Windows Hello logins are very convenient. However, when I recently started using an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor with my notebook docked and its display closed, its built-in fingerprint reader had become inaccessible. I needed an external fingerprint reader, and fortunately, I found a simple solution with PQI’s My Lockey Fingerprint USB Dongle.
The size of the PQI My Lockey Fingerprint USB Dongle is not unlike Bluetooth dongles or, say, Logitech’s Unifying Receiver. When inserted into the port, it juts out by 10 mm. The reader is on the outward face of the dongle.
PQI says this dongle matches fingerprints in 0.15 seconds, and it can do so in 360°. This means that a quick touch with your finger on the reader from any angle will very quickly unlock Windows.
The fingerprint matching speed and accuracy is excellent, definitely better than the Dell XPS 13 7390 2-in-1’s built-in fingerprint reader that tends to be slow at times. A green LED lights up when the reader is waiting to scan a fingerprint, and it’ll blink red when the scan fails to match a valid finterprint.
Installation is dead simple. Just insert the My Lockey Fingerprint USB Dongle into a USB port, and Windows 10 automatically recognises it and sets it up. You register your Windows Hello fingerprints in Settings, Accounts, Sign-in options. This is exactly the same as is done on notebooks with built-in fingerprint readers.
Being integrated into Windows Hello, the My Lockey Fingerprint USB Dongle will work with any app that supports Windows Hello. For example, I can use it to unlock my Enpass password manager.
The My Lockey Fingerprint USB Dongle will work together with any existing fingerprint reader. You can use both at the same time.
You don’t need any app to use the My Lockey Fingerprint USB Dongle, but one does get installed automatically during setup: PQIFingerprintManager.
This app lets you add or remove fingerprints. You don’t need this, since you can use Windows 10’s own fingerprint enrolment in the Settings program. However, PQIFingerprintManager has some additional features: You can tag scans to specific fingers, verify scans to specific fingers, and remove individual fingerprint scans.
These are useful features which I had long wondered why weren’t baked into Windows 10 itself.
I expect most people need external fingerprint readers for desktop computers. However, even if you use a notebook with a built-in Windows Hello fingerprint reader, like myself, you may still find an external fingerprint reader useful.
The PQI My Lockey Fingerprint USB Dongle retails on Amazon for S$37.67 (plus S$17.24 for shipping).
Summary
PQI’s My Lockey Fingerprint USB Dongle is fully integrated into Windows Hello, and very quickly matches fingerprints accurately from any angle.