Before your laptop goes missing, take a few minutes to complete a few simple steps that may make the difference in your laptop being recovered.

 


Step 1: Download Adeona,  http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/ a free, open-source laptop tracing software program onto the computer that you want to trace.

 

Open the AdeonaSetup.exe program. Double-click on it and proceed through the automated installation process. When you reach the screen that asks you whether you want to install the client software, recovery tools or both, choose the client software option only. You will be asked to enter a password and then to save an .OST file. Save this to a safe location on a different computer that you will use to trace your laptop.


Hopefully, you won’t ever have to use this program but if you do, you are prepared. If you know the IP address of your stolen or missing computer, you can find out where it was last connected to the Internet. This information is needed in tracking the physical location of the computer because IP addresses can be traced to locations anywhere on the globe. This can be used to help law enforcement officials to recover your computer.

 

Step 2: Proceed through the installation process again, this time using the computer you will use should your laptop be stolen. This installation, you will want to choose the option to only install the recovery tools.

 

Step 3: Now, its time to test your work. Open the recovery tools on your computer. Open the .OST file that was saved during the set up of the client software. Input the date and time range desired to search for the laptop as well as how many locations should be searched for. Enter the password that was defined during the client software set up process.

The recovery process may take several minutes to finish. But, voila, once its done, there will be a new folder on your desktop that contains detailed location information on your computer, including time, date and IP address information. This information can be taken to a law enforcement agency and used to find and recover your computer.

Note: always give this information to law enforcement, don’t try and recover the laptop yourself.