How to set up a Windows Hello fingerprint login on Windows 11

by James · January 17, 2023

Logging in to a Windows 10 or 11 PC requires you to enter your account password. Ideally, you need this to be a strong password with some complexities, especially if you share your computer with others.

However, it is not easy to remember passwords. Microsoft understands this and offers Windows Hello on Windows 10 and Windows 11 to make it easier to sign in to your computer.

If you’ve never used Windows Hello before, stick around to learn how to set up Windows Hello fingerprint login on your Windows 11 computer to make it more secure and enable faster authentication.

Table of Contents

What is Windows Hello?

Windows Hello is a convenient and secure way to unlock your Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC. It facilitates quick access to your system by letting you log on to your computer with your face, fingerprint or PIN.

As such, you can choose from all available login options, such as PIN code, face recognition or fingerprint recognition. While PIN is available to most everyone, the availability of fingerprint and facial recognition depends on your computer’s hardware.

But generally speaking, if you have a moderately good laptop, it probably has a compatible fingerprint scanner. Meanwhile, if you have a PC, you can get a decent external fingerprint reader and connect it to your computer via USB.

How to set up Windows Hello on Windows 11

Setting up Windows Hello on Windows 11 requires you to set up a PIN code first. It’s required as a backup so you won’t be locked out of your computer in case your computer’s hardware doesn’t recognize your face or fingerprint. After you enter your PIN, you can set up Windows Hello fingerprint login on your computer.

How to set up a Windows Hello PIN code

If you haven’t already set up a PIN on your computer, you can do so using the following steps:

Launch Settings.
Select Accounts from the left sidebar.
On Accounts page in the right pane, scroll down to Account settings section and press Login Options to expand them.
Now, click on PIN code (Windows Hello) to expand the options and press Set up button.
Enter your account password and press OK to authenticate yourself and continue.
Enter a PIN code in New PIN code field and type it back in Confirm PIN field. If you want to include letters and symbols in the PIN code, check the Include letters and symbols option.
Click OK to create and set the PIN as your new login option.

After you’ve created a Windows Hello PIN, setting up fingerprint recognition is easy. Use the steps below to set it up on your PC. Regardless of whether you are using a built-in fingerprint reader on your laptop or a USB fingerprint scanner, the steps you need to take are the same.

Open Settings on your Windows 11 PC.
Press Accounts in the sidebar.
IN Accounts page on the right, click on Login Options to see all available Windows Hello options.
click on Fingerprint recognition (Windows Hello) to open the options.
Press Set up button.
On Windows Hello setup window, click on Got startedand when prompted for the PIN, enter the PIN you created earlier.
Swipe your finger over the fingerprint reader on your PC until it registers it completely.
Hit Close to close the setup window.

If you want to be extra careful, you can register a second finger with Windows Hello. That way, if the scanner doesn’t recognize one fingerprint, you can try the other one instead of having to resort to using the PIN.

To add an additional fingerprint, tap Add another finger in Windows Hello setup window and repeat the above steps again. Alternatively, you can do this later by expanding Fingerprint recognition settingsby clicking on Add a finger and repeat the same process.

Windows Hello second fingerprint setup option

How to log in to your Windows 11 PC using a fingerprint

With Windows Hello enabled and fingerprint unlock enabled on your computer, you can check if the fingerprint scanner on your PC is working by testing it.

To do this, press Win + L keys to lock the PC. Now swipe the registered finger over the fingerprint scanner on the computer. If your fingerprint scanner is functional and you were able to register your fingerprint correctly, you should have unlocked your PC by now.

But if this doesn’t work, try another finger if you have registered it. Alternatively, you can enter the PIN code when the PC asks you for it when your fingerprint is not recognized. And then, remove the fingerprint login and try to register your fingerprint again.

If you want to remove Windows Hello fingerprint recognition on your Windows 11 computer, maybe because it is slow or some other reason, you can get rid of it using these steps:

Launch Settings.
Select Accounting from the left sidebar and press Login Options on the right route.
click on Remove button.

Regardless of how many fingerprints you have entered, this will delete them all for you and remove the Windows Hello fingerprint login from your computer. After you’ve done this, you can still log in to your PC with the PIN code you generated earlier.

Sign in to your Windows 11 PC quickly and securely

Using the guide above, you should be able to set up Windows Hello on your Windows 11 PC quite easily. Once done, logging into your computer and authenticating access across different apps will seem much more convenient than before

Although there are currently only a handful of apps that use Windows Hello for authentication (such as Microsoft Office, Chrome and Dropbox), Microsoft has said that it understands the importance of Windows Hello and is working with several service providers to offer users a secure and convenient way to authenticate on their Windows machines.