APC BIOPOD Biometric Password Manager (USB)

This worked fine in windows XP, as long as you didn't try to register more than one login or more than one finger. After that it would go out of control and not let you login except randomly with the first finger registered. No drivers for win7-don't waste your time.

I was hoping to have a solution that lets me just log in with a single fingerprint. This was not the solution.The APC biopod as fingerprint reader hardware seemed to be solid, however the Omnipass software that it was bundled with to manage login and authentication was just lacking. In order to log in, it was still required to perform the Windows ctrl-alt-del, and punch in the username. There was no way to configure the whole login process to be driven by just my fingerprint.Attempting to find out from APC tech support how to configure it left me frustrated at the lack of response. I had to directly contact Softex (makers of the Omnipass software) several times to clarify the requirements, only to be told that logging in directly with just a fingerprint couldn't be done.If that's what you want, go get the Silex fingerprint reader, or maybe the IBM fingerprint reader. Both of which will let you log right in without having to do the ctrl-alt-delete.

I have this product for more than 2 years now and I love it!It is very comfortable to use, the software that comes with it allows you to capture all sites with password (the tool recognize those sites authomatically and you have also a manual option). The fingerprint recognition is outstanding and it free you from the need to remember your passwords (but remember to make a copy of the password vault and save it in safe place just in case).One point to notice - this product does not have currently support in Vista (at least did not have such the last time I have checked).

This biometric device works well with XP and works on Windows Vista and the New Windows 7 if you download the Vista beta client. I have tried the Lenovo biometric device and this is by far superior. The only complaint I have is it has trouble with the Novell client if you are on a Novell network. But I would highly recommend it for home PC use.

I purchased this product because of the APC name. I am very happy with their UPS product line for home and office. I am sure the hardware for this unit is manufactured to APC's standards, however, I am disappointed in the software they have chosen at least the version that ships with the unit (Omnipass by Softex). It makes mistakes more times than it gets it right. One annoying thing to me is if you have more than one login for Windows XP a lot of the time the software will switch users and log me into another account. On which by the way, I do have have passwords set. There is a more recent version (V4) of the Softex Omnipass software on Softex's website which might have the bugs worked out but I would have to pay for it. By the way, the latest version of the Omnipass software says it supports the Firefox browser. All in all I like APC and will continue to purchase their products but am lukewarm on this one. I have not tried any others so I cannot say how this one stacks up against other offerings

I purchased this product not seeing the one line at the bottom of the ad. This only works with Windows 98 or other outdated windows products. DO NOT try to install the newer Omni software at a cost of $50 it will not work due to the reader not being found by the newer software. To send this back I have to travel 25 miles to a UPS store since Amazon no longer prints out a return ticket and this has to be brought back to a UPS store to get this sent back. They forgot to factor in the Rural customers who use their app as the primary source of purchasing items. Anyway, long story short it would cost more in gas to drive to UPS then it would to get the return back to them. So into the trash can it goes.

The device is actually a product of Softex, Inc. APC is just putting their logo on it and reselling it. People are supposed to feel comfortable buying it because of APC's name recognition and (up to now) good reputation.The device does work - basically. Compared with Microsoft's device, fingerprint recognition is awkward. I find that I sometimes have to adjust my finger position several times before it will "recognize" me. The Microsoft device appears to be far more tolerant of slightly different finger placements.When used on Windows XP, the Omnipass software that accompanies the device integrates with that operating system's Fast User Switching ("FUS") mechanism. So if you have multiple users (as for example in a family), you can enroll each person and have Windows automatically log them on to their accounts just by recognizing their individual fingerprint patterns. You can also do a Quick Switch from current user to different user just by placing (different user's) finger in the sensor. This is way more slick than pressing the "User" button on a Logitech keyboard or doing the old Windows+L key combination.Unfortunately the Omnipass software is really flaky. When used in a multi-user environment on Windows XP with Fast User Switching, the program will crash / become non-functional quite rapidly after doing just a few switches between users. For example I alternated today between my main account (index finger) and my test account (middle finger) on Windows XP switching back & forth about 3 times. That's it - the program has stopped working and will not work again until I reboot.I had two problems open with APC back in the spring & summer of 2004 dealing with this product. The APC support staff seemed completely ill-equipped to address / understand the issues - perhaps it's because APC is just "fronting" the sale & distribution of the product for the real vendor Softex Inc. In both cases they kept closing my problems every 30 days (their problem management software) even though I was waiting for a response from them and the problem was unresolved. I never did get resolutions and my dialogue with the APC support engineers left much to be desired. I basically had to "teach" the engineers how the product is supposed to work, explain what it does, and then explain why it's not working properly. Really...Anyway my perception is that we're just in the early days of a flood of such devices / biometric recognition security software solutions. I think the devices by APC & Microsoft that are out currently are just the initial volleys by the software/hardware vendors. I'm sure that there will be far more robust solutions out in the next 6 months. My recommendation - avoid this product (even though it's cheap - less than 50% of what I paid for it 1 year ago).Lastly when you use a product like this - to store passwords to financial & other websites, I think one needs to confirm that the software used can be trusted. (See Microsoft, Symantec & other vendors' Trusted Computing initiatives). I have found - from time to time - strange Internet activity on my computer that seems to be related to Omnipass's "WebLink" software update capability. The endpoint for the traffic is neither a site at APC nor at Softex Inc. but what appears to be an end-user on a high speed Internet service somewhere in Texas. Sure, it's probably just checking my version with the currently released version of the software, but in the back of my mind I'm wondering - "are they harvesting the passwords from my Omnipass password vault"? Well basically it seems strange...