If you have no previous version of the Omnipass software in your machine, just plug the mouse into an available USB port of your laptop or CPU tower and insert the software CD to begin the Omnipass installation. The program will then begin the process of “finger enrollment” – that is, the recognition of your chosen fingerprint to serve as your door to all websites and Windows applications. Just click on the finger of your choice and then place it on the scanner on top of the mouse. The software will then repeat the scanning eight times to unsure a flawless reading. OmniPass can register up to 20 different users or individual fingerprints.

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Figure 2: Fingerprint selection.

This process is all very simple and intuitive. However if you do have a previous version of the Omnipass software, it will not be that simple. First, you have to uninstall the old version – the new one doesn’t just upgrade over it. This is a drag because you have to remember to export your old profile (to a folder of your choise, or even the desktop area) – otherwise you’ll loose the bunch of passwords you’ve already registered with Omnipass. In our case the uninstall feature had a few problems and we had to reinstall the old version of the software just so we could then uninstall it. It was very, very frustrating.

The frustration just increased when we tried to import the old version’s profile: a conflict arose between the new registration we’ve had to do when installing the software and the profile import. The headache reached such a peak that we started the installation all over again, this time dismissing the old profile import and deciding to loose the passwords we previously had registered. It was an acceptable loss due to such dire straits.