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

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

You do not have to use it. It's your computer, not theirs. Unfortunately one of the few ways I've found to opt out of their absolutely broken passkey implementation, is to sign out of your Microsoft account, and sign in as a local account on your computer.
This has the added benefit of less privacy being violated by the dishonest employees that make up the entirety of the staff at Microsoft.

Ain't this the truth.

I'm an IT professional myself and I have very competent password management in the form of KeePass (XC and Strongbox) and my own cloud storage that I sync it with and a YubiKey.

I have done it this way specifically to keep it compatible with all my computers, which can run any of the three major operating systems, and to keep it out of the hands of major tech companies who, despite their technical prowess, have turned their systems into "nagware" and even malware.

The mac implementation just asks if I want to put it in Strongbox because I registered Strongbox as my password manager and the operating system respects that.

But as usual Windows is a nagware spaghetticode monstrosity. It doesn't care that I have my own solution to any of this - it's going to pop up and it's going to nag me every single time until I relent (which I won't, I just actively avoid Windows as much as possible now).

Leaving aside the case for passkeys, which is seriously suspect to anyone with even a modicum of competence and only has any value for the people who keep using the password "password1234" on all their accounts (which is not an insignificant amount of people I admit), this nagging isn't built in a way so it nags me to use passkeys - it's built in a way that nags me to use Microsoft's particular implementation of passkeys.

This will not happen. If I end up in a situation where it is either WIndows with passkeys or no Windows, I am easily reaching the point now where all it takes is a straw to break the camel's back.

I am sick of nagware, and Windows is infested with it, and it never seems to end. It's like the whole operating system consists of Clippy at this point.

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