How do you get into your computer? Chetna wrote me this week asking if there was some other way to secure her PC than a long difficult password. You know with upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols of 18 characters long, etc. Which I am sure we all follow that rule…right. (Read the last paragraph below for more info.)
There are more ways than entering a password. Some of these new sign-in options started with Windows 8, so maybe it was not an all bad OS.
To get to these settings in Windows 10, click your windows button or press the key and type “Sign-in options” without the quotes of course. When you see it click it with your mouse or press the enter key.
The Sign-in options windows will open with “Require sign-in” as the first choice. The option is yours; however, I always check “When PC wakes up from sleep” for requiring my login password. I may be at a coffee shop working and do not want it to easily open when locked.
Next is, “Windows Hello” which allows you to use biometrics, i.e., a fingerprint or facial recognition (if you have the hardware built in) to make sure it is you trying to log into your computer. My computer does not have this capability so I cannot give you a “hands-on” description. I hear that it works, well, “Okay.” It has been reported that as recently as, last December, in previous versions of Windows 10, users were able to login into some computers using a printed picture. Now all you iPhone users do not get too proud since your phones had this capability for a while. But iPhones have been hacked using twins and even children of iPhone owners to get in with their faces.
Next up in the options is “Password” followed by “Pin.” For more info on those read my article here, “Pin or Password” from last month.
Now a more entertaining way to protect your PC. “Picture password” will let you choose any photo on your computer. Once chosen, you draw three patterns, dots or lines on the picture at locations only you know. Say a picture of your three kids on the beach. Click on each of their noses, or draw invisible circles around their heads in a specific order and clockwise or counter, your PC will remember. It will only allow you in with you repeating those same motions on that photo to log in. (That is not quite true as any of the above and below can be overridden with one of the others if needed.)
Finally, “Dynamic lock” which is likely the most difficult to set up. First, you need to set up a connection between your phone and your PC. This is done through joining them with Bluetooth. It is a two-step process. First, connect your phone and PC by Bluetooth, then you set up the Dynamic lock on your PC. Personal opinion is that it does not work that well, at least for me. It was fully set up and failed to work at all. I checked all my settings and it still failed.
After reading about it online that seems to “not” be a rare occurrence. If set up properly and functioning it also has several caveats. One is that your PC stays unlocked until you walk out of Bluetooth range which depending on your system could be anywhere from ten to 30 feet plus. It then will wait to lock for another 30 seconds after you pass that distance. So, it is still unlocked when you possibly cannot see the computer.
After you finish reading this article read, “A Paper that Changed Our World.” If you missed it the first time you may be surprised at this related issue.
