Microsoft Fingerprint Reader was a device sold by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

, primarily for homes and small businesses. The underlying software providing the

biometric Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify in ...

s was developed by Digital Persona. Fingerprint readers are more secure, reliable and convenient than a normal traditional password, although they have been subject to spoofing. A fingerprint recognition system is more tightly linked to a specific user than, e.g., an access card, which can be stolen.

History

First released on September 4 2004, this device was supported by

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

and

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also inc ...

. It was discontinued shortly after Windows Vista was released.

Functionality

The Fingerprint Reader's software allows the registration of up to ten fingerprints per device. Login names and passwords associated with the registered fingerprints were stored in a database on the user's computer. On presentation of an authorized fingerprint, the software passes the associated login names and passwords to compatible applications and websites, allowing login without a

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

. If the software finds that the particular fingerprint does not match one it its database, it declines the access.

Application

64-bit Windows

The Microsoft Fingerprint Reader may be modified to work with 64-bit Windows.

Firefox browser

The reader works with

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

using th
FingerFox Add-on

References

External links

WebArchive of MS Fingerprint home page
{{Microsoft FingerprintReader Biometrics Computer access control