How do I get the lost or stolen laptop back?

Laptop lost or stolen is very annoying things, the computer may be stored a lot of personal work and livelihood, then how to improve the recovery rate? Actually, there are a lot of software to help you. Of course, the success rate of retrieving the computer is lower than the smartphone, because the computer needs to meet the requirements of power-on and Internet connection. The most important point, if the computer is really stolen, people are very likely to reinstall the system, the installation of tracking software will not work, but there are ways to prevent theft, read this article carefully.

Apple offers a "Find my Mac" service to track lost or stolen Mac computers. However, Microsoft does not provide such services for computers that install Windows operating systems, and even new Windows 8 tablets do not.

If you are using a Windows operating system and want to be able to track your personal laptop to prevent it from being lost or stolen, you will need to install some third-party software. Now there are a lot of paid tracking service, of course there are some good free choice Oh!

　　Basic knowledge

The Tracking service works basically the same. Install the software on your device and register the user based on an alert. If you lose the device, access the website of the previous registration service, log in to your account, you can view the location of the device and control it remotely.

Note that tracking your laptop is much more difficult than tracking your smartphone. The smartphone can still connect to the data network while in standby, so the location is forwarded back to the user at any time. However, it is not possible to report a location to your portable computer if it is turned off or is not connected to a WiFi network. The tracking service also provides some extra protection to keep the laptop from losing, but it's still much harder to locate a laptop than a smartphone.

　　Installing Prey

Prey tracking software supports Windows, Macs, and Linux systems. It also provides Android and IOS tracking applications, so you can use this service to track all your personal devices.

This service provides paid value-added services, but the basic tracking service is completely free. Free service, allows one account to connect 3 devices, each device can store up to 10 location reports.

After installing Prey, you will be prompted to create a new user or enter the details of your current user.

After the user is logged on, Prey will start running immediately. By default, Prey runs as a Windows system service. If you need to configure it, you can find the "Prey" folder in the program Group folder in the Start menu and open the "configure" shortcut.

If you want Prey to increase the frequency of location detection, get more reports when your laptop is lost, select "Execute Options" (Options for execution), and modify the report and frequency of actions.

　　Track a lost portable computer

You can now access the Prey Project website and log in with an account that was previously registered for the service. You will see your computer as well as other pre-set devices.

If you lose your laptop, you need to click on the computer name in the Prey Control Panel and set the status slider from "OK" to "missing". This service starts to keep track of the laptop that installs the service only when the computer is lost. Make sure the location (Geo) feature is enabled, which reports the current location of your portable computer via the laptop's built-in GPS hardware or a nearby WIFI hotspot.

You can also use Prey to perform specific actions, such as setting alarms--This is useful if you forget to put your computer in a nearby location (like forgetting to leave your phone in a corner of the room, dialing with another phone, ringing or vibrating alerts will help you find it). Of course, the portable computer alerts This function is not reliable, because the computer will need to boot and connect to the Internet, otherwise the computer can not receive the instructions, nature will not send an alarm.

　　When you are done, be sure to save your settings

As soon as your laptop is set to missing, its status changes to "track, wait for report." The Prey software on your computer will periodically check for instructions from the server, and when you receive instructions marked as missing, Prey will generate a report. As long as the Prey software is installed on the computer and the computer is connected to the Internet, you will receive an alert message.

The software also has an "on demand" mode that you can request to report immediately, but the free version cannot use this feature. If you can tolerate a few minutes of waiting, the free version should work as well.

When the report arrives, you'll be able to see it in the Reports tab. The report includes information about the features you choose, such as the geographic location of your laptop, its network status and IP address, screenshots of your desktop, and the ability to capture user images through the camera. The report will help you get your laptop back, or it can be a powerful proof of your stolen property.

If for some reason you don't want to use the Prey system, you can also try another free software lockittight.

　　Integrated Hardware solutions: notebook software manufacturer Absolute Software's LoJack anti-theft software offers a paid service because the benefits of integrating this feature in many laptop BIOS, anti-theft features are more powerful and difficult to remove.

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