In recent months, Microsoft has adopted the passkey paradigm of security and it’s looking to expand its support with some new features that will help put the Windows Hello experience front and center for more users.
Following an appearance at Authenticate 2024, Microsoft’s Katherine Holdsworth penned a new post to the Windows Developer blog explaining that Windows Passkeys will soon natively support cross-device authentication as well as a few updates to Windows Hello to help users “journey from website to platform.”
As a bit of a refresher, Passkeys is a relatively new two-factor authentication process that leverages bio-authentication within Windows to help secure data supplanting the old network of memorizing passwords. As Microsoft claims, Passkeys is a more secure and convenient to stay up to date with ever-hardening security protocols.
In the coming months, Windows Passkeys will bring support for the following:
- A plug-in model for third-party passkey providers
- Thanks to some negotiation between 3rd party passkey providers users will be able to use the same passkey on Windows 11 that they’ve created on their mobile device.
- Enhanced native UX for passkeys
- Windows 11 now has a redesigned Windows Hello experience. A new UI now appears with a text prompt walking users through the set up of a Windows Pass key workflow.
- You will be asked to complete a one-time setup with your Microsoft account, and you will be prompted to save a recovery key that will be used to verify your identity and protect your passkeys through end-to-end encryption. You can then seamlessly authenticate using your preferred sign-in method (facial recognition, fingerprint or PIN), and save your passkey with Windows Hello.
- Windows 11 now has a redesigned Windows Hello experience. A new UI now appears with a text prompt walking users through the set up of a Windows Pass key workflow.
- A Microsoft synced passkey provider
- Microsoft has also built-in a recovery key that can be summoned to verify identities or encrypt data beyond the normal privacy controls within Windows 11.
- You will be asked to complete a one-time setup with your Microsoft account, and you will be prompted to save a recovery key that will be used to verify your identity and protect your passkeys through end-to-end encryption.
- Microsoft has also built-in a recovery key that can be summoned to verify identities or encrypt data beyond the normal privacy controls within Windows 11.
As mentioned above, these new Windows Passkeys improvements will be rolled out to developers and supporting OEMs in the coming months in hope that by the time it hits consumers, it’s a fully baked vision of security on Windows.
