Trying Microsoft Fingerprint Reader

Today I got the chance to experiment with the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader and I love it!

I believe this is very useful for elderly people who can’t remember any passwords at all. For example, I can now set up a computer for my grandmother, and the only thing she has to do when using it is touch the reader briefly.

Yes, I already hear people saying, why not set it to log on automatically for her or use a password manager? Well, I don’t want to have it log in automatically, because it could have multiple users, like her grandchildren. And I didn’t use a password manager, well, because I had the chance to test this one, which is in essence a sort of password manager.

Bringing up the point about her grandchildren, it can be configured to detect who touches the reader and log in to the right account as well, and also allows fast user switching by a touch.

The installation was very easy and clear, with graphics explaining how to register your fingerprint with the reader. Everything is very foolproof, making it perfect for a normal user on a normal XP installation.

As a normal user mostly uses IE, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work 100% in Firefox (as I have read somewhere). I like the simplicity, the wizard to create a new website logon is also very clear, indicating which field is the username field, the password field and the logon submit button.

It does say it shouldn’t be used for corporate networks, but as this is mainly a home product, that’s not a big problem. It’s really a useful tool.

A few months later I won one at the Visual Gaming finals in Paris.

Update: fingerprint sign-in is now built into Windows itself as Windows Hello.