If you don’t want to use Windows Hello authentication, you can disable it in Windows 10. Follow these steps to disable Windows Hello.
All Windows 10 devices have some form of Windows Hello authentication. As of now, there are four main types of Windows Hello authentication. They are facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, pin protection, and a security key. The point of Windows Hello is to make you log into your user account without using the password. i.e. make password-less login a norm.
Depending on your system, you can use any one or all types of Windows Hello authentication to secure Windows 10.
As good as Windows Hello is, there might be times when you need to disable it. For example, maybe you want to enable Windows 10 auto login, or maybe you don’t trust your biometric data with Windows 10.
No matter the reason, if you don’t want it, you can disable Windows Hello. There are two ways to do it. First using the Group Policy and second using the Registry Editor. I will show both these methods follow the one appropriate to you.
Disable Windows Hello in Group Policy
Step 1: Open the Group Policy Editor. To do that search for “gpedit.msc” in the Start menu and click on the search result.
Step 2: Expand the Computer Configuration folder on the sidebar and select the “Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Biometrics” folder.
Step 3: Double-click on the “Allow the use of biometrics” policy in the right panel. This is the policy to enable or disable Windows Hello.
Step 4: Select the “Disabled” option to disable Windows Hello biometrics.
Step 5: Click the “Ok” button in the policy properties window to save changes.
Step 6: Finally, restart Windows 10. This will apply the changes. If you don’t want to restart, execute “gpupdate /force” command as admin.
That is it. With that, you’ve disabled Windows Hello. From now on, you cannot use Windows Hello biometric authentication. If you go to the Sign-in Options page in the “Settings → Accounts” page you will see the “Some settings are hidden or managed by your organization” or “This option is currently unavailable” message.
To enable Windows Hello in Group Policy, select the “Not configured” option in the “Allow the use of biometrics” properties window.
Disable Windows Hello in Registry Editor
Step 1: Open the Registry Editor. To do that, open the Run window with the “Windows key + R” shortcut, type “regedit” and click “Ok”.
Step 2: Paste the below path in the Registry Editor’s address bar and press Enter. This will open the Biometrics folder in the Registry Editor.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Biometrics
If there is no “Biometrics” folder, create one by right-clicking on the “Microsoft” folder and select “New → Key”.
Step 3: See if you can find the “Enabled” value on the right page. If cannot, right-click on the “Biometrics” folder, select “New → DWORD Value”, and name it “Enabled”.
Step 4: Double-click on the “Enabled” value, type “0” in the Value Data field, and click “Ok”.
Step 5: Finally, close the Registry Editor and restart Windows 10.
After restarting, you will no longer be able to enable Windows Hello biometrics. i.e. the Registry Editor removed the Windows Hello biometric authentication.
To enable it back, type “1” in the Enabled DWORD value (Step 4).
Note:
The above settings will only disable biometric authentication. i.e. facial recognition and fingerprint scanning. To remove the pin protection, click on “Windows Hello Pin” on the Sign-in Options page and then click the “Remove” button. You can do the same thing for the Security Key and Picture Password.
I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.
