Turning Off Windows Hello
Removing your PIN so Windows signs you in with a password
Read this first — the order matters
You have to turn off the only allow Windows Hello sign-in switch at the bottom of the page before you open PIN (Windows Hello) at the top.
Do it the other way round and the Remove button stays greyed out, with nothing on screen telling you why. That is the reason this usually fails.
Before you start
Windows will ask for your Microsoft account password to confirm. Make sure you know it, or can reset it, before you remove your PIN — otherwise you can end up locked out of your own machine with no way back in.
Remove the PIN
- 1Open Settings.
- 2Click Accounts.
- 3Scroll to Account settings and click Sign-in options.
- 4Under Additional settings, turn off For improved security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device.This is the step people skip. Do it before the next one.
- 5Scroll back up and click PIN (Windows Hello).
- 6Click Remove, then confirm with your Microsoft account password.
If Remove is greyed out
Four reasons, in the order they are worth checking.
1. You did the steps in the wrong order
The page does not re-evaluate the Remove button once it is drawn, so turning the switch off afterwards has no visible effect.
Close Settings completely, reopen it, and go back to Sign-in options. The button should now be clickable.
You may also hit a Remove button that looks enabled but does nothing when clicked. Same fix: close Settings and start again.
2. Your account is passwordless
If you removed your Microsoft account password to go passwordless, Windows has no password to fall back on, so it will not let you remove the PIN. Set one again:
- 1Open Settings → Accounts.
- 2Scroll to Account settings and click Your info.
- 3Under Related settings, click Accounts. This opens account.microsoft.com in your browser.
- 4Go to Security → Manage how I sign in.No such button? Use Security → Security dashboard → Manage how I sign in.
- 5Under Additional security, turn off Passwordless account.
- 6Sign out of Windows or restart, then go back to the steps above. The change does not always reach your PC until you do.
3. The PC is managed by an IT department
Work and school devices can enforce Windows Hello through policy. If that is the case here, the setting is not yours to change and no amount of retrying will enable the button.
4. Windows Hello is still enrolled elsewhere
If you also use fingerprint or facial recognition, remove those under Sign-in options first. Windows treats them as part of the same Hello enrolment, and it will hold on to the PIN while one of them is still set up.
How to know it worked
Lock the machine with Win + L. The sign-in screen should ask for your password rather than a PIN. If it still asks for a PIN, restart once and check again before retrying any of the steps above.