Fix – An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist

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How to fix the error – An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist.

What if you want to do an important task on your computer and immediately the system stuck over with an error. A similar incident was happened to me too. I was thinking probably my system get corrupted, but I was wrong. I found this error is temporary and can be fixed sitting at home without going anywhere.

You can not open explorer.exe while having this error on your computer. In my case, the notification area of my PC had been hidden and I could not even open the Start menus. Even then I tried with some shortcut eyes and fixed my PC in a few minutes. Read the article further to know what process I followed.

Why does the error “an attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist” occur?

  • Many users are complaining that this error is occurring after upgrading to Windows 10. The updates do release with incompatibility that leads to corrupting the files of various in-built utilities.
  • the installation of unknown and incompatible software on your PC can also be the cause of occurring the error.
  • It might cause the error if the range of system files gets corrupted due to inconsistent Windows updates, malware infection, or manual interference.

Also read | How to fix “your windows license will expire soon” on Windows 10?

How to fix an attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist?

Solution 1: Repair corrupted DLL files

Repairing corrupt files is the surest way to get rid of this error and we are going to perform that through the Command Prompt.

An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist
  1. First of all enter the Command Prompt in the search bar then right-click on the Command Prompt and select the Run as administrator option. (If your search bar is not working then press Windows + R keys together, enter cmd in the search box, and then press Shift + Ctrl + Enter together.)
  1. To repair corrupted files that cause the error, enter the following command in the Command Prompt exactly after C:\Windows\system32> and press Enter button.
    • for /f %s in (‘dir /b *.dll’) do regsvr32 /s %s
  2. Once the process is completed, close the Command Prompt, restart your computer, and check whether the error went away or recurred.

In most of cases, this is the most dedicated and successful method to counter an attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist.

Also read | How to fix this copy of Windows is not genuine?

Solution 2: Repair system files

Solution 3: Run the System File Checker tool

This action is also takes place via Command Prompt. This command first scan all protected system files, and replace corrupted files with a cached copy that is located in a compressed folder at %WinDir%\System32\dllcache.

  1. To open Command Prompt as administrator press Windows + R together, enter cmd in search box, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter together.
  1. Enter the following command in the Command Prompt exactly after C:\Windows\system32> and press Enter button.
    • sfc /scannow
  2. Wait until the repair completed, close the Command Prompt, and restart your computer.

Solution 4: Restore the previous version of Windows

Maximum times we found that the error appears exactly after installing the latest Windows update. This method is all about performing a system restore due to which you can restore the changes made.

Solution 5: Perform a repair installation

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