AuthenticatorChooser Prerelease

AuthenticatorChooser automatically skips Windows’ phone-pairing choice in applicable FIDO and WebAuthn prompts, selecting a connected USB security key instead. It runs as a headless background process in the Windows user session and waits for Windows FIDO credential-provider dialogs to appear. Using Microsoft UI Automation, it reads and interacts with those dialogs so the Bluetooth pairing screen can give way quickly to the security-key prompt.

A Windows Security credential prompt may appear when software such as a browser requests WebAuthn authentication, offering a USB key or a passkey stored in the computer’s TPM and protected by a Windows Hello PIN, fingerprint, or other biometrics. Windows 11 22H2 Moment 4 and later, including 23H2, can also offer passkeys from Android and iOS devices over Bluetooth, while earlier Windows 10 and Windows 11 behavior commonly prioritized a local TPM authenticator when one matched. By default, AuthenticatorChooser leaves local TPM passkey prompts, such as Windows Hello requests, alone.

It is intended for people who routinely authenticate with USB FIDO security keys and prefer that option to phone pairing in Windows prompts. Published by Aldaviva, this open-source Windows program is provided for x64 systems.

Version 0.5.0-beta.1 adds optional automatic submission of a security-key PIN after a customizable number of characters, enabled with --autosubmit-pin-length=5 for a five-character PIN. It also improves detection of the Windows 23H2 and 25H2 FIDO dialog styles by using unique automation IDs instead of UI label text that can collide in some languages.