Fingerprint readers?

I have seen lately that Microsoft is flooding the market with their new biometric fingerprint readers. My question is after you install the software and get the item to recognize your fingerpint, what happens if you unplug the usb? Does it tell you that you need to plug it back in? What happens if it breaks, does it tell you you need to buy another one? Or does it just work based on a usb connection being "hot "


Thanks.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/features/docs/fingerprint.html Good demo of the technology

Its just 'autocomplete' with basic biometric security. Autocomplete is pretty good for single user machines, but if you have multiple users, you want personalized, lightly secured password retreval. It can hook a few other things, like fast user switching as well.

I look at this as a great help to people who maintain a lot of different logins, and are forgetful, or in a multiuser enviroment.

I dont understand the nature of your questions. Based on how i've described the technology to work above, what scenarios are you trying to understand better?

 

Thanks for the response.

Let's say that the reader breaks, will the machine require another reader to log into the machine?

I understand the idea of autocomplete and don't use it but the idea that if you store the info biometrically then the originally typed in password or username might be stored in some sort of encrypted file (like the hive or SAM) interests me.

How does this store the passwords that you enter? Is it encrypted? Can it be read with a hex editor?