Windows 10 Will Support Facial Recognition, Thumbprint Scanning

Microsoft officials, from Chief Executive Satya Nadella on down, have repeated the mantra that Windows 10 will bring a “more personal” computing experience.

How personal?

Users will be able to sign in to the upcoming operating system with their face, eyes or fingerprint, the company says.

The new biometric scanning capability, dubbed Windows Hello, will work on any Windows 10 smartphone, tablet or personal computer that features the combination of hardware to support it. Existing devices with fingerprint scanners will be able to use the technology, Microsoft user interface executive Joe Belfiore said in a blog post.

With Windows Hello, Microsoft is joining the roster of companies, including rival Apple, that are rolling out technology to make typed (and hack-able en masse) passwords redundant.

Nadella hinted at the biometric capability during Microsoft’s annual shareholders meeting in December, after a woman in the audience asked the assembled executives when the company would roll out tighter security “that has fingerprint, eye, some kind of identity where we do not have to use 20 million passwords?”

Nadella said he was optimistic that image recognition would help fix the password-theft problem. “That’s something that as we disclose and talk more about Windows 10 you will hear more about it,” he said then.

This article appeared in print in the March 18th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.