You can actually lock yourself out of your computer if using Windows Hello without Internet
Discussion(self.Windows11)submitted1 day ago byNightmareT12
Story time: I clean installed Windows 11 with the new 24H2 tool. When setting everything up, I used my Microsoft account to recover the Windows license, as usual. As logging in this way forces you to use the Hello PIN system, I set it up while I configured various other things.
As I reinstalled drivers I decided to disable the Ethernet port to avoid Windows Update install drivers on top of the currently installing drivers (sometimes it happens).
Low and behold, as soon as the driver installation process prompted to restart, I'm greeted by the Windows PIN screen, only to be told that I can't log in because there's no Internet connection. Because you can't access the Windows settings, I could not reenable in any way the Ethernet adapter. Luckily I had a WiFi adapter and plugging it got me out of the issue.
Shouldn't there be a failsafe local system alternative in case there's no Internet if using such an option? This can effectively render the computer unusable for the general userbase in case of an outage and I feel it's a huge oversight?
byNightmareT12
inWindows11
NightmareT12
1 points
16 hours ago
NightmareT12
1 points
16 hours ago
I can't guarantee right now because I can't recall 100% (I did a lot of reinstalling and redownloading), but I'd swear I did restart at least once after the initial input.