Unable to Remove Unknown Microsoft Passkey from Windows 11

Question

I’m having an issue with a passkey stored on my Windows 11 device.

In:

Settings → Accounts → Passkeys

I can see a passkey for:

Website: login.microsoft.com Account: [@gmail.com]

This account does not belong to me, and I do not know why its passkey is stored on my device.

When I try to delete it, Windows shows the following message:

“This pass key can't be deleted because it's required to sign in to this device.”

However, this account is not my Windows sign-in account. My own Microsoft account uses a different email address.

I have also tried resetting the Windows Hello container using:

certutil.exe -DeleteHelloContainer

but the unknown passkey still remains in the Passkeys list.

I would like to know:

1. Why Windows considers this unknown passkey “required to sign in to this device.”
2. How I can permanently remove only this passkey without affecting my own Microsoft account or Windows profile.
3. Whether this could indicate that the other Microsoft account was previously linked to my device in some way.

I can provide screenshots of the Passkeys page and the error message if required.

Answer 1

Hi Jia Zhen Kuek,

I can understand why this would be concerning, especially when the passkey is associated with an email address you do not recognize and Windows reports that it is required for sign-in.

While the passkey entry appears under Microsoft Account, its presence does not necessarily confirm unauthorized access to your device. Passkeys are tied to Windows Hello credentials and can sometimes remain associated with accounts that were previously added to the device or used during sign-in activities.

To help narrow down the source of the entry, you can check the following:

1, Review accounts linked to Windows

• Open Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts
• Review any Microsoft accounts listed under accounts used by other apps
• Remove any unfamiliar accounts that are no longer needed

2, Check Work or School connections

• Go to Settings > Accounts > Access work or school
• Look for any old organizational or personal connections that may no longer be in use

3, Review browser passkeys

• If you use Edge or Chrome, open the browser's password/passkey settings
• Check whether the same account appears there and remove it if appropriate

Since Windows currently identifies the passkey as required for device sign-in, I would recommend avoiding manual modifications to the Windows Hello credential store. Removing or altering protected sign-in credentials could affect access to the profile.

If the account cannot be identified through the above checks and the passkey remains undeletable, the next step would be to contact Microsoft Support so the credential relationship can be investigated further.

I hope this helps provide some direction. Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

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Answer 2

Passkeys are new, so people are still unfamiliar with them.

Nobody can put a passkey on your device other than you, because you have to authenticate (prove your identity) before a passkey is created.

You have a Microsoft account - that's how you're able to post here - and a Microsoft account can be signed in with a passkey. In fact, that's a very good idea.

Here's where it starts to get confusing: the technology behind passkeys is standardized, however the industry has not agreed on a standard user interface, so each website does it their own way.

Microsoft (and Google) are particularly aggressive about installing passkeys on devices, perhaps because they're tired of getting so many complaints about stolen accounts.

If you already authenticate to your device in a password-less way, like with a pin or a biometric, then you have already authenticated to your device, which is what a passkey needs in order to work.

So what probably happened is that a passkey for your Microsoft account was installed on your device, either automatically, or because you were confused by a dialog box that Microsoft presented to you. However, with the changes you have made to your system, I can't predict what's happening on your computer now. In future, if you want to delete a passkey stored on your device, Microsoft's supported method is on their website: View and delete passkeys saved in Windows