Microsoft now supports standards-based FIDO2 security key devices, letting Windows 10 users access their Microsoft Account without entering username or password
no password needed Dan Thorp-Lancaster / Windows Central : Microsoft accounts now let you ditch your password, sign in with a security key Laurent Giret / On MSFT : Now you can sign in to your Microsoft Account using Windows Hello, FIDO2 devices Pradeep / MSPoweruser : You can now log in to your personal Microsoft account using your security key or Windows Hello Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet : YubiKey 5: The ultimate security gift Liam Tung / ZDNet : Windows 10: Now it's tap or look to sign in to Outlook, Office 365, OneDrive, Skype Tom Warren / The Verge : You can now sign into a Microsoft Account without a password using a security key Tweets: Tom Warren / @tomwarren : Microsoft is taking a big step towards our password-less future today. You can now sign into a Microsoft Account without a password using a FIDO2 security key or Windows Hello. Details here: http://www.theverge.com/... http://twitter.com/... @yubico : Microsoft today announced that users can sign into Microsoft accounts on Microsoft's Edge browser password-free, either by using Windows Hello or with a FIDO2-compatible device such as the #YubiKey! @VentureBeat shares the story: http://venturebeat.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the consumer-facing payoff of a build-out that started months earlier, when Microsoft added FIDO2 passwordless support to Windows Hello after Yubico's FIDO2 USB key arrived. What changed today is scope: the standard-based sign-in now reaches the personal Microsoft Account itself, covering Outlook, Office 365, OneDrive, and Skype for any Windows 10 user with a security key.
First-order effects
- Windows 10 users holding a FIDO2 device can now tap to sign into their Microsoft Account with no username or password typed at all.
- Hardware makers like Yubico gain a mainstream consumer use case — ZDNet's coverage of the YubiKey 5 frames the key as a gift-market product, not an enterprise-only tool.
Second-order effects
- Removing the password from the account layer forces Microsoft's own services to treat biometrics and keys as first-class credentials, which it formalized a year later with FIDO2 certification for Windows Hello in the May 2019 update.
- Once the plumbing works for personal accounts, the natural next step is removing passwords entirely — which Microsoft did in 2021 by letting users access accounts via Authenticator, Hello, keys, or verification codes.
Third-order effects
- The sequence here — platform support, certification, then full password removal, culminating in new accounts being passwordless by default in 2025 — reads as a template other identity providers would follow: kill the password last, after the standards-based alternatives are proven.
- If defaults shift rather than just options, phishing-resistant credentials move from opt-in novelty to baseline assumption, pressuring every service still anchored on password-plus-SMS flows.
The trend: Consumer identity is migrating from shared secrets to standards-based cryptographic credentials, with Microsoft's seven-year march from FIDO2 support to passwordless-by-default marking the pace.