Microsoft goes passwordless by default on new accounts
- Microsoft is making its new accounts “passwordless by default,” requiring users to use more secure methods like passkeys, push notifications, and security keys instead.
- The company has optimized its sign-in window design for a passwordless and passkey-first experience, with reordered steps that flow better for users.
- New Microsoft account users will not be prompted to create a password at all, while existing users can visit their account settings to delete their password.
- Microsoft is renaming “World Password Day” to “World Passkey Day” and pledges to continue its work implementing passkeys over the coming year.
- The company reports that passkey users have a 98% success rate of signing in, compared to 32% for password-based accounts, with nearly a million passkeys registered every day.
After supporting passwordless Windows logins for years and even allowing users to delete passwords from their accounts, Microsoft is making its biggest move yet towards a future with no passwords. Now it will ask people signing up for new accounts to only use more secure methods like passkeys, push notifications, and security keys instead, by default.
The new no-password initiative by Microsoft is accompanied by its recently launched, optimized sign-in window design with reordered steps that flow better for a passwordless and passkey-first experience.
Although current accounts won’t have to shed their passwords, new ones will try and leave them behind by not prompting you to create a password at all:
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.