# Question about PIV
**URL:** https://support.nitrokey.com/t/question-about-piv/7794
**Category:** Nitrokeys
**Created:** [October 25, 2026, 5:41pm UTC](https://support.nitrokey.com/t/question-about-piv/7794 "2026-10-25T17:41:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@T.L.7Gadi](https://support.nitrokey.com/u/T.L.7Gadi)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2026, 5:41pm UTC](https://support.nitrokey.com/t/question-about-piv/7794/1 "2026-10-25T17:41:48Z")
Hello,
I have a question about the PIV feature of the NK.
What kind of application/scenario is at the moment providing PIV authentification in comibination with the nitrokey?
What means `experimental` in the command status?
Like `nitropy nk3 piv --experimental change-pin`?
And is PIV still Windows only?
Regards. 🙂
T.L.
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### Author:  [@robin-nitrokey](https://support.nitrokey.com/u/robin-nitrokey)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2026, 10:01am UTC](https://support.nitrokey.com/t/question-about-piv/7794/2 "2026-10-26T10:01:02Z")
PIV was never Windows-only, we should clarify that in the documentation. The reason for this line in the docs probably is that the first use case was for Windows users because PIV can integrate with ActiveDirectory. There are some applications that interact with PIV directly and many that support it via PKCS11. I don’t have an exhaustive list. Generally, it can be used for any application that needs to perform cryptographic operations on a smartcard (using one of the supported algorithms).
The `--experimental` flag means that parts of the API can still be subject to change. As the application has matured since the initial implementation, we can maybe remove the flag soon.