oooh, so trendy (hmm)

 Windows Hello™ got me on a biggie train of thought a few years ago.

https://orphanrocks.blogspot.com/2021/08/fingerprint-mumbling.html

Skip forward to today when the thing is literally on its way to the trash because it's so flimsy. 

I created a sort of a bandage to keep it happy, but I am seriously shopping now.

I don't think desktop fingerprint readers ever caught on, or they peaked and are fading away.

But that's just an opinion.
"Don't use your thumb," 

people warn, but that's the only digit that seems to fit without twisting my arm.

"exfiltrate"

They'd rather you bought an entire system for a thousand than let you do add-ons.

But (mean-teacher mode) let's review

No Batteries

No headphones 

no external readers

It's all for your protection, I am sure.

(Exfiltrate THIS)

Capacitive, optical, Ultrasonic?

Tap or swipe?
HOTP/Fido2 capable?
NFC??

I just read (and totally forgot) what HOTP is.

"What is HOTP, what is TOTP & what is the big difference?

There are two options when it comes to OTP. Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) based One-Time Password or HOTP for short and Time-based One-Time Password or TOTP for short. HOTP uses an event-based OTP algorithm which executes and invalidates during an event counter once a user uses the code. TOTP uses a time-based OTP algorithm which executes and invalidates from a specific time counter, once the countdown of time-to-use hits zero. Duo now has both options available for users, with our recommendation to move strictly to TOTP once your organization can (we will discuss how to achieve this below)."

So depressing. 
I hate over-the-shoulder spies, (way different manifesto)...
So My bright-bulb idea long ago was to buy a password-less device,

A dongle/doohickey/thing that would recognize only me.
But it only works 65% of the time, and the rest of the time it wants a PIN.

Plus it (the thing) is made of the cheapest plastic available, and the plastic broke.

ToTP , for those times you have a phone that isn't damaged or temporarily lost,

or is that NFC?

An article on Passkeys is readable, if you ignore the unreadable terms (Ble?)

I'm guessing (totally) fingerprints never caught on, less profit margin.

"Thanks to EU"? 
I missed something.
(Bah, republicans)

Pick a choice, someone hates it.
(Two reviews, and positive ones get more weight?)
Do you ignore them, damn your torpedoes,
Buy it anyway?
IDK

The above (SidePass) looks like it might break too easily, would clog the space needed for USB devices.

I found a model I kind of like,

but it has zero reviews.
I must have a soft-spot in my heart for unloved Amazon products with zero reviews.
They are always quirky (there's always been a reason they're unloved.)

Well anyway:

But it's cute, like a puppy in a pet shop.

Windows 11 picks it up as a "Chipsailing" device.

And, in fact, if you install the latest driver by date (which is a lower-revision than the previous release) it stops working.
If you force a driver on this little thing (from the update catalog) it... doesn't like it, and goes on strike.
For the record, the working-version that Windows automatically installs is 15.57.18.209, 9/6/2023.
The other driver (3/2024) must be wrong somehow.

The error in my picture is not solved, something is wrong but no one cares.
(blather-blah-yada-yada-harrumph)

Chipsailing has a somewhat confusing site...I was unable to quickly verify it is one of their products, or to find any drivers from them.

On the other hand, Flywise doesn't seem to have a specific driver windows would like anyway, and windows prefers the Chipsailing one.
All these readers come from China anyway and (I suppose) will be extinct soon...

It matters, sort of, because the device can gladly hold all your passwords, if you'd trust it to.

Here, read the blurb on the box:

Eight Hundred Passwords

I think that's great, I just, um, don't trust it. Well for a few reasons, on cop shows the NSA/FBI/whoever breaks the encryption in seconds. So why do they need passwords?
To make it easier, I guess. 

(The rest of the specs are mostly unreadable to me, 

and I discount them as showing off, 

especially with a third-party driver.)

I'm noting that everyone else everywhere uses "508dpi" 

but then you have to define "Modern." More modern than my iffy reader before this one? It was like gambling in Vegas to get it to work, before it finally quit.

If THIS one quits, presumably it'll still be good for the eight-hundred passwords.

The fingerprint reader I already own (the decrepit one, remember?)

died last week, in such a weird way. It appears to work but is functionally blind.

FlyWise replaced it. FlyWise appears to work very well, but only time will tell.

for reference only, alt-numpad-Plus, 2122=™ or (if it's easier) HTML mode, "Ampersand trade semicolon"