For years, Microsoft has supported passwordless Windows logins and even allowed users the option to remove passwords entirely from their accounts. Now, they are making their most significant step towards a password-free future by requiring new account sign-ups to utilize more secure methods like passkeys, push notifications, and security keys as the default option.
This shift to a password-free approach is further enhanced by Microsoft’s newly launched and optimized sign-in window design. The updated layout offers improved flow and emphasizes a passwordless and passkey-first user experience.
While existing accounts can still retain their passwords if preferred, Microsoft aims for new accounts to transition away from them by eliminating the password creation prompt altogether:
As part of this simplified UX, we’re changing the default behavior for new accounts. Brand new Microsoft accounts will now be “passwordless by default.” New users will have several passwordless options for signing into their account and they’ll never need to enroll a password. Existing users can visit their account settings to delete their password.
With today’s changes, Microsoft is renaming “World Password Day” to “World Passkey Day” instead and pledges to continue its work implementing passkeys over the coming year. This time last year, the company implemented passkeys into consumer accounts. Microsoft says it’s seeing “nearly a million passkeys registered every day,” and that passkey users have a 98 percent success rate of signing in versus 32 percent for password-based accounts.
