If the Pulse smart card method will never be used it can be explicitly disabled/removed then Windows will display the Pulse password method as default, this can be achieved by deleting the registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\Credential Providers\
{EAB1A79F-DFAA-4faf-A7B9-A6652E97EE16}]
@="Pulse Secure SSO Smartcard Credential Provider"
In Windows 10 a Group Policy for "Assign a default credential provider" (
Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Logon > Exclude credential providers in policy editor) can be used to change the default provider as mentioned in a
Microsoft Technet post, the relevant GUIDs are:
Pulse Secure smart card credential provider GUID:
{EAB1A79F-DFAA-4faf-A7B9-A6652E97EE16}
Pulse Secure password credential provider GUID:
{4EFD0F35-BFBA-44eb-8F25-2B3530203C1D}