Since Microsoft released Windows 10 back in July, we have been seen a lot of new devices coming to the market, but we haven’t seen many shipping with hardware to let users to sign in with facial recognition using Window Hello.

Intel has been selling its RealSense hardware development kit for a while, but again thus far it has been the only third-party company offering a peripheral to support the new security feature. Furthermore, if you try to get one, it can be hard to find it in stock, as the demand for the $120 kit is very high.

It’s really strange that we’re not seeing many companies creating devices with support for Windows Hello when clearly anyone who knows about the feature wants to have it.

Although, it’s unclear when we’re going to see more peripherals and computers supporting Windows Hello, if you want to use the feature today, you now have another solution. You can use your Xbox One Kinect with a special cable to connect it to your Windows 10 device and a set of beta drivers from the Kinect for Windows developer program.

Once you have all the required equipment, you need to connect your Xbox One Kinect to your Windows 10 device and follow the steps below.

Use Xbox One Kinect with Windows Hello in Windows 10

  • Go to Start, do a search for regedit to open the Registry.
  • You need to opt-in your device to receive driver flighting and to do this, you need to create a Notepad file with the code you see below, and save the file with a .reg extension.
  • Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DriverFlighting\Partner]
  • “TargetRing”=“Drivers”
  • If you want to configure the registry manually, you can follow the instructions from this Microsoft support page.
  • Once you create the file, right-click it and select Import from the context menu. This registry file will create a subkey DriverFlighting and Partner, and set a string named TargetRing with the value Drivers.
  • Now that Windows 10 knows that it can download preview drivers, go to Start, do a search and open Device Manager.
  • Expand the “Kinect sensor devices”.
  • Right-click on “WDF KinectSensor Interface 0”.
  • Click “Update Driver Software…”
  • Click “Search automatically for updated driver software”.
  • Allow it to download and install the new driver to complete the process.
  • Restart your computer.

That’s all there is to it. After your computer reboots, open the Settings app using Windows + I keyboard shortcut, go to Accounts > Sign-in options, and setup Windows Hello.

Go to Start, do a search for regedit to open the Registry.

You need to opt-in your device to receive driver flighting and to do this, you need to create a Notepad file with the code you see below, and save the file with a .reg extension.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DriverFlighting\Partner] “TargetRing”=“Drivers”

If you want to configure the registry manually, you can follow the instructions from this Microsoft support page.

Once you create the file, right-click it and select Import from the context menu. This registry file will create a subkey DriverFlighting and Partner, and set a string named TargetRing with the value Drivers.

Now that Windows 10 knows that it can download preview drivers, go to Start, do a search and open Device Manager.

Expand the “Kinect sensor devices”.

Right-click on “WDF KinectSensor Interface 0”.

Click “Update Driver Software…”

Click “Search automatically for updated driver software”.

Allow it to download and install the new driver to complete the process.

Restart your computer.

Lastly, it’s important to note that the Kinect sensor must be plugged into a USB 3.0 port in your computer as it’s required for the device to work properly.

Have you try to set Windows Hello in your Windows 10 device using your Xbox One Kinect? How does it work for you? Tell us your experience in the comments below.

Source WinSuperSite