Microsoft has announced support for third-party passkey managers in Windows 11: Third-party passkey manager support - Windows apps | Microsoft Learn
Does Bitwarden have plans to support this in the near term? That would be really neat, because I feel like lack syncability of passkeys across platforms is a major issue that needs to be solved for it to really take off as a viable alternative to passwords.
Here it is even mentioned, that they work together with the FIDO alliance, Bitwarden and others on this: Passkeys on Windows: Authenticate seamlessly with passkey providers - Windows Developer Blog
But unfortunately, I donât know more about it (including when that change will come to Windows 11?)âŚ
Ugh, reading the Microsoft documentation for this feature makes me fear that the passkey UX will become even worse than it already is. Now, instead of the Bitwarden browser extension being able to directly intercept passkey creation/authorization requests, we would have to first click through a âWindows Securityâ prompt.
Also, Windows will now force the User Verification to be done using Windows Hello, instead of allowing the third-party passkey manager to implement a User Verification method for passkeys stored there.
All that was really needed is a way to disable all passkey handling by the Windows OS, so that we could skip all of the unnecessary âWindows Securityâ prompts (when using Yubikeys, for example). Instead, what seems to have been developed is a framework for inserting even more Windows OS hooks into the handling of passkeys by other parties.
Passkeys are âand will remain â a dumpster fire.
I am able to use Passkeys, via the Bitwarden browser extension, on Windows 11 today using Brave.
I do not have a Microsoft account, only a local account.
Youâre able to use them in the browser, yes, but if Bitwarden were to use the passkeys API in Windows they could also be used to authenticate in other apps.
Here are two presentations from the âAuthenticate conference 2024â (Oct 14-16, 2024) by the FIDO Alliance:
âPasskeys on Windows: New Platform Featuresâ by Bob Gilbert, Software Engineering Manager, Microsoft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ams3QIbVJ08
And small glimpses also here, beginning at around 10:00: âPasskeys on Windows: Paving the Way to a Frictionless Future!â by Sushma K, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft and Ritesh Kumar, Software Engineer, Microsoft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZFs6Hhqxz0
PS: Also in those videos, they (MS) spoke of âlaunch sometime early in 2025â - but I havenât seen anything new to that⌠
As this isnât an official Microsoft website, they do mention Bitwarden by name so ÂŻ_(ă)_/ÂŻ
@MFKDGAF Yeah, Microsoft mentions Bitwarden also directly on itâs Windows Developer Blog, in a post from Oct 8, 2024 - see the link I posted here.
Petri cites their source in the very first sentence: " Microsoft has announced that itâs expanding support for passkeys in Windows 11." That link (same one @Nail1684 cited earlier) is a Microsoft site that mentions with whom they are working.
Please add support for the passkey plugin API on Windows 11
See
@mxmusic Welcome to the forum!
I moved your post into an existing feature request to the same topic.
A quick followup to this: Microsoft included this change in Release Preview channel, and maybe it will be rolled out to everyone in the next Patch Tuesday update.
[Passkeys] New! A seamless plugin passkey provider integration in Windows 11. You can now use plugin credential manager for passkeys. To set up a plugin credential manager, go to Settings > Accounts > Passkeys > Advanced options. Turn on support and complete user verification using Windows Hello (through face recognition, fingerprint, or PIN). Once verified, you can use your existing passkeys saved to the plugin credential manager or save new passkeys.
More detailed information about the âplugin passkey provider integrationâ is available here:
From an initial read, the main functionality is that this allows Windows Hello (biometrics or PIN) to be used for user verification when using passkeys stored in a third-party password manager. It is not clear whether passkeys that were created and verified using Windows Hello on one device will be usable on any other device (the passkeys themselves may be syncable, but the biometric data used by Windows Hello will always stay on the local device).
It will be interesting to see if Bitwarden will try to use this integration (as opposed to developing their own user verification functionality). IMO, it is essential for any user verification method used by Bitwarden to be syncable.
I expect Windows Hello as UVâŚ
I think there is a similar integration possible (or planned) for MacOS - but I donât know if there is anything similar for Linux. â And interesting to see, if Linux will remain without UV or if Bitwarden has to develop an own UV for Linux.
I wonder if this may be forcing bitwarden into this api because latest 25h2 windows 11 update no longer allows bitwarden to intercept passkey setup on websites (at least on firefox) making it as far as I can tell impossible to create passkeys via the browser extension.
I just tested this â and could create a passkey for this forum just as before with the Firefox extension.
(Latest Win 11 25H2 updates (Build 26200.6899) installed, Firefox 144, BW extension 2025.9.0)
Yeah, I spoke too soon and was wrong. I tried setting up a passkey for OVH and they do something weird that doesnât work for bitwarden. Thanks for the clarification.
Maybe itâs on their end - but maybe it would be worth reporting as a possible bug as well on GitHub (âNew issueâ).
@user269 Welcome to the forum!
A week ago, a Beta was announced:
