CompuTrace Software

Ronin228

I had a Compaq nc6000 that I had loaned to my daughter and she left it on the kitchen table at her house one day, then drove away from the house with the garage door left open. Well, when she returned, she could tell someone came in the house. The laptop was gone for sure. We think they got spooked because when you open her door from the garage to the house there is a security message that announces the back door is opened. This happens even when the security system is not activated.

They probably grabbed whatever they saw and took off.

A few weeks later I got a call from the police asking if I had a laptop stolen. I told them yes and they said they had recovered it. They found it in the back seat of a guys car they had pulled over for a speeding violation. They became suspicious because he didn't look like he knew anything about computers.

What kept him from hocking it was a bios password that I had setup. The police said this will usually stop a thief from taking a laptop if they know the password has been setup. Pawnshops don't like dealing with laptops with enabled passwords when the guy bringing it in doesn't know the password. Kind of a tip off that it was stolen.

I've thought about putting a sticker on my laptop announcing that it is protected by a password and can not be started without it. Might deter someone taking it.

Got my laptop back with everything just as it was. I agree - cops don't worry about stolen merchandise, but in this case, they had to probe the hard disk to find a file with my name in it.

or maybe you can track them down? hmmmm

I'm sorry - did you say that was an after market addon. So, I could call Dell and get it enabled on my system (D820) anytime?

Ronin228

What did they charge you for the 3 year subscription service?

there are other topics on this but this what I have learned about the software since we have started using it at work. A computer "literate" person in mind would easily be able to beat the computrace software with the deletion/creation of a new partition or simply creating a new boot record. I've found at work when I re-image computers that the software needs to be reinstalled because its simply that...SOFTware. When I re-image computers at work the partition is wiped and re-written which is how we quickly...and easily I might add found out where this software "hides" itself. My director even said the main reason he thought we needed it was for the software/hardware auditing capabilities. So while it is one more step in a defense against theft it only lasts as long as the original partion you installed it on stays in tact.

For me personally its a heck of a lot cheaper just to set a bios password and windows passwords (not blank!). As said above a bios level password while may not get your system back to you every time will at least prevent someone else from being able to use your system.

Great coupon, but make sure you read it completely. It is not valid for the downloadable version, you have to get a box version mailed to you or you must purchase it in person at a store.....

Hopefully it really is a bios level function. The computrace setup at work thus far has been on machines that did not come with it from the factory. I sincerely hope some machines have it built in such as yours. Unfortunatley the machines at work where "existing" machines and was "installed" and yes you do activate it online but in this case its not bios level. Supposedly all of our future machines will have it from the factory...which I hope is the bios level type as I said with this scenario just doesn't seem worth it (but I don't controll the money at work).

Glad to hear you have a machine that supports it.