Software & Functionality - Windows

Upon inserting the CD, a window will appear which gives you access to its contents. The "Software Installation" part is the one interesting piece here, as the other ones are two forms of documentation.


The Installation Wizard of the Protector Suite is nothing out of the ordinary. The process only takes a few minutes, but you are required to reboot after completion. Due to the protective nature of the Eikon hardware, this was to be expected. After a reboot all the functions of the fingerprint readers are available to the user immediately. Even the login screen of Windows gives the user the possibilty to use one's finger instead of a password, right after the restart.


Upon starting the Protector Suite Software, you will have a limited number of options, as you first need to initialize the reader. This means that you have to save a fingerprint within the reader. This information may be stored on the local hard drive in form of an encrypted entry within the windows registry, or directly on the fingerprint scanner. The latter option gives you the possibilty to take your reader anywhere where the Protector Suite is installed and use it to log into the computer. So basically the user credentials are then saved along with the fingerprint on the reader. As long as you are allowed to login to the host PC with those credentials and the appropriate software is installed, they should work with the Eikon as well.

To enroll a finger, you are required to enter the Windows password as well. This step makes sure, that you are the owner of the currently logged in account. Then you may choose what is required to gain access to the protected areas of the computer. You may go all out and select that both the fingerprint and a password are required to unlock anything protected by the Eikon Fingerprint Readers.


Upek is kind enough to offer an interactive tutorial on how to use the Eikon units, but we will skip the tutorials and go straight to fingerprint enrollment. You may enroll all of your 10 fingers and save them directly on the device. The Eikon Fingerprint Reader has 15 slots available to save such prints in. To do so, you need to correctly swipe your finger 5 times, after which the print is saved for that specific finger. Upek also recommends that you save an additional print of another finger, just in case you chop it off, burn your fingertips or superglue your finger to something, resulting in a loss or damage to that precious print. Since we at Techpowerup.com are all dare devils, we will skip this additional step. After scanning in at least one or maybe even all 10 of your fingers, you are congratulated and you may then close the initial enrollment wizard.


Once a fingerprint is present, you may access the full functionality of the Protector Suite. You may now delete your fingerprint or import/export user information. The four functionalities under the "Applications" point are simple but quite effective.

The Application Launcher gives you the ability to start a program by connecting it with a fingerprint. This means that you could open up Internet Explorer with your middle finger, Outlook with your thumb and that favorite game with your pinky for example. The password bank is a protected database of all your used passwords. This should come in handy for all the Internet login passwords, online banking credentials. The third menu item is a protected area to store files in. It is locked and can be unlocked with a swipe of the primary finger. There is a desktop in the shape of a lock to access the files directly. The last menu item gives you the ability to attach specific security tokens to your environment.


You are also offered to save passwords in your password bank if the software detects the appropriate fields within an application. This works very well most of the time, as Upek supports Windows dialogs, Internet Explorer and Firefox. Users of Google Chrome for example currently do not have that embedded functionality. You may also encrypt files and folders through the context menu. These are then attached to your credential data with the fingerprint. This makes your fingerprint the password to gain access to any such encrypted files.


Swiping your finger at any time, brings up a little menu. It gives you quick and easy access to the most important functions. This is actually the only place where I spotted Upek branding.