Upek Protector Suite 2009 Review

Today I had a nice email conversation with a nice gentleman at Upek, they requested that I remove the download of the 5.8.2 protector suite application and driver. They explained that it was because some users have to pay for this update. I gladly removed it as it is their property and was offered the chance to try their 2009 (version 5.9) for a test spin.

The 2009 version of Protector Suite is still not commercially available so you will not find it on the internet. When I downloaded the file, I ran the autorun.exe file. I was greeted with the screen below, it looks pretty familiar.

After Clicking on install you are then greeted by an EULA (End User License Agreement) which you must agree to in order to install the software. After installation you are required to restart the computer. The setup was smooth and all went well. After restarting you are presented a popup that notices that you have firefox installed (if you do) and you can add the plugin for firefox 3 (previous versions didn’t support firefox 3 to my knowledge).

After the plugin installation you will see the introduction screen, this allows you to get started and input your fingerprints or take a product tour if you are not familiar with this software. I picked Enroll your fingers now. I noticed that the software interface has been given the same glossy vista clean look, which makes it blend well with the OS.

You then have to click on the finger you want to enroll and swipe it fives times to make sure the software gets an accurate image of your finger. I decided to enroll all ten fingers, so if you do the math I scanned 50 Scans. After all fingers are scanned you can see this screen below.

You then need to enter your Windows password to ensure you are the correct user for the fingerprints. As you can see below it also shows you what you can do in this version of Protector Suite.

Afterward you get the Control Panel Home which shows you all features available broken down by category.

Below is the Identity Tab:

Below is the Applications Tab:

I really liked a couple of things about this update. Firstly its use of vista like aesthetics helps it blend in with the operating system very well, as if it belongs. Next Upek have outdone themselves with the new features introduced in this iteration. They have createdan E-Wallet application that can store Bank account/Credit card/Password information Securely. A Password Generator, that can generate safe passwords for any occasion. The Application Launcher is new and can launch applications with the swipe of a specific finger.Encrypted Archives was already available in previous versions.  If you are really paranoid you can even have the security level increased to having to enter your windows password along with your fingerprint.  Another reason I like this version is because they have made it easier to use for less tech savy people. In this version you can even export all settings for later importing incase of a format, which is very useful. Finally for memory usage while I was swiping my finger it was using around 13mb of ram. I don’t find this too bad as its running two background services. Overall It’s a great update from the former one, and I thank Upek for offering me this software early.

[rating:5]