A passwordless future: Microsoft teaches Windows Preview passkeys

Windows gets native support for passkeys. Microsoft announced support for this last year, and now support is native to the operating system. Passkeys are the future, Microsoft explains, making it more difficult for malicious actors to steal and use access data to websites or apps. In addition, it is phishing proof, recoverable and also faster for users. Paypal should now also offer Passkey support in Germany.

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in Release announcement for Windows Insider Preview In the developer channel, which is actually in beta, with build number 23486, the developers explain the innovations. Microsoft now allows users to replace passwords with passkeys when they sign in to a website or app that supports them.

Windows passkeys

Asking and using passkeys should be significantly easier. Users can now go to any website or app that supports passkeys and create and use passkeys. Once created, users can use Windows Hello with facial recognition, a fingerprint, or a PIN to sign in. A smartphone can also be used to complete the app login process.

Microsoft developers explain the process as follows: First of all, those interested will have to go to a website that supports passkeys such as eBay or Google – depending on which device will manage the passkey, using a Windows PC or smartphone. This creates a passkey in the account settings. After you sign out, you can sign in with your passkey. If the passkey is on the smartphone, users can still visit the site on their Windows PC and sign in with the passkey on the smartphone.

Microsoft has added the management of passkeys on your Windows PC to Windows Settings. You should be able to find it under Settings – Accounts – Passkeys. There is a complete list of passkeys stored on the device, which can be searched for and deleted, for example.

In order to use Windows passkeys with Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, interested parties must switch to “Windows Hello or an external security key” in the browser’s passkey user interface for a “genuine Windows experience”. Microsoft also recommends using the Google Chrome preview build from the Canary channel to get the latest support build. Since Microsoft Edge is based on it, the changes also end up in the browser after a while, the developers explain.

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Paypal passkeys also in Germany

Passkeys has supported Paypal since last October, starting with Apple devices. According to media reports, Paypal should now support the use of passkeys in Germany. review with Instructions from Paypal for using the passkey But it was still not successful. The prompt to generate a passkey is not shown yet on Android using the Chrome browser. The offering may take place in several stages. So far, however, Windows is not among the supported systems with passkeys in Help.

More changes in Windows Beta

In the Windows Insider build, Microsoft previously removed several options for directories in File Explorer, which led to angry reactions on the Internet. After feedback from users, the developers reversed the change. Developers try to explain that this is completely normal for a developer channel, since they often try things out in the channel and tweak them based on feedback from users.

Microsoft offers Windows previews with a high frequency. The long-term outlook for the Windows 11 update called Moments 3, which aims to bring live German translation and display seconds back to the taskbar clock, is exciting.

(DMK)