M's laptop got the above error after rebooting during a Windows Update.

The error itself appears just after entering the username and password. And the big problem is it then doesn’t logon, but just freezes up.

Doing a bit of Googling finds quite a few instances of this error, but usually on Windows 7. One notable thing: the problem means non-Admin users can’t logon, but Admin users can. But the other info around the place didn’t really seem relevant.

So I logged in as an Admin user, and while looking through the Event Log to try and find out what happened, I noticed Windows Update said there were 3 more Important Updates to go.

I let them go in, and then rebooted. Fixed.

Yeah I could keep digging to better identify the cause, but the problem’s resolved for now, and I’ve got better things to do.

So my conclusion (in the absence of any other information) is that this weekend’s Windows Updates somehow require an Admin user to logon to complete… and if not, they leave the SENS service unable to start, possibly as well as other issues that prevent non-Admin users logging on.