Today, Yubico announced the general availability of the Yubico Login for Windows application for securely gaining access to local Windows accounts. The release follows six months of gathering feedback from users via a public preview.
Formerly known as Windows Logon Tool, the updated security application provides multi-factor authentication (MFA) when logging in using local accounts to a Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 PC. However, it does not work with local Windows accounts managed by Azure Active Directory (AAD) or Active Directory (AD).
Nonetheless, the YubiKey MFA remains an option for organizations with AAD or AD ecosystems, and users can authenticate their account without the use of passwords using computers linked to a cloud-based AAD in Azure AD preview. In addition, AD-managed accounts support YubiKey verification as a PIV-compliant smart card.
YubiKey, a hardware authentication device built by Yubico, has been one of the compatible security hardware for Windows Hello since 2017. It allows users to log in to their device with options for NFC and two-factor authentication.
Additionally, Yubico Login for Windows allows users to configure Yubico"s security key to secure a local OS account. It should be mentioned that only up to 10 users are allowed to perform this configuration.