Windows: Enable Windows Hello on a Framework 13

I have had my Framework Laptop 13 for a few months now and I have gotten used to many of its features. The physical design is very nice and it has a premium feel to it in many ways.

However, one feature that I have been missing is additional biometrics, namely face recognition.
The screen that Framework uses for this laptop contains a camera that simply doesn't allow for facial recognition. The reason for this could be both a cost and a technology reason. 

This doesn't stop the user from having an external camera, personally I am running a Logitech Brio 4K through a docking station. With other computers I can use this but for some reason I couldn't use it with the Framework Laptop 13.

Research led me to finding a registry value and a Windows setting that needed to be changed.

You can look at "Settings --> Accounts --> Sign-in options" if you have a setting called "Sign in with an external camera or fingerprint reader." This should be turned on. For me, this was missing which resulted in Facial recognition (Windows hello) claiming that the function was not available on my device.

If you cannot find the option to allow external devices for biometric sign-in you can adjust the following key and value.

The reg file way

Create a reg file containing this information, run it as administrator and restart afterwards.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinBio]

"SupportPeripheralsWithEnhancedSignInSecurity"=dword:00000001

The registry way

Start registry editor as admin and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinBio and create a new key DWORD (32-bit) value named SupportPeripheralsWithEnhancedSignInSecurity which you then give the value 1.

The PowerShell way

To add the value needed you need to start PowerShell as an administrator.

New-ItemProperty -path "registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinBio" -name SupportPeripheralsWithEnhancedSignInSecurity -PropertyType dword -Value 1

Windows: Automatic login

Introduction

This post will briefly show how you can set up your Windows device to automatically login upon starting the computer, it works for restarts as well.

It consists of two parts, first part is the GUI way and if that way doesn't work there is registry way.

The necessary security caveat:
Do not add this to a computer that can fall into the hands of the wrong person. It will decrease your device security and it is not encouraged, this post simply illustrates how it can be done.

The GUI way

Start netplwiz from either run or PowerShell.

Right away you will see an option "users must enter a user name and password to use this computer".

Uncheck this, confirm with your password. 

If the option is missing you will have to do the registry way instead.

The registry way

Create a registry file with the following text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device\]

"DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion"=dword:00000000

After you have saved it as a .reg-file, you can run it and it will make the necessary changes.
You can probably see the option now in step one if you are curious.

Give the computer a restart and it should now automatically log you into the user.

Keyboard: Remapping function keys

Looking at my keyboard I was wondering if there was a way for me to change the built in functions of the keyboard such as "open default mail app" or "play/pause music".

Seems like there is a way by editing the registry.

The following way will change the settings for all users of the computer, and as always, the registry is a dangerous place to edit if you aren't careful.

1. Open regedit as administrator and go to the following adress:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\

2. You will see numbered folders (called "keys"). Folder number 16 is your media player, in my case it was preset to open Windows Media Player. Thus a good candidate to be replaced.

3. Within the folder of your choice create a string value (REG_SZ) called ShellExecute.
Open that file up and set its value to a path leading to your program, put within quotation marks.
In my case I chose the path to PowerShell: "C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.exe"

In my case the effect was immediate, no restart was required. However, the day after it was not working as intended. It seemed to be working only if I had an admin session of regedit open. Trying to add it to Current User hive did not seem to work either.

We know that folder number 16 equated to the media button. What other buttons might there be?
Well this article lists all the potential numbers, obviously your keyboard might not have the email button and you might not be able to remap the email button to another program. I only chose to inspect/modify the already existing registry keys (15, 16, 17, 18, 7) instead of creating new ones.

Based of the article we can see the following examples of registry keys and their inherent functions:

1 = Browser navigation backward, 2 = forward, 3 = refresh, 4 = stop, 5 = search, 6 = favorites, 7 = home.

8 = mute volume, 9 = volume down, 10 = volume up, 11 = next track, 12 = previous track, 13 = stop, 14 = play/pause

15 = mail, 16 = media, 17 = app 1, 18 = app 2, 19 = bass down, 20 = bass boost, 21 = bass up, 22 = treble down, 23 = treble up

The numbers are arbitrary, you have to look where the functions are located physically on your keyboard. In my case the number 16 (media) was located on fn + escape. Thus, when I pressed fn + escape it started my PowerShell window. Beware, it seems to be unstable and might stop working for you though.

Here is the reg file content that you can work with, as you can see I experimented with Current User.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\16]

"ShellExecute"="C:\\Program Files\\PowerShell\\7\\pwsh.exe"

Enjoy!

Registry: Show detailed Windows messages

Whenever you turn your computer on or off you can see messages such as "updating, please don't turn your computer off" at the boot screen.

Sometimes your computer can get stuck here or it takes a long time and you might wonder what is happening. Using the registry you can enable more detailed status messages at the boot up or restart.

Create a .reg-file with the following information:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]

“verbosestatus”=dword:00000001

Now you can see what the computer is doing when it previously only would indicate that it was working.

Registry: Customize Windows 10

The registry in Windows keeps track of many program specific settings that you make changes to. In some way it is where the state of many things gets documented

You can change settings either through the regular Windows 10 GUI, or in the registry. Always be careful when editing within the registry itself.

To change settings through the registry you can either use "regedit.exe", use .reg-files or by using PowerShell. PowerShell gives you the ability to browse and edit like any other file structure.

 

Registry Editor (regedit.exe)

Regedit.exe takes you to a registry browser, that shows you what looks like folders and files. The top level of the registry contain HKEY_CURRENT_USER for example which is a "hive". The structure with folders under the hives are keys and subkeys respectively. The things looking like files are the values that have names and types.

 

Using .reg-files

The .reg-files use a simple syntax, they will add the "folders" that doesn't already exist and then they add the key with the desired value.

 

Create a notepad .txt file, enter code and rename it to .reg afterwards. You get a clickable and shareable file. 

 

 

Below is an example on how to disable Bing search in your Windows 10 start menu. Syntax looks like this:

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]

"DisableSearchBoxSuggestions"=dword:00000001 

 

The first part is what version of regedit your OS runs, then a necessary blank line, followed by an entry (hive, key, subkeys). It is possible to stack multiple edits in one file.

Another tweak I use to take me to the login page right away is the following:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization]

"NoLockScreen"=dword:00000001 

 

To show seconds in the clock on Windows 10 I use this tweak:

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]

"ShowSecondsInSystemClock"=dword:00000001

Editing the registry with PowerShell

Using PowerShell to edit the registry is shown in this blog post I made earlier. The essential cmdlet that you work with is New-ItemProperty  

 

Followed by various parameters:

-path, where in the registry

-name the key/folder

-PropertyType whether it is a string or dword for example

-Value if there is text or perhaps a 1

Last but not least, in order for most things to take effect, you need to restart your computer.