System-preferred authentication
Microsoft's edit ·
Microsoft's commit message in MicrosoftDocs/entra-docs · commit a34fa05 · +3 −3 lines · also on GitHub
⋯ 15 unchanged lines
1616
1717
System-preferred authentication prompts users to sign in by using the most secure method they registered. It's an important security enhancement for users who authenticate by using less secure methods like passwords or SMS.
1818
19
−> [!NOTE]
20
−> Microsoft managed behavior affects both first-factor and multifactor authentication and is being gradually deployed to tenants through July 2026. If your tenant or users aren't experiencing system-preferred authentication as the first factor when the **State** is **Microsoft managed**, the rollout isn't deployed yet for your tenant.
21
−
2219
For example, if a user registered both a password and a passkey, system-preferred authentication prompts the user to sign in with the passkey instead of the password. The user can still choose to sign in by using another method, but they're first prompted to try the most secure method they registered.
2320
2421
System-preferred authentication is a Microsoft managed setting, which is a [three-state policy](#authentication-method-feature-configuration-properties) (enabled, disabled, or Microsoft managed). If you don't want to enable system-preferred authentication, change the state from **Microsoft managed** to **Disabled**, or exclude users and groups from the policy.
22
+
23
+> [!NOTE]
24
+> Microsoft managed behavior affects both first-factor and multifactor authentication and is being gradually deployed to tenants through July 2026. If your tenant or users aren't experiencing system-preferred authentication as the first factor when the **State** is **Microsoft managed**, the rollout isn't deployed yet for your tenant.
2525
2626
After system-preferred authentication is enabled, the authentication system does all the work. Users don't need to set any authentication method as their default because the system always determines and presents the most secure method they registered.
2727
⋯ 138 unchanged lines
Microsoft's Markdown source from MicrosoftDocs/entra-docs, © Microsoft Corporation, under MIT. Changed lines with up to 3 unchanged lines around each; ChangeIntel kept this copy 9 Oct 21:34 UTC. The commit date is when the source changed, which can be hours or days before Learn published it.