How to Login with Picture Password in Windows 11

This post shows students and new users how to add picture passwords to Windows 11 accounts so a user can sign in by highlighting parts of an image that are important to them and that they remember.

Windows 11 allows you to sign in with your picture. You can use any picture, and a set of gestures that you draw upon it to allow you to login to your PC. You’re allowed three gestures, that you can draw on the picture and create a unique patterns.

You can create patterns on the picture using your mouse, touchpad, or finger on a touchscreen to create a combination of circles, straight lines, and/or taps. Once the patterns are selected, you’ll be able to login when you correctly guess the correct parterns.

You can create a picture password for both your local account and Microsoft account.

The steps below will show you how to set it up and use it in Windows 11.

When you want to setup picture password in Windows 11, follow the steps below:

How to setup picture password in Windows 11

Picture password is a feature that allows you to sign in to your PC with your pictures. You don’t to remember complex password anymore. Simply guess the correct patterns on an image to sign in to your PC.

Windows 11 has a centralized location for majority of its settings. From system configurations to creating new users and updating Windows, all can be done from its System Settings pane.

To get to System Settings, you can use the Windows key + i shortcut or click on Start ==> Settings as shown in the image below:

Alternatively, you can use the search box on the taskbar and search for Settings. Then select to open it.

Windows Settings pane should look similar to the image below. In Windows Settings, click Accounts, select Sign-in options on the right pane of your screen shown in the image below.

On the Sign-in options settings pane, select Picture password to expand and click Add as highlighted below.

When you click Add above, it will prompt you to confirm your current password.

After confirming your password, you can then click on link on the left to Choose a picture to use.

Browse and select the picture you want to use. Then on the top right, click the link the reads “Use this picture” as highlighted below.

Now you can draw three gestures on the picture. You can use a combination of circles, straight lines, and taps. You must remember the size, the position of the gestures and the direction.

When you successfully draw and confirm a patterns, Windows should accept your unique patterns as your password. For this post, I drew three circles over both eyes and nose.