I found a Microsoft Fingerprint Reader at Sam's Warehouse. For $30 I had to try it. It seems to do well at distinguishing between fingerprints. A fingerprint can be set up to auto-enter any password or series of commands, on practically any Windows computer. You can scan and store as many fingerprints as you need, with a storage file for each of your 10 fingers on each computer.
I long for the day when SOMETHING replaces those aggravating passwords. Between home and 2 workplaces, I have scores of different passwords to keep up with, and now most of them have to be changed every 3 months, must have 8 digits, 1 of which must be capital letter, 1 small letter, at least 1 number, no repeating numbers or letters, no numbers in sequence, either up or down, (but don't dare write a password down anywhere), and worst of all, I can't repeat any of the last 10 I have used! Who can remember 10 passwords back? This is a recipe for expansion of the IT Departments - gotta have phone answerers to reset those forgotten passwords.
Could these new password rules (issued by Microsoft) have anything to do with driving sales of the Microsoft Fingerprint Readers?
It seems we are traveling in computer circles. I remember in the 1960's if you wanted to write and run a program, you punched it out on a punchcard machine, then (with supervisory approval) submitted it for compiling. If there were any errors, like missing periods or commas, it got dumped, with only a print-out of cryptic error messages. After a dozen trials, if no errors were found, it went to the Program Review Committee, where it was evaluated for merit. If they thought it had any use, then they would actually load it on the IBM 360 mainframe and run it. If you developed several useful programs, they might even issue you a user password....
Then in the 1980's we were freed from computer slavery by the "Personal Computer". This was great for several years. I could load programs, run programs, and control my computer my way. The Geeks in the Computer Department disappeared. Then some nerd (Al Gore said it was him) invented computer networking, and the Powers That Be said, "Hey, if we are going to tie these personal computers together, we need to bring back the old Computer Department to make sure all our password rules are followed. But this time let's modernize and call it the Information Technology Department."
Guess what? Computer slavery again. Either we have come full circle, or I am just too old to cut the mustard anymore.