How to disable the password when signing in to Windows 11

These are mandatory additional steps in the login process at startup, reboot, wake up from sleep or hibernation. Thanks to this, your computer and files are protected from prying eyes.

Most users do not like these extra steps to protect against intruders. This is especially true for desktop computers or laptops that are used only at home, when the security of the device will not be affected.

Outsiders don’t have access to these devices, so users don’t like to constantly enter their Microsoft account, offline local account, or PIN every time they turn on or restart their computer.

In such situations, the user needs to sign in without a Windows 11 password. To solve this problem, there are several methods that allow you to disable the password in Windows 11 or remove the PIN when logging into the operating system.

Follow the instructions in this guide to learn how to turn off password entry in Windows 11 on a Microsoft account or an offline local account so that you can sign in automatically.

How to remove the password on Windows 11 in the settings

First, let’s look at a way to disable a Microsoft account that has a password and uses a PIN to sign in, one of the features of Windows Hello. Windows 11 users who sign in with a local account or don’t use Windows Hello features can skip to step 7 of this guide.

The whole process takes place in two stages:

1. First you need to turn off Windows Hello (the Windows 11 PIN requested when you sign in to the operating system).
2. Then you need to remove the password when logging into Windows

The procedure for enabling or disabling passwordless login in Windows 11 is as follows:

1. Press the Win + I keys to open the Settings app.
2. From the Options window, go to the Accounts tab.
3. In the right pane, click on Sign In Options.
4. In the Sign In Options window, under Advanced Options, you will see an option: “For increased security, allow Windows Hello sign in for Microsoft accounts on this device (recommended)”.

Turning this setting off will allow password sign-in in Windows 11. When you turn on passwordless sign-in, entering a PIN is required.

5. Move the switch slider to the “Disabled” position.
6. In the option “If you’re away, how long should Windows require you to sign in again?” set the option to “Never”.
7. Right-click on the Start menu, click on Run.
8. In the Run dialog box, run the “netplwiz” “control userpasswords2” command.
9. In the “User Accounts” window, in the “Users” tab, highlight the name of the current user.
10. Uncheck the “Require username and password” box.
11. Click on the “OK” button.
12. In the Automatic Login window, enter the password for this account (not the PIN).
13. Confirm the password, and then click on “OK”.
14. Restart your computer.

If you have Windows Hello sign-in enabled on your PC, do the following:

1. Right click on the start menu.
2. Select “Windows Terminal (Administrator)”.
3. After opening the terminal window, press the keys “Ctrl” + “Shift” + “2”.
4. In the command prompt window, enter the command:

reg ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device" /v DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

5. Press “Enter” and then reboot your system.

Return to step 5 of this guide to disable the password on Windows 11 startup.

Similarly, you can remove the password prompt on a local account if this feature is used on a computer.

How to enter Windows 11 without a password after changing the registry

The same procedure can be performed using the Windows 11 Registry Editor system tool. To do this, you will need to change some system registry values.

Do the following:

1. Press the Win and R keys at the same time to open the Run window.
2. In the “Open:” field, type “regedit” and press “Enter” to open the Registry Editor window.
3. Navigate to the following path in the Registry Editor window:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device

4. Right-click on the “DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion” setting.
5. In the menu that opens, click on “Edit …”.
6. In the “Change DWORD (32-bit) Value” window, in the “Value:” field, enter “2”.

• If the value “2” is used, only login without a password is allowed. This means that you cannot log in using a password.
• If the value is “0”, you can use a password to login.

7. Save your changes and then restart your PC.

Disable password in Windows 11 in Autologon

Microsoft has an AutoLogon program that allows you to set up automatic logon to Windows 11. This is a tool from Mark Russinovich’s Windows Sysinternals utility package. The application does not require installation and is launched from a folder.

Autologon uses encrypted account password data from the registry, allowing automatic logon without the user entering a name and password or PIN.

Go through the following:

1. Download the application from the link: https://download.sysinternals.com/files/AutoLogon.zip .
2. Unpack the ZIP archive on your computer.
3. Open the “Autologon” folder.
4. Double click on the “Autologon64” file.
5. In the window with the terms of use, click on the “Agree” button.
6. The application window will automatically display the username (Username) and the device name (Domain).
7. Enter the current password in the “Password:” field, and then click on the “Enable” button.
8. A message appears to disable the password requirement.
9. Close the program window, restart the computer to remove the password prompt when logging in to Windows

Switching to a local account without entering a password in Windows 11

Check out another workaround: Switch to an offline passwordless account that can be used instead of a Microsoft account.

Go through a few steps:

1. Open the Accounts tab in the Settings app.
2. In the “Account Settings” option, click on the “Sign in with a local account instead” setting.
3. In the “Are you sure you want to switch to a local account?” click on the “Next” button.
4. In the Verify Your Identity window that opens, enter your Microsoft account password.
5. In the next “Enter local account details” window, leave all fields blank except for the username.
6. In the “Switch to a local account” window, click on the “Log out and finish work” button.
7. Sign in with an offline account that doesn’t require a password.

Article Conclusions

Some users need to remove their Windows 11 sign-in password to automatically sign in to the operating system. By default, in a Microsoft account, a password request or PIN entry is required after the computer starts, restarts, wakes up from sleep or hibernation. You can disable password entry from system settings by editing the registry, use the AutoLogon application, or switch to an offline local account without using a password.