I have an HP Pavilion laptop running Vista x64 SP2 with 2.53GHz dual processor and 4Gb RAM, along with a fingerprint reader.  I installed Stardock Bootskin and Logon Studio to customize.  The installations came up with an error during the process but still continued through to completion.  At first, it looked as though it worked OK.  But what I came to find was that several problems emerged.

First, my logon functionality became compromised, such that I could not logon using the keyboard.  I had to use the fingerprint reader.  The icon for the fingerprint reader that would normally show a status was now blank.  So, there's no way to see a status of the device (whether it is ready, if the swipe failed, etc).

Second, when the Windows desktop would start up after logging on, I'd get an error message about a fault in the User Logon services.  After dismissing the message, everything would be fine.  I found that after a cold reboot that the problems still manifested.  While I often use the fingerprint reader to log on, I sometimes prefer to use the keyboard.  I can't take a chance that if my fingerprint becomes slightly altered and no longer matches, that I'd be unable to log on again.  Also, being greeted with an error message every time I log on is just shoddy and unacceptable.

I uninstalled Digital Persona and of course the problem went away, as now there was no fingerprint option.  I could use the keyboard.  However, I paid extra money to have the fingerprint reader option and want to use it.  I tried installing Digital Persona with the Stardock Impulse software already in place, and the problems returned in the same way as before.

I haven't seen it documented anywhere about Stardock having a conflict with Digital Persona fingerprint reader software.  I found just one other posting by another member who had reported the same kind of problem, but he had some other issues as well that overshadowed it.  He never found a solution, or simply never reported back on what he found.

Is there any workaround for this issue?  Or, am I forced to make a choice--Stardock or Digital Persona?  If it's a choice, there's no question that I'll continue using my fingerprint reader.  But, it's kind of a bummer that I can't at least customize the Logon screen.  Frankly, the premise seems so basic.  It's just an image.  There should be no functionality change.  But I gather that Microsoft embedded the image in a DLL and so Stardock does some clever redirecting on files, which is probably what trips up Digital Persona.