Microsoft Edge has finally released passkey saving and syncing across Windows desktop devices using the Microsoft Password Manager. This fixed a major hurdle in the shift away from traditional passwords because things were complicated before.
Edge now lets you save and sync passkeys through the Microsoft Password Manager. When you create a passkey on a website that supports them, it gets saved directly to the Microsoft Password Manager. Since this manager is tied to your Microsoft account, your passkeys now follow you across all your supported Windows desktop devices.
You should know that this initial rollout does have a few limitations. Currently, the sync capability is exclusive to Windows desktop devices running version 10 and above, and you must be using a Microsoft Account, or MSA. The functionality is not yet available for mobile devices or for work and school accounts using Microsoft Entra ID, but Microsoft mentioned that expansion to more platforms is planned for the future.
On top of this, Microsoft is planning to release a Microsoft Password Manager plugin. This lets you use your synced passkeys outside of the Edge browser. That means you could potentially use passkeys in other browsers or separate applications running on Windows.
For the longest time, the biggest problem with Microsoft’s push of passkeys was how disjointed it was. Microsoft had spent some time trying to convince people to move their saved user IDs and passwords out of the Microsoft Authenticator mobile application and into the Edge browser. Edge was clearly meant to be the central hub for credential management, like how Google handles things with Chrome. However, Edge could only synchronize passwords across devices. Passkeys were stuck.
The previous setup meant that passkeys were often device-bound, which is a fancy way of saying they were tied directly to the specific Windows machine where you created them. If you made a passkey for PayPal or eBay on your Windows desktop, that credential was locked down to that computer through Windows Hello and the Trusted Platform Module. This meant you couldn’t synchronize that passkey to your laptop, your tablet, or any other copy of Edge.
I would say this was a huge issue because it completely defeated the purpose of convenience that passkeys are supposed to offer. You had to manage multiple, non-syncable credentials for the same website, which is exactly what people hate about passwords.
For those who haven’t tried, the setup process is straightforward. When you create your very first passkey using the Microsoft Password Manager, you will be asked to set up a Microsoft Password Manager PIN. This PIN is crucial because it acts as an extra layer of protection for all your saved passkeys. When you sign in to a brand new device and try to access your synced passkeys, you will be required to verify yourself by inputting that PIN.
The created passkeys are stored and encrypted in the cloud. If you happen to forget your PIN, you can reset it from a device that already has passkey access. You get a maximum of ten attempts to input the correct PIN on a new device before access is locked down.
If you have existing saved passwords, don’t worry about them disappearing. Your passwords remain untouched, and you can continue using them as usual.
Source: Windows Blog