Setting Up MFA on Windows 10/11

To setup multifactor authentication on your Windows laptop you would need to download an application that can generate the one-time passcodes for the account. There are many apps but we will show how to use a free app on the Microsoft App Store. You can search for WinOTP and install the app on your device.

If the user has already had their MFA reset it should prompt you to set up a new method on login otherwise you can go to mfa.syr.edu and use the “add sign-in method” option on that page.

It will then present you with the type of method they would like to add. You should choose Microsoft Authenticator even though that is not the authentication app we will be using.

It will then instruct you to install the app. On this dialog there is an option for “I want to use a different authenticator app” that you will need to click.

It will then give you an option to set up their account. Click the next button.

On the next dialog it will show you a QR code. You will need to choose the “Can’t scan image” option.

You would then need to copy the Secret Key using the copy icon to the right of the displayed key.

In the WinOTP app you need to add an account by using the plus symbol in the bottom right corner of the app.

You would need to paste in the secret code in the “Code” portion of the WinOTP account information. The service can be whatever you want the account to be called in the interface (like SU MFA or something to that affect) and the username should be your SU email address. After this is filled out you can hit the “save” button at the bottom.

The app should now show the verification code that is generated by the app. If you click on the code it should copy it to your clipboard for you.

You can then go back to the MFA prompt and if you hit “next” it will allow you to paste the code into that dialog. Hit next and it should then show you the new method in your list of authentication methods.

You can now use the generated code to log into Microsoft. If you have the Microsoft authenticator app setup it will default to that method when logging in and you would need to choose the “cannot use the Microsoft Authenticator” option and then it will give you an option to use a verification code instead.