Fingerprint Login Stopped Working- The Fix That Works

Microsoft Windows updates are notorious for screwing up things that used to work. In my case, fingerprint sign in suddenly stopped working after another Windows 11 update. When you search the web for a solution, you will find many suggestions like updating the driver, clearing cache, etc that don't work (otherwise you would not land on this page). So, here is how to fix it (at least, how it worked for me).

Click Start button and type Registry Editor in the search bar. Open Registry Editor and scroll down to biometrics folder. It may be located in different places. On my Dell Inspiron it was here: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CspSchema\passportforwork\device\biometrics

If you can't locate biometrics there, you may try "Find" menu and search for it. It definitely should be somewhere under Microsoft. This search BTW works very slowly- it may take long time to finish.

Once you open biometrics, if default value is not set, click on it and enter 1. Write down the full path to folder where you did, so you can always undo it if you got any problem with it. Hope it helps. Good luck!

Engineers Salaries 2023

 Electronics Design magazine published its annual salary and career survey. About 70% of the engineers said that engineering is still a secure career, and is as promising a career path as it used to be. And what good for the engineers, is the engineering shortage remains: it is difficult to hire people for new positions, with most companies seeking at least 3-5 years of experience for new hires.  According to a report from Oxford Economics, around 1.4 million engineering jobs will remain open by 2030 in the US. What not so good is 52% companies are already evaluating use of artificial intelligence for the designs. Which means very soon some jobs may be replaced by AI.

What professions are the most wanted? The survey says software and system engineers are the two most often-mentioned jobs needed, but generally there are needs for engineers in all design areas.  All electronic systems obviously need power. Not surprisingly, among all technologies, power management has the main design impact. 

How much engineers are making? 66% of engineers said they had direct compensation $100,000 or more. At this, 53% are making between $100,000 and $200,000. Not bad? In addition to the base salary, 72% of engineers got some kind of bonus. Especially for smaller manufacturers, profit sharing can be a big part of compensation package.

The bottom line is, if you are technically inclined, becoming an engineer can be a right way for you to go.

Message Could Not be Displayed WLM Encountered an Unexpected Problem While Displaying this Message: How To Fix

After upgrading Windows, Windows Live mail app may stop showing the content of the messages. When you try opening an email it will display this error message: "Message could not be displayed. WLM encountered an unexpected problem while displaying this message. Check your computer for low memory or low disk space and try again." 

Here is what you may do to fix it (it worked for me when I upgraded to Windows 11). In short, you need to add these three DWORD entries into the registry: 

RecreateFolderIndex   1 

RecreateStreamIndex  1 

RecreateUIDLIndex    1 

I'll show you step by step how to do it. But first, I want to remind you that if you modify the registry incorrectly the system may become unstable. Therefore, to be on a safe side backup the registry before you modify it. You can then restore it if you did it wrong. Here is a link on how to backup registry . The best thing is to let a computer pro do it for you. Otherwise, you do it at your own risk: see my Disclaimer.

1. To edit registry open search box from START menu and type RUN. In the RUN dialogue type “regedit” and hit OK (you may need administrative rights to open regedit).

 

2. Once you opened the registry navigate to the following folder and click on it:

   Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

3. Select EDIT>NEW>32 Bit DWORD

4. Name the newly created key: RecreateFolderIndex . 

5. Right click on this key and select MODIFY.

6. In the open dialog "Value Data" change from 0 to 1.

7. Repeat steps 3-6 for RecreateStreamIndex and RecreateUIDLIndex 

8. Close REGEDIT.

8. Close Windows Live Mail and re-open.

Note. If your registry already have the above three keys, you just need to modify their value from 0 to 1.

The content of the emails should now appear (you may also need to restart the computer).

How Power Over Ethernet (PoE) Works

Knowing how annoying it can be to watch long videos when all you want is a quick explanation, I put up a How PoE Works video, in which basic principles of PoE operation are explained in less than two minutes. Learn how power can be superimposed onto data pairs in ethernet cables.

What is Power Over Ethernet (poe)

If you have ever wondered about Power Over Ethernet (PoE), here is a quick technical explanation. If you want to calculate the PoE system, get this app.