hold down the Shift key. While holding Shift key down, click on Restart. This should reboot the computer and take you to the “Choose an Option” Recovery screen.
  

• Step 3 Additional Detail: On “Choose a Recovery” screen, click on Troubleshoot, then click on Advanced Options, then below the icons in the list, click on “See more recovery options”. Clicking this will take you to a screen with a “System Image Recovery” button.
  

• Step 7 Additional Detail: The file explorer window will open in the temp X: drive created by the System Re-Image program. The “Look In” field defaults to Boot X:\Windows\System32. This is not the folder you want. Go to step 8.
  

• Step 8 Explorer Details: In the Explorer window, after you click This PC, you will have a list of drives on the system. Explorer will assign default letters to them, so the C: drive may have a different letter. Look for name of your boot drive, usually System or Local Disc or whatever you may have renamed it to. Start searching in this drive in the Windows\System32 folder for Utilman. (The suffix (.exe) may not show in this mode. File extensions is usually turned off by default here.)
  

Not a good idea to try typing the name, Utilman, in the File Name field. It will not help you find the file. The only option there is to click Open, which, of course, will not work. Users, unfortunately, must scroll way, way down the list to find the file. (At least that’s how it worked on my machine today.)

• Step 13 Change for Windows 11: The Accessibility icon changed to a small figure of a person.
  

• Step 18 Alternative: You may need to un-hide file extensions and un-hide protected operating system files, not sure if necessary, but that's how I have my computer set.
  

In Advanced Security settings, Utilman and cmd are “Owned” by NT TrustedInstaller.

There is a useful freeware app from Sergey Tkachenko’s Winaero Tweaker website (TakeOwnershipEx) that will give you full access to individual files and restore them back to original permissions.

The TakeOwnerShipEx app gives user full permissions which will allow editing of file names without going through the process used to get here previously.

Goes without saying, but you also must be an Administrator.

Using TakeOwnerShipEx, take full access/permissions of one of the files. Next, change the file's name. Finally, use TakeOwnerShipEx to reset the permissions back first, before you go on to the next file or anything else.

IMPORTANT: If you use this method, not only do you need to check and make sure names are changed back correctly, but open Properties/Security/Advanced for each file and check that they are still Owned by TrustedInstaller before you end your session.

Details on how to manually take and restore permissions is here Take ownership of files and get full access in Windows 10

=> Again, not_a_bot1001, you are my hero! I've spent years trying to solve this. Thank you so much.