We regret with a heavy heart when our portable device stocking all our information is lost — just like that! Needless to say, we are frustrated over losing our laptop(s).While it may not be possible to find out who exactly scuttled away with the laptop, but there are certain measures one can stitch in time to avoid similar consequences.
One of the free software that will help you to track your lost/ stolen laptop is Prey. Prey is an open source tool that uses the on-board GPS chip and the nearby WiFi network to track your stolen machine. Available for the Windows, Mac, and Linux Operating System, Prey is totally free to download.
How Prey Works?
Prey can be activated on stolen laptops in two ways. Firstly, you can specify a URL which when verified by Prey will generate a report of your device location. Another way to track your laptop is to license Prey to send a report to your email every time it runs — of course you should have an valid email address, and you should be able to tweak the SMTP to receive reports. To avoid losing your Macbook pro, Air, iMac (Yea, talk about pulling out all the stops) Mac users can use firmware password utility on the Mac OS installation DVD.
To help you in recovering your stolen laptop, Prey will also take a picture of the thief using the webcam. The control panel of Prey allows you to perform a handful of actions such as deleting saved passwords from your browser, hiding the email, setting an alarm and warning the thief verbally.
So, basically you install a tiny program called Prey and it will silently keep track of your Windows laptops, Macbook Pro and Desktop PCs – all this for free. Prey Pro is available too, but the free version does a great job in tracking lost laptops and supports up to 3 devices.
Download Prey and hunt the hunters!
Note: Prey doesn’t track laptops after it is stolen. In order to track the location of your laptop, you must install prey beforehand. To be on the safer side: add a BIOS password to your laptop and also disable booting from removable devices. This will give a hard time for the thief if he is trying to format the hard disk.
