Digital Trends

APC Biometric Password Manager

April 21st, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

By default, the software features voice prompts and responses for everything you do and we quickly found that annoying. Luckily, it is easy enough to change the audio alerts to beeps only or to completely disable the audible alerts. Similarly, the default setting prompts the user with a popup message every time a passworded field is detected. This behavior can also be modified, by changing from “Beginner mode” to “Advanced mode” which just pops up a smaller, less intrusive window in your system tray or you can completely disable all popups. With the popup messages disabled, you can add a password for a site or application by right-clicking on the OmniPass icon and selecting “Remember Password”.

The Biopod is small enough to ft anywhere on your desktop and is easy to travel with.

Encrypting Files and Folders

The Biopod also includes software to encrypt and decrypt Windows files and folders. Upon installation of the OmniPass software, encryption options are added to the right-click menu in Windows.

Encrypting a file or entire folder is as simple as right-clicking on the item and selecting the OmniPass encryption option. Encrypting takes a bit of time, especially if you are doing it to large files or folders, but this is to be expected and nothing out of the ordinary. Encryption adds a .opf extension to each file, which can only be decrypted by selecting the decrypt option in the right-click menu and scanning your fingerprint.

A word of warning, which is noted when you first encrypt files — if you uninstall the OmniPass software or move the data to a machine that doesn't have it installed, you will not be able to access that encrypted data.