Microsoft says a bug in Windows 11 is hiding the “password” icon, which shows up when you login to the PC. If you have set up Windows Hello, which can be a PIN or fingerprint, you’ll almost always see PIN, but if you tap on the ‘show sign-in options,’ it will also bring up ‘password’ option. Now, the password icon won’t show up due to a new known issue.
Microsoft is not saying that it broke the main PIN box you see when you unlock your PC, but it’s referring to the small button/icon that shows up inside “Sign-in opptions,” which allows you to switch to password sign-in (the little key icon). After updates released in August, September, October and November, the password option is not visible.
“You might notice that the password icon is not visible in the sign-in options on the lock screen,” Microsoft noted in a support document spotted by Windows Latest. If you don’t use Windows Hello at all, you’ll never see the “Show sign-in options.” But in all other cases, the “Show sign-in options” is right below the PIN box.
You can tap the “Show sign-in options” to see the password option, but that will be missing on some PCs. Microsoft says the option is not broken, but it’s just not visible, which means if you clear here and there below the PIN box, you’ll eventually trigger the show password field option.
“If you hover over the space where the icon should appear, you’ll see that the password button is still available,” Microsoft noted. “Select this placeholder to open the password text box and enter your password. After entering your password, you can sign in normally.”
Microsoft really wants you to guess where the password option is… but it should not be a rocket science because it’s always lurking around the PIN area. If you are still unable to find it, try clicking randomly on the lock screen. It’ll trigger the password option. Seriously, that’s really all you can do while the company figures out a solution.
Recent Windows Update issues
At this point, we wonder what went wrong with Windows development? Pavan Davuluri, who is the head of Windows and devices, is actually someone who deeply cares about the company’s Windows and hardware business.
It’s very likely that the recent layoffs have hit Windows devision, and lack of internal testers (Q/A) team is not helping.
It’s not just the login issue. For example, the October 2025 Update broke WinRE (Windows Recovery). Later, we found that the cumulative update is hurting performance on some gaming PCs. In our tests, Windows Latest spotted games have lower than usual FPS, and Nvidia finally issued a hotpatch to address the performance problem.
What about you? Do you also have issues after recent Windows updates? Let us know in the comments below.
