If you’re a Windows 10 user, you may have noticed that your login screen doesn’t show the usual username and password combo. Instead, you get a prompt to enter your PIN. To log in with a PIN on Windows 10, follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app and click on the Security tab.
- Under Login Options, click on the Add New Login Item button.
- In the Name field, type in yourPIN and press OK.
- Click on the Add button to finish creating your new login item.
- When you’re finished logging in with a PIN, your login screen will look like this:
- To change your PIN, open the Settings app again and click on the Security tab again. Under Login Options, click on the Change Password button and enter a new PIN into the text field (or use one of your existingPINs). Click OK to finish changing your password.
By default, whenever you set up a “Windows Hello” login method such as a fingerprint reader, facial recognition scan, or PIN, Windows 10 will disable the password login method. If you’d like to log in to your Windows account with a password again, here’s how to get that option back.
First, open Settings. Click the “gear” icon in your Start menu or press Windows+i on your keyboard to open it quickly.
In Settings, select “Accounts.”
In “Accounts,” look in the sidebar and select “Sign-in options.”
In “Sign-in options,” scroll down until you see “Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts.” Flip the switch beneath it to “Off.”
After that, close Settings. The next time you log out or lock the screen (Press Windows+L to lock the screen quickly if you’d like to test.), you’ll have the password sign-in option available to you again. Best of all, you can still use the Windows Hello sign-in options if you want.
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