Windows 10: User forgot PIN - no way to reset, can't take ownership of NGC folder

As title suggests one of our users has forgotten their PIN and needs it to enrol a fingerprint. There is no 'reset PIN' option, presumably since it's a domain joined machine.


This has happened to us many times before and my usual solution is to unlink their Microsoft account under settings->Access Work or School, then re-add it. I tried doing so this time and for some reason it still did not remove the old PIN even after a reboot.


I looked in to this issue and the most common suggested solution is to delete or rename the NGC folder located at:


C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Ngc


However, this appears to be impossible even if I log out of the user and log in via the local admin acount. I cannot seem to take ownership no matter what I try.


If I had physical access to the device I would attempt to delete it in safe mode, or just boot into a different OS but as the user is remote I do not have these options.

:)

 

Windows Hello Pin won't allow setup - Tried Ngc folder contents deletion

At some point I stopped being able to log in with my PIN or fingerprint reader. Since logging on with my password and trying to reset the PIN I have not been able to use Windows Hello.

Trying to add a new PIN leads to the eventual message of "Something went wrong. We weren't able to set up your pin..."

Following instructions from various help forums I have deleted the contents of the Ngc folder and have also tried resetting the Access Control Lists on the Ngc folder. Neither of these things have worked.

Does anyone have any further suggestions?

 

Unable to log in with a PIN

Step #1: Delete the Ngc folder.

I was able to reset my PIN by deleting the contents of the Ngc directory. However, the provided directions were missing a step. This caused me much confusion until I discovered what was going on.

The issue is that for whatever reason it's impossible to recursively apply the ownership settings to the subdirectories under Ngc. So, the following step should be inserted between steps 7 and 8:

• Open the Ngc folder and perform steps 3-7 on each subfolder.

Upon modifying the instructions thus, I was successful.

 

Can't add PIN and can't find the NGC folder

Hi,

Greetings from the community!

You're must be after this location: C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\NGC

Before you proceed on deleting something from the said location, please consider this idea: The error code must be related to the said location, where the user/system could not access it when trying to create a PIN or logging in using PIN. Try to take ownership
of the folder before continuing to login or create new PIN:

Start Command Prompt as Administrator enter the following commands. Press Enter after each line in order to run it:

takeown /f C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\NGC

icacls C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\NGC /grant administrators:f

Once done, you may now try logging in or recreating a PIN. Note: Logging in using PIN would be best advised with a working internet connection.

Feel free to update us.