Is there a way to disable passkeys in Windows 11?

I already use passkeys with a 3rd party password manager. The awful Windows 11 passkey popup interferes with it and there is currently no way to transfer passkeys from a password manager to another location (e.g. Windows Hello). If anyone knows how to disable the popup please reply. Thanks.

The feedback hub link for anyone reading this, please upvote it! https://aka.ms/AAph2bh

And here we go. Now elderly people are having constant problems being asked for passkeys that do not exist, being opted into it without being advised how it works.

Example: Customer cannot get into her email, she is being forced to use a passkey, when she is asked about it, she is clueless, because she never chose to turn on one, and was never informed what it does. Now we are trying to turn off/disable this low IQ half baked feature so she can simply sign in with her password. Then we find out we're in limbo, because low IQ h1b hires forgot to put any kind of setting in Windows 10 to change this unwelcome half baked feature.

How are Windows 10 users suppose to manage/opt out/delete these poorly thought-out passkeys??

I think the fact that I've not added any passkeys makes the fact that I'm asked to use one while logging in worse.

Jefronty,

And you've just exposed the true problem with any evolution to a new system, which in this case involves the entire authentication system Microsoft supports for all of its users on both the Azure - Work and School accounts and Outlook.com - Personal accounts systems.

The issue is everyone looks at it from their own point of view and no one other than Microsoft or a few highly technical individuals who must deal with both sets of users bothers to think about the potential issues created by the interaction between both sets of systems, as well as the entirely new interactions created by the support for passkeys themselves.

What I suspect has happened is that Microsoft began to see multiple different issues with the introduction of passkeys where the combination of these and the existing methods supported by the use of the Microsoft authenticator, security keys and the other verification methods resulted in confusion and/or failures of authentication for some portion of the user base.

In order to deal with this in the short run, the only guaranteed way to ensure that anyone with any combination of the various accounts and verification methods, authenticator apps, security keys or other even more rare items like 3rd-party smart cards was to cause all of them to be displayed in the same interface, potentially requiring more clicks for any of them.

Though for pre-existing users of items like security keys this means a change requiring more clicks, the arguably more important issue for Microsoft would clearly be the clarity of use for the much larger consumer population for the new passkeys, so those were chosen as the initial default and displayed prominently by their expected number of users.

Once the basic operation of these various combinations of authentication methods are deemed to be stable and functioning without significant failures due either to technical or more critically, user confusion issues, Microsoft can consider the various options available to streamline the operation of these methods for the user, likely including setting the default methods selected or displayed for each individual user of a system, while still supporting the needs for a new user who has yet to have logged any activity and thus should receive the list of all available options at least initially on that system.

In other words, Microsoft can never assume someone won't wish to use passkeys, since that's the entire reason for this evolution with the intent to be the eventual removal of passwords altogether at some time far in the future, whether that's what you personally prefer or not.

As I've likely already mentioned, you have the right and responsibility to share your preferences with Microsoft using their provided Feedback options, but at this point, Microsoft appears to have prioritized the ease of use for the larger consumer population over the streamlining of operation for skilled users. Ranting here about it will get you nowhere, since no one here is truly Microsoft, we're all either volunteers or contractors, so you're complaining into a black hole.

Rob

Are you going to wish to use the new passkey authentication to log into websites without using a password or requiring your key as these add support in the future? If so,, you'll need to have support for passkeys to allow this, though I'm not completely certain how your Yubikey will interact with this since it depends a lot on the support of different vendors that's still evolving.

As for the new prompt itself, that specific issue is something that many with security keys have already complained about, since it's the fact the prompt displays as the first selection with no ability to disable that's truly annoying for those with keys.

Since passkeys are new and these sorts of annoyances are likely until Microsoft figures out how best to reduce or remove them such as allowing you to either prioritize or possibly defaulting to the last used selection instead, I'd probably just wait for those options to appear. It may take some time, but enough are already complaining that it's likely some sort of configurability or more likely automation will eventually occur as they figure this all out.

Until then, I'd look for or simply open your own Feedback item for this to let Microsoft know it's an irritant you'd like to see fixed, since nothing here will get any real attention.

< EDIT > To be clear, the true problem here is no prioritization or selection available, not the passkeys themselves, since of course you'll want to support those, the only question is precisely how and with which devices(s), which of course Microsoft won't wish to artificially limit for a tiny group of security key users. Reworking the menu popups to support all of these effectively is what will require some thought and redesign.

Rob