If you sign in to your PC by drawing on a photo, take this as a warning: the Windows 11 picture password can no longer be set up from scratch. Microsoft has quietly ended new enrolment for the feature, and the change is one-way. Delete or reset the picture password you already have, and you will not be able to create another one.
The change shipped with the July 14, 2026 security update, KB5101650, which installs OS Builds 26200.8870 and 26100.8875 on Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2. It was not in the release notes at the time. Microsoft added it to the update’s change log on August 5, three weeks after the patch went out.
What Microsoft actually said about the Windows 11 picture password
The change log entry is short and reads, in full:
To help enhance security, picture password is no longer available for new enrollment. Users who have already configured a picture password can continue to use it to sign in to Windows. If a picture password is removed, disabled, or not previously configured, it cannot be set up again. We recommend using Windows Hello PIN, facial recognition, or fingerprint recognition where available.
Two things follow from that wording. First, this is not a removal — nothing was taken away from PCs that already use it, and existing picture passwords keep working. Second, the door only swings one way. Wipe it, turn it off, or find that a repair or reset has cleared it, and the option is gone for good on that account.
Picture password arrived with Windows 8 in 2012, letting you sign in by drawing three gestures — circles, straight lines, taps — over a photo of your choosing. It was always more of a touchscreen convenience than a security feature, and Microsoft has spent years steering people to Windows Hello instead.
A deprecation with no deprecation notice
The mechanics here are defensible; the communication is not. Microsoft maintains a public deprecated features list precisely so people can see what is going away before it goes. We checked it, and its companion removed-features page, on the day of writing: picture password appears on neither. There was no Windows Insider post, no deprecation article, no advisory. The only notice was a line added to a month-old patch note, and only after people had already started noticing the option had disappeared from Settings.
For a sign-in method, that matters more than for a retired app. Someone who reinstalls Windows, resets their PC, or removes the picture password while troubleshooting has no way to know they are making an irreversible choice — Windows itself gives no warning at the point of deletion. “Enhance security” is the stated reason, and it is a reasonable one, but a security improvement that arrives without telling anyone is also a support call waiting to happen.
What to do if you still use it
If picture password is your sign-in method, the practical advice is: leave it alone, and set up a backup method now so you are not stuck if it ever does get cleared. From Microsoft’s own instructions for configuring Windows Hello:
- Open Settings and go to
Accounts > Sign-in options. - Under Ways to sign in, choose PIN (Windows Hello), Facial recognition (Windows Hello), or Fingerprint recognition (Windows Hello).
- Select Set up and follow the prompts.
Facial recognition needs a Hello-compatible infrared camera and fingerprint sign-in needs a reader, so on an older desktop the PIN is usually the one that will work. A PIN is tied to that one device rather than to your Microsoft account, which is why Microsoft treats it as the safer default.
The change applies to Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 on machines that have taken the July 2026 update or later, including this month’s Patch Tuesday release. If your PC has not been updated in a while, the option may still be there — but it will not be for long.
Sources: Microsoft (KB5101650 change log), gHacks
