The takeaway: Major IT companies are now focused on making passkeys a first-class authentication method. According to Microsoft, passkeys are far superior to traditional passwords, which is why customers should use them regardless of which credential manager they prefer.
Microsoft is once again emphasizing that passwords are a thing of the past, while passkeys represent the future of secure, breach-resistant online authentication. The company recently announced several passkey-related improvements coming to Windows 11, aimed at accelerating adoption of this increasingly popular authentication method.
According to Katharine Holdsworth, Partner Group Product Manager at Microsoft, Windows 11 now offers native support for third-party passkey managers. The feature was introduced as part of the latest Patch Tuesday security updates, and users who installed the updates should be able to access it immediately.
Also read: Are Passwords Dead? What Are Passkeys, and Why Everyone's Talking About Them
Microsoft previously announced a partnership with third-party security provider 1Password in October, enabling passkey management at the OS level. The company is now extending the same integration to other "trusted" providers. For now, the only confirmed partner is Bitwarden, but Redmond promises that additional integrations will arrive soon.
External passkey managers are integrated into Windows 11 through a plugin system. Users can now save, manage, and use their passkeys across websites and traditional desktop applications. The authentication flow runs through the Windows Hello platform, protecting passkeys with the user's PIN, facial recognition, or fingerprint ID, all secured at the hardware level via the Trusted Platform Module.
Furthermore, Microsoft announced that its own Password Manager is no longer tied to the Microsoft Edge browser and is now available as a native Windows plugin. Other browsers and applications that support passkeys can also use Microsoft Password Manager for authentication.
Holdsworth explained that passkeys are resistant to phishing, less vulnerable to data breaches, and generally faster and easier to use than traditional passwords. The new plugin-based passkey manager built directly into Windows 11 gives users greater flexibility and choice in how they adopt the technology.
Microsoft and other IT companies have been promoting passkeys as a secure alternative to passwords for some time. The Redmond-based corporation is encouraging users to adopt "passwordless" authentication as quickly as possible, while Google highlights the growing popularity of passkeys among millions of users and billions of sign-in events worldwide.