Windows user login issues on windows 10 after "Creators Update"

[Brian Lewis]

A developer may ( I do!) experience this issue working on Windows 10. the problem began after the installation of the "Creators Update" (v1709).

In Windows 10, if the machine is not in a domain, the "PrincipalContext" will be set to the "machine" context, so that you can validate user names against those defined on the machine. The AD login process then works just the same as for an AD group - validating the user name, and getting any group memberships from the PrincipalContext.

After 1709, this gives an error "Network path not found" inside the Framework call

PrincipalContext.ValidateCredentials

The problem is the same whether or not the machine account is linked to a microsoft account or not.

This is not a problem when running on the server, but does inhibit testing and development.

Here are two (pretty amazing!) workarounds you can use when debugging in VS:

• before submitting the login details, disconnect from the network (!)

• before submitting the login details, connect to a VPN - any VPN works for me (!!!!)

Google

validatecredentials the network path was not found

and you'll get lots of references to this issue, but no solutions that worked for me (Suggestion to add RegisteredOwner key in registry didn;t help)

[Brian Lewis]

Marking as resolved becaase this problem no longer occurs. I suspect that there has been a Windows update or .NET framework patch that has fixed this.