Back in February, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will support the Fast Identity Online 2.0 protocol, allowing biometric authentication in the form of facial, fingerprint or retina scanning. Windows 10 has incorporated the feature and called it Microsoft Hello, which will allow users to log in using the aforementioned biometric criteria: retina, face, or fingerprint. According to PCWorld, “Microsoft said that all PCs incorporating the Intel F200 RealSense 3D Camera will support the facial and iris unlock features of Windows Hello,” but users would require an additional fingerprint scanner to fully utilize the feature.

If more computers come equipped with Hello-compatible webcams, or if external webcams that support biometric scanning become more affordable, the feature has a chance to support multi-factor biometric authentication for websites and applications on a larger scale, potentially changing the way people use login criteria on the internet. According to Microsoft, the “system enables you to authenticate applications, enterprise content, and even certain online experiences without a password being stored on your device or in a network server at all.” 

Furthermore, Microsoft has bundled Windows 10 with its new web browser, Edge. According to Trend Micro, “Edge is not entirely all-new. Its HTML rendering engine is a forked version of Trident (the engine found in Internet Explorer), which is now called Microsoft Edge HTML. However, much of the underlying code has been modified to remove IE-specific technologies.” In addition to numerous under-the-hood security enhancements listed here, the development of the browser has made several improvements over previous versions of IE. Before Edge was released, Microsoft offered generous bug bounties to hackers and security researches to discover vulnerabilities and exploits that may affect the new browser, paying up to six figures for significant findings.

Furthermore, the new Edge browser does not support outdated extensions. “Microsoft Edge provides no support for VML, VB Script, Toolbars, BHOs, or ActiveX. The need for such extensions is significantly reduced by the rich capabilities of HTML5, and using HTML5 results in sites that are interoperable across browsers.” PCMag makes the point that “Overall, Microsoft's aim has been to eliminate easy points of entry for hackers, even if it means eliminating backward compatibility and legacy features.”

As Microsoft has released a number of last minute security patches, time will tell if Windows 10 is the most secure version of the world’s most popular OS. Get Windows virus protection with Ad-Aware.