How to set up a passkey for your Microsoft account

As I’ve said before, passwords suck. Microsoft agrees—last year, it announced a goal of getting one billion users to embrace passkeys instead.

As part of that effort, setting up a passkey for a Microsoft account is very easy. You might not have noticed, though, since most people don’t often go into account settings. You’ve likely only seen Windows asking to create and store passkeys for other services and sites you visit on your PC.

Here’s how to do it:

Go to account.microsoft.com/security

Under Account , click on Manage how I sign in

Under Ways to prove who you are , choose Add a new way to sign in or verify

Select Face, fingerprint, PIN, or security key

A new screen will appear in your browser tab, along with a Windows pop-up asking to save your passkey. Click OK .