Free Anti-theft Laptop Recovery software
Anti-theft Laptop recovery applications are programs designed with the sole purpose of tracing your laptop’s location and retrieving it. Once installed, the software is capable of running in the background, unknown to the thief. The only caveat is that the laptop has to be connected to the Internet before the location is traced.
1] LAlarm
LAlarm is free laptop alarm security software for Windows OS. The highlight of the program is its sound. It emits an audible sound/alarm sound when a thief tries to steal a laptop, helping you recover it easily. But how does the nifty application carries out this action? Well, LAlarm uses the USB port or power port of your laptop as a sensor to detect if your machine has tampered.
Apart from emitting the large sound, the ingenious security freeware alarms when a hard disk drive needs a repair or replacement in order to prevent data and locks down your system instantly if someone is trying to hack your safe password. Also, it alarms when the battery power is draining to help you preserve the limited battery life. The only glitch, once the system is locked down due to password tampering, the program tries to upload data from selected folders to your Gmail account. So you need to have a Gmail account in the first place.
2] Prey
Prey anti-theft software has been specially designed to trace devices that are rightfully yours – mobiles, laptops! The ingenious application is silent but deadly! I mean, although it silently sits in the background of your computer, it ably captures photographs of the thief taken from the laptop’s web camera as well as screenshots of websites surfed when the thief is running your device. It then sends all the gathered evidence to your mailbox, depending on the reporting method you choose.
The owner gets regular updates via Wi-Fi points near the thief. Prey is simple. There is nothing to launch or configure. All the required settings required for activating and monitoring Prey’s services can be accessed via the browser’s interface.
3] LaptockLock
Free data protection and computer recovery service can help you keep your important files safe and retrieve your computer if stolen. All you need to do is sign up for a free account to register the computer(s), Install the Laptop Lock agent for your Windows OS and follow the wizard instructions. Then, if there is an event of misfortune, i.e., your computer is stolen, just login into your account and mark the computer status as stolen. If the machine gets connected to the Internet anytime, the actions you can retrieve it. Laptop Lock does not appear to have been updated in a while, however. Check it out here.
4] Adeona
Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop and is free to use. This anti-theft laptop recovery tool does not rely on a single third-party. It continually monitors the current location of the stolen laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) and uses it to identify the device’s current location. The client then uses strong cryptographic mechanisms to not only encrypt the location data but also ensure that the cipher-texts stored within OpenDHT are anonymous and unlinkable. No person apart from an owner (or a person of the owner’s choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. This tool too does not seem to have been updated for some time now.
5] IPFetcher
IP Fetcher is a quick and easy to use program that fetches your IP address and displays it in the program. You can save the copied IP address in a text file or even print it. IPFetcher is completely free to download and use. Available at ipfetcher.com. TIP: You can also find a stolen laptop with free LockItTight online laptop recovery service. Observations and comments are most welcome!
