The password to your computer should not be shared lightly. It's the key to your kingdom: From work to social media to banking, your Windows PC certainly has access to your whole universe. As a result, Microsoft is pleading with us not to be morons who provide our passwords to anybody who asks. However, they are aware that some of us will, which is why they have lately included several strong mechanisms to protect us from ourselves:

How troublemakers take your PC's secret key:

The problem is phishing, or fooling someone into giving oversensitive digital information, such as their computer's password. Scammers are becoming increasingly adept at extracting this information from unsuspecting victims, progressing well beyond the conventional methods that appear corny and apparent these days. One technique is to construct websites that appear just like the ones you're attempting to access, but are completely bogus. Even if you catch the scam in time and do not click the login button, hackers may occasionally acquire your password just by typing it into these sites. While this is never a good thing, it's made worse if your Facebook password is also your computer password. Bad actors now know how to log into their computers:

Another problem is unauthorized password storage. If you save all of your passwords in a typical Word or Excel file, you expose yourself open to data theft. Passwords should only be stored in password-protected and encrypted sources, never in regular text that anybody can see. While the personal danger is high, so is the risk to businesses and networks. Because of weak or stolen passwords, hackers have hacked major institutions. Access to a single user's workstation might sometimes be enough to cause a total security collapse:

How Microsoft is assisting in the protection of your Windows password:

Microsoft included new tools to combat PC password theft with last week's major Windows 11 2022 update. The first is a warning that appears anytime you use your windows login credentials to access another website. The goal is to deter you from using your computer's password for any other service. If the site you're "logging into" is a phishing site, hackers will now have access to your PC's password; nevertheless, even a genuine site might suffer from a password leak. The second option alerts you anytime you input your password into software in which it is not safe to save it. Microsoft is attempting to discourage you from storing your passwords in programs such as Word or Notepad since they do not provide the same level of security as a real password manager:

How to Make Microsoft's New Password Protection Protocols Work:

These password security settings aren't activated by default for whatever reason, and they're hidden under Settings. To use them, you must in into your computer using your Windows password rather than Windows Hello. They will not work if you use a PIN to log into your PC, so you must first disable that option. (Go to Start > Settings > Accounts > Sign-in choices, choose the Windows Hello method to disable, and then click "Remove."):

Then, navigate to Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > App & browser control > Reputation-based protection settings. Check the Phishing protection, which should already be turned on. "Warn me about password reuse" and "Warn me about dangerous password storage" are two further choices to consider. If you enable both, you will receive notifications anytime you input your password in an insecure app: