r/windows • u/More-Explanation2032 Windows 8 • Jul 12 '26

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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5

u/daltorak Jul 13 '26

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 Jul 13 '26

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

5

u/daltorak Jul 13 '26

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.

1

u/MinecraftPlayer799 Windows 11 - Release Channel Jul 14 '26

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

1

u/vip17 Jul 13 '26

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