So far Windows Hello gives the impression that it is only supported on clear facial recognition cameras in the most modern of PCs. Apparently this is not true.
This week I bought an old Lenovo T410 from ebay. I was keen to have a spare machine that I could run the fast ring preview editions of Windows 10. Specifically the new Linux integration with the bash command line. For more about this check the Channel 9 video.
The Lenovo T410 is a poor replacement of my regular pc. The keyboard is crowded, the fan whirrs but tucked away to the right of the mouse touchpad was a fingerprint reader. When this laptop was made you had a separate security level to deal with fingerprint readers on Windows 7 however it was biometric so would Windows Hello work with it.
After doing the Windows 10 upgrade I located the Lenovo Thinkpad Fingerprint reader tools. This laptop is 4 years old and £130 from ebay so I held out no hope that it would work like the £1200 Surfacebook Windows Hello biometric. However I thought that if it could secure something it might be a worthwhile add-on.
I scanned most of my fingers on my right hand. Previously on mobile phones I found that fingerprint readers were pretty ‘hit or miss’ affairs. So not only did I hold out little hope that Windows Hello would work but I also doubted it would reliably scan at all!
The scanning was pretty painless and after doing some fingers I rebooted the laptop. Unbelievably the login screen offered me the option of a fingerprint scan using Windows Hello.
Rather unexpectedly I got Windows Hello with an otherwise unremarkable laptop.
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