Microsoft Insider Build Plans To Ditch Windows 10 Passwords

Arguably since the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft has been making the case that passwords (in the traditional sense) may not be the best way to keep your system secure. For example, many users are these days encouraged to sign in with a pin-code rather than with a password. A feature that I actually use. Largely out of convenience.

Following the launch of their latest Windows Insider build, however, Microsoft is looking to take this a step further by introducing new features that (they hope) will see password usage drop.

Windows 10 Insider – What’s the problem with passwords?

So, at this point, you may be wondering what their problem with passwords is? Well, put simply, we’re not very good at making them. A rough estimate would say that the average online user these days will have at least 10-20 accounts associated with their main e-mail address. That, therefore, creates one of three likely possibilities. You are really good at creating unique and memorable passwords for each website, you’ve gotten a bit lazy in places or your passwords for some sites are just outright terrible.

Yes, you have various rules now for making passwords. A symbol, capital letter, one numeral etc., but Microsoft recently said that even these rules are outdated and, again, only encourage lazy password creation.

The new Windows Insider build is therefore ideally looking to migrate people into new systems. Ones that they believe will be more secure.

What Can We Expect?

The Windows Insider build will allow people to enable an option to make the system ‘passwordless’. This will then allow people to log in via 3 alternative methods. Facial recognition (which isn’t as impractical as it sounds with the wide ownership of webcams/cameras on devices), fingerprinting (which probably is a bit excessive) or the PIN system.

With this feature being added to the Insider build, it is (essentially) in a ‘test’ version and as such may never make its way into an official Windows 10 update. I daresay, however, that Microsoft is going to be keen to push this.

You can check out the full details on the Insider build update via the link here!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!