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We all know that Windows 10 comes with multiple sign-in options available. This is possible due to the presence of various Credential Providers in the operating system. In earlier versions of Windows such Windows XP, Windows Vista, etc., the password credential provider was the only option. After Windows 8, there were some new additions to the credential providers family - and now we have many members in it.
The above-shown screen illustrates the importance of credential providers. Here you can see there are two sign-in options available to the user. Now he can select either of them as per his choice. If you minutely observe this login screen, you'll find that Password sign-in icon is selected by default, when you would have click Sign-in options link. This is because the password sign-in provider is actually the default credential provider here.
In this article, we'll show you how to assign a default credential provider to user accounts in Windows 10. You may need to sign-in as administrator to follow these steps.
Assign default Credential Provider in Windows 10
1. Press Windows Key + R combination, type regedit in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\Credential Providers
The list of registered credential providers and their GUIDs can be found here.
3. In the above-shown window, expand the Credential Providers key and you'll see some long-named sub-keys. These long sub-keys are with their name as CLSID, corresponds to a specific credential provider. You've to highlight these sub-keys, one-by-one and in the corresponding right pane, checkout the Data for (Default) registry string. This will help you to identify which CLSID is for which provider. In this way, pick the default credential provider's CLSID and note down it.
4. Now press Windows Key + R combination, type gpedit.msc in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
5. In the Local Group Policy Editor window, go to:
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon
6. In the right pane of the above-shown window, look for the policy setting named Assign a default credential provider. The policy is Not Configured by default. Double click on it to get this window:
This policy setting allows the administrator to assign a specified credential provider as the default credential provider. If you enable this policy setting, the specified credential provider is selected on other user tile. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the system picks the default credential provider on other user tile.
7. Finally, set the policy to Enabled state and in the Assign the following credential provider as the default credential provider input box, type the CLSID we noted down in step 3.
Click Apply followed by OK. You can close the Group Policy Editor and reboot to make changes effective.
Hope you find the article useful!
