Microsoft has released a patch to address an issue that prevents users from signing in after adding a new Microsoft account to their Windows 11 PCs. The bug was discovered following the release of the Windows 11 preview build 22000.918 that started rolling out on August 25, 2022.

According to Microsoft, the problem currently affects systems running Windows 11 version 21H2. However, it doesn’t affect customers with Active Directory user accounts and Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) accounts.

“After installing KB5016691 and adding a new Microsoft account user in Windows, you might be unable to sign in for a brief time after the first restart or sign out. The issue only affects the newly added Microsoft account user and only for the first sign in,” Microsoft wrote on the Windows Health dashboard.

Microsoft says it has used the Known Issue Rollback method to address the problem on affected Windows 11 PCs. However, it may take up to 24 hours for Windows 11 users to be able to sign into their systems again with a Microsoft account.

IT Pros can configure Group Policy to fix the Windows 11 22H2 sign-in bug

Meanwhile, it is also possible for IT admins to manually configure a special Group policy to mitigate the issue in enterprise environments. To do this, they will need to navigate to Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> KB5016691 220722_051525 Known Issue Rollback >> Windows 11 (original release).

Microsoft notes that administrators can head to the official website to download the Group Policy for Windows 11 21H2. You can find more details about configuring and deploying KIR Group Policies on this support page. Did you encounter sign-in problems on your Windows 11 systems? Let us know in the comments down below.

Source: https://petri.com/microsoft-fix-sign-in-bug-windows-11/