Policy

Use Windows Hello for Business certificates as smart card certificates

If you enable this policy setting, applications use Windows Hello for Business certificates as smart card certificates. Biometric factors are unavailable when a user is asked to authorize the use of the certificate's private key. This policy setting is designed to allow compatibility with applications that rely exclusively on smart card certificates. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, applications do not use Windows Hello for Business certificates as smart card certificates, and biometric factors are available when a user is asked to authorize the use of the certificate's private key. This policy setting is incompatible with Windows Hello for Business credentials provisioned when the "Turn off smart card emulation" is enabled. Windows requires a user to lock and unlock their session after changing this setting if the user is currently signed in.

Policy
Pack Microsoft Windows
Category Windows Components / Windows Hello for Business
Policy ID 35bf49616e6f
Internal name MSPassport_UseHelloCertificatesAsSmartCardCertificates

Registry

Copy registry mappings

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\PassportForWork\UseHelloCertificatesAsSmartCardCertificates (enabled) = 1
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\PassportForWork\UseHelloCertificatesAsSmartCardCertificates (disabled) = 0

Policy notes

If you enable this policy setting, applications use Windows Hello for Business certificates as smart card certificates. Biometric factors are unavailable when a user is asked to authorize the use of the certificate's private key. This policy setting is designed to allow compatibility with applications that rely exclusively on smart card certificates. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, applications do not use Windows Hello for Business certificates as smart card certificates, and biometric factors are available when a user is asked to authorize the use of the certificate's private key. This policy setting is incompatible with Windows Hello for Business credentials provisioned when the "Turn off smart card emulation" is enabled. Windows requires a user to lock and unlock their session after changing this setting if the user is currently signed in.

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