Predator is cool USB security software for Windows that
enables you to
lock/unlock your computer with a USB drive
and provides loads of other features like logging, alert alarm,
configurable lock screen etc. Predator adds an additional layer
atop of
the Windows passwords. So do note that it if somebody
knows your login
password, he/she can still login to your
computer.
What Predator does very well is change how you login to your
computer. First and foremost, it enables you to use a USB key
to
lock/unlock your computer without having to enter your
password every
time. Obviously this has it advantages and
disadvantages.
On the upside,
it let’s you unlock the computer without having to enter the password
so users won’t need to compromise between the password strength and
ease of use. On the other side, if anyone gets a hold of your USB drive,
all they have to do is to plug it in and they will have access to your
system.
You can download the Predator USB security software
here.
Once installed you need to run Predator with administrative privileges.
It asks you to configure a USB drive as a key on the first run. Plug in
a USB thumb drive, create a password and then create the USB key. With
that done you are now ready to use the USB drive as the key to
lock/unlock your computer. You can still use the USB drive to store any
files as you would normally do.
From now on if you want to lock the computer have a look at the
Predator icon in the system tray, wait if it is red and if it is not,
you can remove the USB key. The computer will be locked after a fixed
interval of time that can be specified in Predator settings.
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Talking of settings, lets have a look on the things you can configure
inside Predator. First off as I mentioned above, you can customize the
time interval between your pulling out the USB drive and the moment your
computer gets locked. You can control how the screen looks like when
the computer is locked. You can turn down the screen’s brightness all
the way to 0, hide desktop icons and minimize all windows to show
through the wallpaper when the computer is locked. You can also specify
if you are using a multi monitor setup. You can set it to autostart with
Windows and enable or disable pause. If pause is enabled you can use
the system tray icon to prevent locking your computer when you remove
the USB drive. Very handy, if you just need transfer a file or two with
your USB key.
The thing I like most about the Predator USB security software is
that the keyboard and mouse are disabled when computer is locked. So it
is not easy to figure out how to unlock the computer. You can of course
unlock the computer by simply plugging in the USB drive that you
configured to work as a key. That being said, you can still unlock the
computer using the password you set inside preferences dialog. Predator
displays a password prompt if anyone hits 3 keys on the keyboard. The
user then has 10 seconds to insert the USB key or enter the correct
password after which the computer starts beeping, if there have been 3
unsuccessful attempts, an alarm is set off to let you know.
In addition to all the above mentioned features, Predator also logs
every event so that you know if someone has been trying to get into your
computer. Overall, Predator offers a nice feature set. While it doesn’t
add any additional security layers, it obscures the expected interface,
disables the mouse/keyboard and makes it that little bit harder to get
into the computer without having authorized access. Predator works on
Windows XP through to 7.