Most people don't know that 1 out of every 10 Laptops is stolen, not a good ratio.

For your other laptops there are a few things you can do besides software protection which might not be a bad idea as well.

1. Always make a BIOS password required for any BIOS changes.

2. Most new laptops have a Hard Drive Lock you can activate via the BIOS, use it.

3. Make sure the First device to Boot from is the hard drive in your BIOS settings.

4. If possible disable all other boot devices in your BIOS, if that's not possible, make the second choice Boot option, Boot From LAN, and the CD and or floppy 3rd and 4th choice.

5. If possible disable the display of the BIOS function key at Boot via the BIOS.

6. If the laptop uses the welcome screen at boot up create a user id which is nothing but a telephone number with area code.

7. Make sure ALL the user Id's have STRONG passwords including the "Administrator" Admin ID ("Which for XP home systems can only be accessed in Safe-Mode") and normally has no password.

8. Use the LegalNoticeCaption and LegalNoticeText registry entries to force a popup at each reboot with the text and caption of your choice including again a telephone number:

»support.microsoft.com/kb/101063/EN-US/

»support.microsoft.com/default.as···s;238149

The only thing left is maybe some additional laptop security software, but if you do all these things it should be enough to not allow someone to bypass the BIOS, boot from anything but the hard drive, modify/replace the hard drive such as a format without the hard drive password or try to replace the drive without the BIOS password.

Most pawn shops would not touch this with a 10 foot pole when they see the legal text pop-up and the user ID of a phone number with area code combo.

Sooner or later, someone will take the smart route call the number and play stupid with the hope they get some minor reward money.

The reason why most laptops are not returned when stolen is that none or only some of these steps are taken, which makes it easy to modify and there is also not a phone number to contact someplace which cannot be scratched off.

Personally my Legal text for my laptops read something like this:

Legal Caption: Caution If You Are Asked To Purchase This!

Legal Text : Is someone attempting to sell this laptop To You? If so please contact (XXX) XXX - XXXX to verify ownership.

NOTE: The legal text and caption also display in safe-mode as well.
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by ZOverLord
last modified: 2008-10-01 01:26:45