Verifi P2000 Fingerprint Reader

Having spent way too much time researching these devices prior to purchase my hope is this will save you some heartburn and time if your goals are like mine. Simply put, it does what I wanted it to do which was be able to login to Lastpass with my fingerprint. This was my number one goal but having the ability to login to my windows machine is also a nice bonus and will allow me to set a stronger password if I desire. In performing the research there were many conflicting reviews. Not only for this device but others as well. Works with windows 10, does not work, works with Lastpass, does not work, needs drivers, does not need drivers, bla, bla, bla. My thought on this was that nobody listed what exact version of Windows they were running and the only way to see if it worked was to bite the bullet. So, I did and I’m glad I chose this one. Yes, it is more expensive, but I liked the idea of having the device sit on my desktop instead of needing to reach for a USB port to find a “dongle”. That in and of itself was worth a little more to me and obviously it need to work. If you have the above goals you can stop reading now but if you want specifics continue on. My version of windows is 1709 (aka Windows Fall Creators Update). I did NOT install anything from the “mini CD” that was included in the box. Simply plugged it in and watched the device get setup. Once that was complete it was listed under device manger in the category “Biometric devices” and specifically called an “Authen Tec Inc. AES2550”. I then navigated to Windows Settings >> Accounts >> Sign-in options >> Setup Fingerprint. It should be noted that prior to installing the reader my computer reported that my device was not compatible with Windows Hello and afterwards this was no longer the case. Even though I do have a Logitech Web Cam apparently due to it’s age it was not supported by Hello. Anyway, I went through the wizard to register a finger print and Windows told me I needed to create a PIN. I find that ridiculous considering most people think of a “pin” as a 4-digit number and this seemed like a step backward in security. Not so fast Kowalski … Just click the box that says allow alphanumeric characters and you can enter anything you like. Since I was perfectly content with my already established password, I simply used that. Bingo, ready to roll. CTL-ALT-Delete >> Lock >> swipe finger >> UNLOCK. Perfect! As for Lastpass it wasn’t quite as simple but not difficult at all. Open your vault >> Account Settings >> Multifactor Options. In the Multifactor Authentication – Premium section (YES YOU NEED TO BE A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER) there is an icon that looks like a fingerprint. It will be disabled. Click on the “pen” icon to set it up. In my case it said something about needing to install a binary component and to “click here”. I did this, and it told me that I needed to close my browser for the changes to take effect. Since I was using Chrome and in my experience sometimes Chrome likes to run in the background I simply re-booted. This was also a good test to see how my shiny new finger print reader worked to login. Answer. Flawlessly. Anyway, I digress. I went back to the same section in Lastpass and to my dismay it was still disabled. I clicked the pen again, clicked “here” to enable and this time it downloaded the desktop application. I ran the installer and repeated the same steps. Now when I went back in to the fingerprint setting I could successfully enable the service. It asked me to enter my Master Password and swipe my finger. After that I was good to go. I logged out of Lastpass, opened Chrome, clicked on the grey Lastpass Icon, it asked me to swipe my finger and I was in. I will now change my master password to something crazy and not need to remember it. Of course, I will write it down and store it in a safe place just in case. If you use Lastpass on a mobile device, you may not want a crazy password but my phone also has a fingerprint reader (as do most newer phones and tablets) so I am in luck. I’m not going to get into the mobile setup here but know that you can set it up to login with a fingerprint. As for what you get in the “box” don’t expect much. It is a plain cardboard box with the reader and a mini CD. Nothing else. No instructions or anything but hopefully you won’t need any if you follow the steps above. All in all I am pleased with this purchase and can recommend it if your system is running Windows 10 1709. It may or may not work with prior versions, so your mileage may vary. Good luck!

I'm one of those computer geeks you call when your computer goes wonky. My old fingerprint reader (Biokey) had stopped working consistently so I got a "better" one. The packaging was 'minimal' to say the least--small cardboard box with the reader in a plastic bag. No documentation, no drivers, no website to reference. I went up to Verifi.com and found an app. Hoping it would install the drivers, I installed the app. It's useless and I've already uninstalled it. I noticed that the device was auto-recognized by Windows 10 but the device "reported a problem" and failed to work more than once. Intrigued if it might be a driver issue, I hunted around to find the device is obsolete but there were lots of sites willing to install malware to "fix" the problem. I finally found a workable driver. The device itself is labeled "P2000" but the firmware told Windows that it's an AuthenTec, Inc. AES2550 device. So, the bottom line is, if you aren't a guru, or know one and willing to give up a dozen chocolate chip cookies (my standard fee), don't bother with this device. As to the reader, it seems to work fine once the right drivers are installed. But so did my old one--for a while. Nope it failed after each shutdown or slumber. I sent it back.

First, the scanner itself: I've never had it reject my fingerprint, which is great. I was worried that the "swipe" style would be harder to use than the old "press your finger on a little window" style that I had before, but it's fine. I haven't tried it with little kids yet, but for adults its easy to use. The scanner body is metal, which is nice, as it has some mass to it. The others I've use have been so light that you pretty much had to hold it with one hand while scanning a finger on the other, and that's not the case here. I'm using the scanner on Win7x64, which ironically Microsoft never supported with their own fingerprint readers (which is why I had to buy this one after switching to 64-bit). There's no CD, as the driver is automatically recognized and installed when you plug it in. Configuration is a bit trickier, as the instructions say to go to the "Control Panel > Biometrics", but Windows actually buries that down in the hardware section. Once you =find= that control panel applet, clicking on it takes you to a page where you can download the free version or upgrade to a 'premium' version. I'm using the free and it works fine. The scanner is also recognized by Roboform. Since I use a very strong master password, it had been annoying having to type it, but now once a day (or whatever the timeout is) I just swipe my finger. You can swipe to log in, unlock the desktop, or switch users. Since unlocking is now so quick, I set my screensaver to time out after one minute and require a password (or swipe, of course) to get back in. It's such a simple gesture that now my PC remains locked whenever I'm not there, and it's much more secure.

It stopped working after a week.