Identity Finder

The University of Houston now requires that Identity Finder be installed on all university owned Windows and Mac computers and that it shall be run on a scheduled basis.  However, there are no concrete rules for how often it should be run or what changes, if any, need to be made to the default search settings.

Here are some University guidelines for using Identity Finder: here and here.

This webpage was created in order to better help users become familiar with this software and its necessity.

The university provides downloads for different uses of Identity Finder for Windows and Macs.  (There is no version for Linux, so Linux PCs do not need to install or run Identity Finder.)  Requires you to login using your UH Cougarnet username and password.  There is also a home version, for personal use, and a student version, just for UH students.  These are both provided for free, but do not have all the functionality of the University licensed software.  You can also purchase a full licensed copy, but we currently have no information on pricing or where you can make the purchase.  See the links above for more information.

For all Department desktops or laptops, you should see an icon for Identity Finder on the desktop.  It looks like the graphics to the right.  Double-click on it to launch the app.
The first time you launch Identity Finder, it should ask you to enter a password to create a profile for you to use.  This profile is necessary so that you can save the changes to the default configuration.  So go ahead and enter a password, and then enter it twice to confirm spelling.  Once you start typing in your password, the Skip button will change to a Next button.  After entering your new password in both boxes, click Next to continue.
If your passwords match, you should see the following.
Now that you have created your profile, the next time you launch Identity Finder, you should see the Identity Finder Profile Sign In window instead of the previous windows.
Next, you should see the Search Wizard window.  Once you have customized Identity Finder, you can just click on the "Start Search Now" icon, but for now, just click on the "Open Advanced Interface" icon.
You will be asked if you want the Advnaced Interface to be the default choice.  Clicking "Yes" and checking the option for "Always perform my selection", will skip the previous Search Wizard window and go to the next step.  Clicking "No" will make this window appear each time.
The Advanced Interface window should now be shown and the Main tab is selected by default.  There is a Start button on the left.  Once you have saved your changes to the default settings, you can click this Start button to run the search.  For now, click the Identities tab.
You should now see the default settings for the Identities tab.  Only "Social Security", "Credit Card" and "Password Entry" are selected currently.
Here are the suggested settings for the Identities tab.
Now, click on the Locations tab and you should see the default settings shown here.  You should not need to change any settings here unless you are told to do so.  There are some more setting on the right of the window that are currently not shown.  Notice that there is a slim button to the right of the Cloud Folders button, which I have highlighted with a red arrow pointing to it.  Click on it a few times and it will move the ribbon buttons left.
When you have clicked several times and reached the end of the ribbon, you should see the E-Mail Attachments button.
Next, click on the Configuration tab.  Here is where you can configure Identity Finder to schedule automatic searches and also check for updates.
Click on the Scheduling button and you should see the window shown here.  Enabling "Schedule a search" enables the rest of the options.  Click on the Configure button to set a schedule with whatever frequency and time works best for you.  The schedule you set, should only be set for times that you are logged into the PC.  When the PC is turned off, it will not run! Also, for PCs in the department, you should only schedule a time when you are logged into the PC, as you do not have permission to run Identity Finder otherwise.
Now, click on the Tools tab.  Here there are a few other useful functions you may use.  Move the mouse cursor over each of the buttons and a popup window will appear and explain each of the functions.  The Password Vault button could be of great use to most users.  It can store your username and password for any number of websites or other locations and it restricts access to this information by requiring your Identity Finder profile sign in.

Before running a search, be sure to close all other programs first.  From the Main tab, click on the Start button on the far left.  You should see a window like the one here.  This window tells you what it is searching and the overall progression of the search.  (Where the black line is, you would see the full path of the files being searched.  This has been marked out for personal reasons.)
Once the search is completed, you will see a Results window.  You can click the Save button and save the results to a file for review later.  Or click the Advanced button and you will return to the Main tab window.
In this demo, you can see a database file was found to have multiple matches.  The selected item is showing a date and in the preview window, the highlighted text is noted as a BirthDate.  If the Preview window is not shown, click on the Configuration tab and click the Preview Pane button. Now you can scroll through the results and choose what you want to do.  From the Main tab, the Ribbon has a section named Actions where you can choose what action to take for each result.   Or you can select one or more locations/files to apply an action.  You can also right-click on an items to bring up a popup menu and choose an action.

For more help on using Identity Finder, see the official Identity Finder online help for Windows or Mac

Well, that's all for now.  This page will be updated or removed if the university publishes official instructions.

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Last revised: May 13, 2014 14:13