Windows Accessibility - Part 5

As you can tell from my previous posts, there are lots of ways you can make Windows more accessible to suit your needs, but wait, there's more! In this post, I will be explaining how the different types of log-in techniques may be useful to some people.

If you don't have a Microsoft account connected to your computer, and if you were the last user to be on it, it should just log you in straight away, but if you connect your Microsoft account to your user account on the computer, you have to use a secure login method such as a password. An annoying thing about Windows 10 is that you have to log in with your Microsoft account in order to use most apps from the Windows App Store.

Personally, I really don't like using passwords because I have great difficulty typing any passwords in when I can't actually see what characters I'm putting in due to my poor co-ordination and memory. It's not too bad when I only have four characters to type, but anything longer, I really struggle! As well as forgetting what I've typed, I tend to lose where I am because the passwords have black dots in place of each character, and they just merge into one due to the way my eyes are. You can choose to show the password, but to do that, you need to click and hold a little eye icon. This has proven difficult for me as well because although I use the 'Click Lock' setting for my mouse, this is not active until I sign in, so I have to type one character, check I have pressed the right key, and I have to do this for each one. For this reason, I have a Windows Hello PIN. Fancy name, right? It's not as sophisticated as it sounds; it is just four digits, like a PIN for the bank. However, I would strongly suggest that you don't use the same number as your bank PIN! The Windows Hello PIN is much easier to use because as it's only four number, there's a smaller chance you could type it incorrectly. You can show the characters in this as well, so that's good.

I had a lot of problems at college with typing my password in, and because the operating system was Windows 7, I don't think it had the option to show the password. Although I managed to do it a few times, I definitely think it was more luck than judgement. When I was at college, I had to ask someone else to type my password in most of the time because if I did manage it, it took a lot of time and effort.

The next sign-in option for Windows 10 is to use a fingerprint. I think this might help me because although I wouldn't be able to use my fingerprint, I think toe prints work in the same way. To set this up, I believe you need extra hardware like some kind of sensor connected to your computer to put your finger or toe on.

There are two more sign-in options that you can have, one I think is dependant on whether you have a built-in camera or special software; the face recognition option. Again, I believe that this could be helpful for me because I could just look at my camera to sign in. The last option is to have a picture password. With the picture password, you can draw lines or marks on a picture of your choice. To set all sign-in options up, you just open up the Windows Settings app and go to 'Accounts' and then 'Sign-in Options'. Unfortunately, like the other sign-in options, you have to have an actual password to set this up.

That's it for Part 5, see you next time for Part 6! Stay safe.