Exclude credential providers This policy setting allows the administrator to exclude the specified credential providers from use during authentication. Note: credential providers are used to process and validate user credentials during logon or when authentication is required. Windows Vista provides two default credential providers: Password and Smart Card. An administrator can install additional credential providers for different sets of credentials (for example, to support biometric authentication). If you enable this policy, an administrator can specify the CLSIDs of the credential providers to exclude from the set of installed credential providers available for authentication purposes. If you disable or do not configure this policy, all installed credential providers will be available for authentication purposes.

(1) GPO: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon!Exclude credential providers (2) WMI: ###