Anything that takes multiple attempts to work is not going to get my blessing. Hence, the 1-out-of-5 rating, my lowest, is what IOGear’s personal security mouse received during a recent Gadgetress review.
That same day, IOGear released a software update.
Since I gave the Irvine company such a low rating, I decided to give it a second chance. I had no problem with the hardware but the security software was so frustrating, I couldn’t believe IOGear would let something like this out.
My second attempt didn’t go much better.
I had already uninstalled the biometric software on my computer, so I reinstalled the original software again, getting the same bugs and kinks. I downloaded the updated software. But launching the update, a window popped up saying that the security software was already installed. Then it shut down.
I sighed heavily. I uninstalled the original software, rebooted my computer and installed the new software.
No funky boot-up messages this time. When Windows started up, it asked for my fingerprint. While a bit rough, I was able to log into Windows XP with my finger. After testing a few other password features, I left the computer to work on other things.
On my return, my computer screen was frozen. I couldn’t do a thing except hold down the computer’s power button to turn it off.
I rebooted and the frozen situation repeated itself. Stray from the PC and the screen freezes. After a few more attempts, I gave up, uninstalled the mouse software and shipped it back to IOGear.
The problem could be my personal computer, which tends to have a lot of funky software installed from previous reviews. In the years I’ve tested products, I’ve learned that there are a lot of software conflicts out there. Companies don’t always design their software to be friendly with everyone else — including Microsoft.
But the frustration of a software conflict isn’t something regular consumers would or should put up with.
A later chat with Richard Liang, IOGear’s product management, didn’t help. But he did mention that this was IOGear’s first biometric product and the company is continually testing and upgrading its products and software. Better luck next time, I guess.
Read the original review HERE.