Pass The Taters

Passwords – what are passwords? I’ll tell you what they are. They are a pain, but you have to have them so you can keep people from accessing all of the stuff that you have on your computer’s hard drive.

There are a few ways to protect your data. One way is to use the dreaded password, which people tend to forget or worse yet write it down on a sticky note and stick it on to the monitor - not the best way to keep it safe. The second way is to use some type of a two piece authentication, where you use software and an electronic device such as a USB thumb drive that you can take with you when you log off the computer. The only problem with this is that when you lose the thumb drive you will lose access to the computer. Then you will have to remember (yeah right, if you’re like me you probably don’t remember it) your administrator password to try to regain access and then uninstall the software before someone finds your thumb drive key.

The other way to go is to use a biometric access device such as an Iris scanner or D.N.A. scanner (both which are crazy expensive) or the dirt cheap finger print scanner.

So I tried the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader. It’s a neat little unit about twice the size of a Lexar Jump Drive and uses a six foot USB patch cable.

The world was a bright and sunny place when I plunked down my hard earned $49.95 and headed home. The trouble started as soon as I plugged in the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader, no lights lit up. Did I really think any thing from Microsoft would work correctly right out of the box? I guess I forgot.

So I started down the long road of computer device troubleshooting, I checked all of the usual things: power to the connector, checking the software downloading and installing the updated software version, and checking for any conflicting devices. I thought to myself that I was about to give up and return that dead finger reading piece of junk when I remembered that I was running D.E.P. (data execution prevention) and that it would prevent the software from running in the protected memory area in which it was installed into. So all I had to do to get the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader to work was to add the .exe files to the D.E.P. section in performance options. This is how to do so.

In windows XP : right click My Computer / click on properties / advanced / performance / settings / Data Execution Prevention / click add / then in the box that pops up click programs / Digital Persona / Bin / click add for each .exe that needs to be added ( there are 8 files that need to be added in order for the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader to work) / click apply / then register your finger prints..

1.DPConsol Module

2.DpFpLogonManager Module

3.DPFUSMgr Module

4.DPHOST Module

5.DPPRAgnt Module

6.DPWinLct MODULE

7.DPRunDLL Module

8.Export Import Utility

Basically just add all of the .exe files and enjoy the good life of fewer passwords to remember.

Enjoy,

Robert Goodwyne

Don’t be a hater, pass the tater!