The driver \Driver\WUDFRd failed to load for the device ROOT\WINDOWSHELLOFACESOFTWAREDRIVER\0000.

Hi,

I am facing this issue where I am getting the error:
The driver \Driver\WUDFRd failed to load for the device ROOT\WINDOWSHELLOFACESOFTWAREDRIVER\0000.

Whenever this error occurs, my laptop shuts down by force from being on hibernate or sleep. It's driving me nuts!

I know it is this error because this error comes at the same time as the critical shutdown event. I will post the actual log event at the end of this post.

Things I have tried:
- Disabling the windows hello driver
- Updating the windows hello driver
- Uninstalling the windows hello driver
- Running sfc /scannow
- Reimaged by laptop with windows 11 23H2

Funnily enough, this issue goes away in 24H2 but I downgraded from 24H2 because of all the stuttering and laggy bugs. I can cope with my laptop being shutdown every night (lol) - just not the stuttery bugs.

If anyone has any fixes for this then please do advise me. I've looked online but can't find any for the windows hello driver.

Thank you for any help!

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">- <System> <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP" Guid="{9c205a39-1250-487d-abd7-e831c6290539}" /> <EventID>219</EventID> <Version>0</Version> <Level>3</Level> <Task>212</Task> <Opcode>0</Opcode> <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords> <TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-09-01T05:57:15.9659149Z" /> <EventRecordID>4900</EventRecordID> <Correlation /> <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="332" /> <Channel>System</Channel> <Computer>DESKTOP-RKC06I8</Computer> <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" /> </System>- <EventData> <Data Name="DriverNameLength">40</Data> <Data Name="DriverName">ROOT\WINDOWSHELLOFACESOFTWAREDRIVER\0000</Data> <Data Name="Status">3221226341</Data> <Data Name="FailureNameLength">14</Data> <Data Name="FailureName">\Driver\WUDFRd</Data> <Data Name="Version">0</Data> </EventData> </Event>

Hi, welcome.

Do you use facial recognition/Biometrics? If not, disable Windows Biometric Service, this should do it.

Run services.msc
Find Windows Biometric Service
Set Startup Type to Disabled
Reboot and test sleep/hibernate

Or you could try jumping straight into an In-Place Repair/Upgrade and see if it corrects itself?

Could you place the actual Manufacturer/Model Number of the laptop (Should be underneath) into your system specs where it says Manufacturer/Model please?

See if disabling Fast Startup in Windows Power Options has any effect.

• Go to Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do.
• Click Change settings that are currently unavailable.
• Under Shutdown settings, “untick” Turn on fast startup.
• Save changes and reboot.

I have done both of your suggestions and will monitor to see if this happens again. Thank you

Thank you for your suggestions however it has just forced shutdown again with the same error after being on hibernate.

1) Please run administrative command prompt:

DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:WMIC~~~~



2) Run Tuneup plus > post a share link






3) Run the V2 log collector > post a share link

This is still happening despite all these suggestions. I've posted the mini dumps of all my crashes below...

Link to onedrive folder: minidump

Please complete post #6 steps #1 - #3

In my case, Windows Hello was being disabled during OOBE (25H2). I commented out the restriction in unattend.xml for future deployments.

For existing machines, I had to comment out the removal line in the script located at C:\Windows\Setup\Scripts\RemoveCapabilities.ps1 and then manually reinstall Hello (restart required) using the following PS command:
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name "Hello.Face.20134~~~~0.0.1.0"

I can verify presence of Hello on the system by running PS:
Get-WindowsCapability -Online | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*Hello*"}