A couple of days I ago I wrote the post, Strengthening 2-Step Verification with Security Key, and yesterday I got the security key. I guess parcel post from France is pretty quick! I had to reboot the computer before I could get the hardware drivers to install. It took about two minutes to register the key with both of my gmail accounts after it finished booting. Pretty cool!
Today I tested it at work. The first step was to insert the security key and let Windows 7 install the drivers. Once again my luck installing the drivers was better after I rebooted. Then I cranked up Chrome and went to gmail. Google asked me to login. After I entered the password, it asked me to install the security key. In a couple of seconds it had validated and I was redirected to my inbox. I took the key out and put it back in my storage bag. Although I have entered my password several times as I browsed my security settings, it did not require access to the security key.
The last task was to create an app specific password for gmail for those applications that will not use the security key.