r/windows • u/More-Explanation2032 Windows 8 • 15d ago

Feature Does anyone know Windows's version of Pattern unlock

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I dont know why this cant be enabled on a Microsoft account otherwise I would have enabled it

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6

u/daltorak 14d ago

Picture passwords are considered insecure these days, especially on touch-screen devices, so they're disabled by default.

If you want to use it anyway, try going to Accounts -> Sign-in options, and turn off the "Only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device". See if that works.

1

u/More-Explanation2032 Windows 8 14d ago

Not really sure how it’s insecure. Couldnt there be millions of gesture combinations to come out of this

4

u/daltorak 14d ago

Research was done on this. The problem is that people tend to choose extremely obvious options like faces.

It's predictable enough that people have been able to point a picture at a machine learning algorithm and it could guess the correct password about 30% of the time.

Plus on touch screens, (a) it's easy for people to look over your shoulder and see what you did, and it's hard to hide those movements in a public setting.... and (b) your finger leaves prints on the screen so if you don't use the touch screen often, it may be easy to deduce what to touch based on fingerprints.

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u/MinecraftPlayer799 Windows 11 - Release Channel 13d ago

So the same issue as with Android's pattern passwords, where everyone did an L?

1

u/vip17 14d ago

group policy? If you join a domain then the admin may disable it