In the modern world, the laptop has almost become an extra limb for everyone who owns one. Whether it’s for work or leisure, our dependence on this piece of tech has opened up a world of corresponding services. These include IT support, compatible software, and even safety measures.
Consider your own laptop for a few moments. What would happen if it got stolen? These days, there are many apps you can install that will help you track it.
Which app offers you the best chance of finding it again? We’re sharing more on our favourite one below.
Any respectable IT support company will tell you that there are a few things to consider when choosing a tracking app. Firstly, it depends on the kind of laptop that you own, and whether you’re running Mac or Windows.
Secondly, you should look for a tracking app that offers you monitoring and actions.
In terms of monitoring, we mean the following: how do you know if the tracker on your laptop has broken? It’s no good losing a laptop, turning on the tracker and finding it’s been dead for months.
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- You should get an email when a laptop, which hasn’t been stolen, goes more than a few days or weeks without contact.
- Failing that, it should be easy to see from a web page when your laptop was last seen – but this depends on you remembering to do this, so that’s only second best.
- Having to test each one individually might be not much worse than #2 if you just have a few, but it’s not scalable for a larger company.
Where actions are concerned, you should ask yourself if you can you sound a warning on the stolen machine, or put a message on it? These have actually proven quite useful against casual thieves. Once the message has been seen by culprits, they’re often quick to abandon the machine, leaving you to get your asset back.
With this in mind, we recommend Prey Project. Not only can it be used for different devices and operating systems, but it’s one of few tracking apps that sends you an email alert. You can use it to safeguard your smart phone as well.
Prey Project offers monitoring in the form of emails that are sent when devices aren’t seen for a specified time, reappear or when missing machines send a report. A specific listing on the app’s site shows when each machine was last contacted. With regards to actions, you are able to send visual and spoken messages. You can also lock your device and change the wallpaper.
Not only will Prey Project determine the geographical location of your stolen laptop, it will also take silent screenshots and web cam images of the thief who has it. This means that this you’ll have solid evidence to hand over to the authorities. You’ll also be able to retrieve your important data or even completely delete it. All you need is for the laptop to be online.
You don’t have to choose Prey Project just because we tell you it works. There are several others on the market but we suggest that you do have some sort of tracker. Don’t wait for your laptop to get stolen before you realise the importance of this kind of protection.
If you need a little more assistance in this regard, please chat to one of our IT professionals.
