Thinkpads Forum

First of all, I updated my Thinkvantage suite after more than a month of absence from work. Now the problems started to show up.
I used to use CSS to manage windows longon and usually after the computer starts up, I would only need to scan my finger once and then everything was done. After the upgrade, the old window that prompted for finger scanning changed to a narrower but slightly longer window that says:

"Please wait....
Or press 'Ctrl+Alt+Delete" if you want to use a password"

then I scanned my finger there was no response after a long time, so I pressed the three keys, then the window with my username and computer name would show up, and I had to press "enter" again to proceed, the third window I saw the prompted for Fingerprint, which is the same as the one I used to see when I was having trouble to scan my finger (with a checkbox at the bottom so if checked username/password would be asked instead).

So I thought that was because CSS was corrupt and I performed an uninstall, which returned my computer to Windows-managed login with finger scanning after restart. Then I downloaded CSS8.1 and reinstalled it. Everything was recovered including the passwords that were saved previously. But when I was trying to change the "Authentication mode" from windows managed to CSS managed through CSS program "Advanced" menu, a weirder error message popped up with the title "css_admin.exe - Entry Point Not Found", and the message says:

"The procedure entry point ??0LocalFileFormatTarget@xercesc_2_7@@QAE@QBGQAVMemoryManager@1@@Z Could not be located in the dynamic link library xerces-c_2_7.dll".

Now neither can I manager security policies and a similar error message would show up with the title "css_policymanager.exe - Entry Point Not Found" and text:

"The procedure entry point ?loadDOMExceptionMsg@DOMImplementation@xercesc_2_7@@SA_NW4ExceptionCode@DOMException@2@QAGI@Z could not be located in the dynamic link library xerces-c_2_7.dll".

Here I do notice the difference (a hyphen, xercesc and xerces-c) between the string in the gibberish "xercesc_2_7" and the file name "xerces-c_2_7.dll". So now I wonder what is going on, is it something related to .Net Framework SP1 that I installed together with all other updates through ThinkVantage?

OK, now the extra logon windows were fixed after reinstallation. But the error messages are still the same.

I currently use CSS 8.1, and it works great, but I re-installed Vista a few days ago, and find that it works well when freshly installed. I wonder if it really is necessary to run CSS at all. I use the Fingerprint reader, as it is so much faster than typing passwords all the time. Pre-desktop authentication is also great with the biometric security. You can configure it to where it takes you through every last password including the Windows Logon one, BIOS pw, HD pw, etc. The Password manager is cool for the same reason, but I don't think that can be run without CSS...please correct me if I'm wrong. I know you can run the Fingerprint reader by itself.

It's not quite as annoying and time-consuming as Access Connections, which is simply unnecessary, unless you go to 30 different locations a day, but even then I believe Vista would suffice. Not sure.

I wonder how many folks on here use ThinkVantage software like CSS, APS, etc.