.. _introduction:

Introduction
============

The privacyIDEA Credential Provider is a tool to improve the logon security
of your Windows Desktops, Servers and Windows Terminal Servers.
It is used to add a second factor for authentication, when logging into your
Windows system.

The privacyIDEA Credential Provider does this by communicating with the privacyIDEA Authentication System [#privacyidea]_.
The privacyIDEA Authentication System can manage many different kinds of second factors for the domain users: Passkeys/WebAuthn token, 
PUSH token, Classic OTP token like HOTP, TOTP, Email or SMS, Yubikeys and many more!

Additonally, privacyIDEA can provide flexible MFA workflows with its powerful policy and event system. The privacyIDEA Credential Provider
also offers a wide range of configuration options to customzie the login to your needs.

.. [#privacyidea] https://privacyidea.org