Why am I being asked for a Passkey? How do I turn off passkeys?

ishayuG,

I think your last few paragraphs are likely describing the issue for a few more technical users, while SirBlain has better described the issue as it relates to the typical personal user of Microsoft's products.

However, what I don't think many other than people like those trying to aid others here understand is that the security issues caused by passwords have grown exponentially as new methods like passkeys and other 2FA methods are finally gaining popularity, resulting in a massive increase in 'last gasp' successful account thefts using passwords, especially of those like gaming accounts that are easily sold by organized criminal gangs.

Passwords are truly useless as 'security' now, since there are simply so many ways they can be captured or stolen, meaning they must be removed as soon as possible from all accounts, not just those belonging to less technically capable users. It's truly surprising how many people post that they knew better then to make the simple mistakes that resulted in losing their accounts, or getting scammed, or any of a number of different ways that criminal organizations have found to monetize the average home computer owner. And even here we're seeing the same issues happen to those using Google or Apple products, so Microsoft isn't the only one having to deal with this, simply the largest.

The other thing that most probably don't think about is that unless they're purchasing something from Microsoft other than the Windows that comes with a new device, there likely isn't much reason for Microsoft to care if they lose them as a customer, since last I read that copy of Windows typically nets them something around or possibly less than $50, while the true money is made from subscriptions to things like Microsoft 365 (e.g. Office), the added Cloud storage this includes or other products like games.

Listening to you is why I personally suspect Microsoft would be fine with losing customers that don't truly want to use their products, since from their standpoint it's really the commercial users who also need their employees to have access from their home machines or those wanting Microsoft 365 themselves for either small business or personal use that are the customers they really want to retain.

Rob

You're already in the Microsoft Community in this thread, you're simply posting in the wrong place for the additional help you desire, though maybe SirBlain will return to try and provide an explanation if he's still monitoring his thread.

You need to Ask a Question under the Get Started pull-down menu at the very top of this or any page here. This will want you to select your Windows Version and any other items you might use to describe the product (Windows, 10 or 11?) involved, as well as fill in the other fields including being as clear and complete as possible in describing what you'd like to do, which is using a local account on your PC.

You can ask other questions about this and/or describe what you'd like to do and/or avoid, like passkeys or even using your Microsoft Account to login, for example, which will allow those reading to ask you additional questions to better try and help you create the situation you'd like. Using simple English words to describe that is actually best, though you can reference this thread by mentioning the title, which anyone here can easily view to see your initial post.

Rob

I have a circular issue with the passkey requirement. I tried to sign into my amazon account today and suddenly, across all browsers and without any warning, I can't access any of my online accounts without a passkey. I hate these kinds of nazi-like tactics but fine, I need to order a winter hat so fine. I follow the link you provided, create a passkey and, lo and behold, amazon won't accept the passkey forced upon me by windows. The solution is to log into amazon to create a passkey they recognize, but, once again, I've been logged out of the account without warning and without my participation and consent. So now, I have no solution to this issue. All of the browsers I use are requiring this passkey. But the passkey isn't working. Thanks google. I swear you people are trained in the 7th circle of hell and nothing makes you people happier than tormenting the hapless victims of your insanity.

Jenafire Jem,

If you'd read my posts on the second page of this thread, you'd have seen that I don't consider Amazon's implementation of these passkeys either reasonable or functional, so you might have avoided creating that particular passkey altogether. Note that you replied to my early post in July, before I'd had the chance to see what other types of problems those in this and many other threads here are having using passkeys, after which I stopped recommending people with Windows 10 use them altogether and really started suggesting that most people should wait for Microsoft, Google and others work out the bugs with more experienced users first.

In your particular case, I recommend that you instead go directly to Amazon to try and get some aid in regaining access to your account, since though those here can help with Microsoft and to a small extent using your phone with passkeys, the finger-pointing and confusion caused by the inconsistent visual interfaces these various companies are using with passkeys are what's truly causing these problems.

If you do want to try and get help here with your Amazon passkey issues, then you should start your own thread and describe the specific issues with your Amazon account completely, since adding your post in this old thread both won't get it noticed by others and really just adds to the confusion over what your particular issues might be.

Rob