Organizations have another  reason to start making plans to adopt Windows 10 now that Microsoft has revealed that the next release of its operating system will support biometric authentication, enabling security administrators to ditch passwords in favor of stronger security measures.

The feature implements the second version of the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) specification from the industry consortium of the same name. The group formed in the summer of 2012 with the backing of PayPal, Lenovo Group Ltd. and several smaller companies to develop an alternative to conventional log-in security.

Passwords serve their purpose most of the time, but can become cumbersome to manage across multiple accounts, which inevitably leads to forgetful business workers finding themselves locked out of services and burdening the operations team with reset requests. Password reset requests tie up corporate help desks and many people still use passwords that are too easy to guess. This leaves their accounts vulnerable to social engineering and brute-force attacks.

Service providers fret about coming under attack and losing passwords to hackers, a scenario that is not only beyond an organization’s control but can also compromise other accounts sharing the same log-in details. That is the kind of risk FIDO 2.0 promises to avoid.

The specification breaks down the security challenge to two parts. First, it provides a common standard for devices such as fingerprint and eye scanners to communicate with services, which makes it feasible for providers to support biometric identification. Second, it removes the risk of hackers intercepting log-in details by processing the input locally and transmitting cryptographic strings that are only useful for verification purposes.

FIDO 2.0 also features optional two-factor authentication, requiring the user to provide secondary proof of their identity, such as the answer to a secret question or an authentication code sent to their phone. Microsoft is showing off the specification in the Technical Preview of Windows 10, which extends support for biometric identification to both the on-premise and cloud editions of Active Directory as well as popular managed services such as Office 365, Salesforce and Box.

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