Forum Discussion
Windows Hello does not automatically dismiss lock screen when Windows recognizes my face
I've only recently gotten a new enough PC and camera(s) to use Windows Hello facial recognition so I don't know if this is a new issue or not. When using the camera in an external monitor, Windows usually (but not always) forces me to press a mouse button or keyboard key to dismiss the lock screen after my face is recognized. It seems to always dismiss the lockscreen when using the camera in the laptop (can't always use that because I dock it under the monitor with the lid closed, because the external monitor is a huge 32" 4K and it's more ergonomic to keep it lower and shut the laptop).
Other relevant details:
* 23H2
* Sign-in options -> Facial recognition -> checked the box for automatically dismissing the lock screen
* Windows 11 Home with multiple user accounts
* Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\FaceLogon\AutoDismissOn REG_DWORD 0x00000001
* Sub registry keys for each user AutoDismissOn REG_DWORD 0x00000001
It seems like Windows treats the cameras differently because the one in the laptop (driver provider: SunplusIT) has capabilities flag CM_DEVCAP_SECUREDDEVICE, where the one in the external monitor (driver provider: Microsoft) does not. If this is intended behavior, the reasoning behind it would seem dubious because both of them are trusted enough to unlock the system without other forms of authentication, just not automatically dismiss the lockscreen.
When my laptop is docked, this behavior is especially annoying, because the external monitor takes forever to turn on when waking the laptop unless I can successfully dismiss the lockscreen by hitting the ctrl key (then it wakes up promptly), but sometimes it waits for a mouse click instead and I'm not going to press that in case it has dismissed the lockscreen (I don't want to click random things in running apps).
4 Replies
kballs did you ever find a solution to this? over a year later and I am in the exact same scenario with still the exact same issue.
I use an Alienware M16R2 laptop for work, paired with a Dell dock for power and ports, an external 49in monitor with a Logitech Brio camera on top of it. When I turn the computer on, the camera turns on and facial recognition completes, the external screen eventually turns on and the display says Weclome David, dismiss the lock screen to continue. Meanwhile the camera is still running the whole time too even though it has already recognised me and unlocked. If I run with just the laptop screen with inbuilt camera the lock screen dismisses automatically. There is even an option to "dismiss lock screen with windows hello" which is ticked but does nothing
Running:
Edition Windows 11 Pro
Version 24H2
Installed on 6/01/2025
OS build 26100.4061
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.84.0I created a question on the Answers.microsoft.com pages and it has not even been seen...!
It still happens but the behavior is slightly different in the latest released Windows 11 builds. Now hitting the CTRL key always dismisses the lock screen (don't need to use a mouse click like it required 50% of the time before) so you can press CTRL repeatedly before the display comes on without any side effects (like clicking on dialogs) and everything will light up quicker, so it's easier to live with.
I tried some sleep cycles with combinations of cameras and lid open/closed and am now confident the trigger for this behavior is whether or not the laptop lid is open. If the lid is open it will dismiss the lock screen without intervention.
- If you open the lid it seems to use the internal camera and dismiss the lock screen without intervention.
Leaving the lid open and going through sleep cycles, it seems to prefer the external camera and dismisses the lock screen without intervention. - Disabling the external camera (I physically closed it and it disappeared from Device Manager) it uses the internal camera automatically and dismisses the lock screen without intervention.
- Enabling the external camera and going through another sleep cycle, it uses the external camera and dismisses the lock screen without intervention.
- Closing the laptop and waking back up with the lid closed, it uses the external camera but requires a key press again. I can see in device manager that the internal camera is still enabled, but it went to the external camera right away so I don't think it's trying to use the internal camera and just seeing black because the lid is closed. There seems to be some code path that is affected by the lid state and causes Win32k/Winlogon to require a key press (just a random bug or an unintentional side-effect of an intentional design).
Note: Both cameras in my case (internal to the laptop lid and built-in to external USB-C monitor) are connected by USB (I'm not sure if Windows Hello cameras even exist for other buses like GPIO/I2C or PCI, so being USB might be irrelevant).
Repro steps
- Use a laptop with a built-in Windows Hello camera and setup face logon
- Plug in an external Windows Hello camera and setup face logon for that camera
- Sleep the laptop with the lid open
- Wake the laptop, Windows Hello dismisses the lock screen without intervention (using either camera but seems to prefer external unless you wake the laptop by opening the lid)
- Close the laptop lid/sleep
- Wake the laptop with external keyboard, keeping the lid closed, Windows Hello requires a key press to dismiss the lock screen
- If you open the lid it seems to use the internal camera and dismiss the lock screen without intervention.
- From everything I have read the Primary Camera is use for Facial Recognition while the other is not.
You may have to set the other camera as Primary to get it to work properly.As I said, both cameras work to authenticate the user and unlock the system, but the one in the external monitor won't reliably auto-dismiss the lockscreen. In the case that I'm docked, the laptop is closed so the camera in the laptop is unusable and it's not an issue of primary/secondary priority.
