Forum Discussion
Hello authentication in apps always defaults to fingerprint
I have fingerprint, face and PIN Windows Hello authentication options set up. When logging in to Windows, Windows helpfully attempts to use facial recognition whilst at the same time activating the fingerprint sensor. This allows me to use either option to login (or revert back to PIN in case both fail).
However once logged in, some of my apps (such as password managers, browsers etc) also use Hello authentication. However, in these cases the Hello prompt seems to always immediately default to fingerprint, without attempting facial recognition. This includes when the laptop is in Tablet Mode, when fingerprint sensor is physically inaccessible. In all cases, to use facial recognition I have to click through the "more choices" menu in the dialog, which is a lot of extra clicks and defeats the purpose of facial recognition being relatively quick and straightforward.
Alternatively I can disable fingerprint entirely in settings. This forces Hello to attempt facial before reverting to PIN, but this is obviously not ideal as it leaves me without fingerprint login available across Windows.
Is there a setting or fix that makes Hello authentication for apps behave the same way as it helpfully does at the login screen, ie not default to fingerprint each time?
5 Replies
Adding my voice here—same issue. Like antonz44 and vhw04 , I have both face and fingerprint configured, and the login screen works perfectly with both methods active simultaneously. But in-app Hello prompts always default to fingerprint, forcing the "More choices" → Face workflow every time.
KapilArya the registry tweak for default sign-in option doesn't resolve this—it only affects the login screen, not in-app authentication requests. The registry is already set to face on my system as well.
Microsoft, this seems like a straightforward gap: the Windows Security dialog for in-app auth doesn't respect the same preference hierarchy as the login screen. Either let us set a preferred biometric method in Settings, or have in-app prompts mirror login behavior by activating both sensors simultaneously.
This thread is almost a year old now with no official solution. Would appreciate some visibility from the product team.
- Hi folks,
Any other solutions to this? Do you need a video to understand the issue better or something? KapilArya as stated in the initial message, facial recognition is already the default for Windows login. Anyway I checked the relevant registry value again and it is indeed set for face.
However, the behaviour once logged in and authentication is requested by an app (password manager, browser etc) is not the same and this is where my problem lies.
