Windows 11 and Windows 10 users might be faced with a rather odd-seeming full-screen pop-up after they’ve upgraded, pertaining to Windows Hello logins using facial recognition or a fingerprint.
Neowin spotted a Microsoft support document explaining that after June 13 – the day the most recent cumulative update was released for Windows 11 (and 10) – you might see the aforementioned pop-up panel if you’ve recently updated to a later version of Windows.
And it can also appear if you haven’t signed into your Windows device using Windows Hello in over a year, and you’ve just installed an update.
The prompt reads, “Choose if you want to keep signing in with your face or fingerprint,” then poses the question: “Do you want to keep storing your face or fingerprint data on this PC?”
If you choose ‘yes’ then nothing more needs to be done. If you decide you don’t want to use these biometric login methods any longer, when you click ‘no’ Windows will take you to the Settings app, where you can change your sign-in method.
Analysis: Permission to be confused, Captain
This is a strange one because we’re not told why Microsoft has decided this prompt is necessary. Has the software giant just spontaneously decided to check if users still want to continue with Windows Hello?
Well, if they haven’t used their biometric login for over a year, that seems like a fair enough helpful check to implement. However, that’s clearly not the full story, as folks who’ve used Windows Hello recently and regularly are seeing this panel too, if they’ve recently upgraded to a newer version of Windows 11 or 10. So why quiz them on the matter?
We’re not told, and that’s a bit confusing – it’d be nice to be given a reason. Could it be something to do with issues around login data permissions? Well, we’re just guessing here.
Whatever the case, it would really make sense to clarify the reason on the actual pop-up screen in Windows, or at least provide a link to that clarification for the curious. Just so people aren’t potentially confused about why they’re seeing the prompt on their PC.
Granted, plenty of folks may not care, and in the bigger picture, this is a very minor inconvenience, but still, the whole episode just seems a bit odd to us – the support document is all well and good, but doesn’t tell the full story.