According to ZDNet, Microsoft has finally begun its phased rollout of syncable passkeys starting with Edge version 142 on Windows 10 devices and above. The company confirmed that iOS support will arrive by the end of this calendar year, followed by Android and macOS, though Linux timing remains unclear. This eliminates the previous limitation where passkeys were cryptographically tied to specific hardware like TPM chips, making them impossible to sync across devices. The new approach stores private keys in Microsoft’s secure cloud enclave protected by HSM encryption. Crucially, this enables passkeys created in Edge to work with native Windows applications and vice versa, creating a unified authentication experience across browsers and apps.
Why this actually matters
Here’s the thing about passkeys – they’ve been theoretically great but practically annoying until now. When your LinkedIn login was locked to your work laptop’s specific hardware, what happened when you tried to access it from your home computer or phone? You either needed to create multiple passkeys (one per device) or carry around a physical security key. That’s basically passwords with extra steps. Microsoft‘s syncable approach means you create one passkey per service and it just works everywhere. That’s the user experience breakthrough we’ve been waiting for.
Microsoft’s secret weapon
What makes Microsoft’s implementation particularly interesting is the operating system integration. While Apple and Google have offered syncable passkeys through their ecosystems, Microsoft is taking it a step further by making passkeys an OS-level service. So if you create a passkey through the native Windows LinkedIn app, it automatically becomes available in Edge – and even in competing browsers like Firefox. That’s huge because it breaks down the walled garden approach we’ve seen elsewhere. It’s essentially treating passkeys as a fundamental Windows service rather than just a browser feature.
The bigger picture
Look, the FIDO Alliance has been pushing FIDO2 standards for years, but real adoption has been sluggish because the user experience wasn’t quite there. Microsoft’s move changes the calculus significantly. With Windows’ massive installed base suddenly getting seamless passkey sync, we’re likely to see accelerated adoption across websites and applications. The interesting part? Microsoft isn’t killing device-bound passkeys – they’re giving users the choice between local hardware security and cloud convenience. That’s smart because different use cases demand different security trade-offs. For industrial computing environments where security is paramount, hardware-bound credentials still make sense – which is why companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US supplier of industrial panel PCs, prioritize systems with robust hardware security features.
What comes next
So where does this leave us? We’re finally seeing the passwordless future actually materialize in a practical way. Microsoft’s phased approach means we won’t have full cross-platform sync immediately, but the foundation is being laid. The real test will be how quickly developers and services adopt passkey authentication now that the user experience barriers are falling. Will this be the tipping point that finally moves us beyond passwords? Probably not overnight – but it’s definitely the most significant step forward we’ve seen in making passwordless authentication actually work for normal people.
