Biometric Devices not showing up in Control Panel

I have looked for help all over the internet and cannot find a solution: My fingerprint reader shows up in Device manager, but I cannot do anything with it if Biometric Devices does not show up in Control Panel!! what's wrong? I have ALL the right and updated drivers.
thanks!
Joe

Hi Joe and welcome to Seven Forums.

Some folks have suggested installing this driver:

AuthenTec Customer Support > Downloads > Windows > Drivers

Additional suggestions on this Microsoft forum thread:

no biometric devices in control panel

And this blog:

Biometric Devices Missing from Windows 7 Control Panel | 1N73RNET1N73RNET

   Warning

At a minimum, I would strongly suggest making a Restore Point before installing/uninstalling any drivers.

System Restore Point - Create

System Restore

Thanks, but I've already been to those blogs and driver sites... none of them helped me at all. It seems to be purely a Windows problem, not driver or hardware.

It's absurd that so many people have this problem, yet no one has a solution! Microsoft!!!!!!!!

This fingerprint reader must just be not very compatible, because I couldn't get it working in Linux either, which I should have been able to.

My driver is this: VFS471
It's installed right, but the control panel doesn't show Biometric Devices. It's Windows, not the driver I think...

I followed these instructions:

1. Download all the latest Fingerprint Sensor Drivers and related software specific to your device.

2. Uninstall your Biometric Devices and Simplepass drivers and applications. You can do the first one by going to Start>Control Panel>Device Manager>Right click on Biometric Device and Select Uninstall. (include the software driver). For the Simplepass, Start>Control Panel>Programs and Features>HP Simplepass>Uninstall (dont delete the identity profiles if you wanna save your passwords).

3. Now for the Services. Make sure you follow the path and set all of the services to "Automatic". You can do this by going to Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services.
Double click on ALL (although you have to do this one at a time) the services listed below and change the "Startup type" to Automatic.
-Credential Manager
-Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
-DCOM Server Process Launcher
-RPC Endpoint Mapper
-Windows Biometric Service
-Plug and Play
**you don't have to follow the order above should some services gives an error when you're setting it.
Once done, reboot.

4. Install the updated biometric driver first and then the simplepass software (Simplepass 2012 at the time of this writing).

5. Go to Start>Control Panel>Biometric Devices>Change Biometric Settings. Make sure "Biometrics On" is selected and "Allow users to Log on to Windows..." is checked if you want to login to Windows using the sensor. Once done, reboot.

6. Test and configure the sensor and application. Enjoy.
**If the sensor is not displayed upon Windows boot-up, click on "switch user" to show the option to login to Windows using the sensor.

Hope this helps!

I don't have HP simplepass, so I ignored those parts. [I have HP protecttools Security Manager]
However, step 5 didn't work. there IS NO "Biometric devices" in Control Panel!!!! I don't know what to do.