Free Tools to Help You Track Down a Stolen Laptop

Perhaps, someday soon, laptops will recognize when they've been stolen and deal with the perpetrator themselves, not unlike this video clip.

Until such a time comes, though, we'll have to rely on geo-location tools to help the authorities zero in on your lost computer. Here is a pair of free options:

LocateMyLaptop is a free service that features a stealthy app on your laptop which reports its position whenever the computer is connected to the Internet. If it's lost or stolen, you can issue a self-destruct command to erase all the data on the hard drive â€" but that requires upgrading to the Platinum Plan, which costs $3/month. It's awesome that you can track you laptop for free, but it's not clear to me why anyone would ever pay for an ongoing subscription since you can upgrade after disaster strikes.
Loki is a browser plug-in that reports your exact location in a handful of ways. You can log directly into Loki to see your laptop's location on a map, or enable "sharing" â€" which blasts your location to a public Web page, to Twitter, Facebook, or a handful of other services. This is an interesting option, but I found that Loki wasn't always reliable, sometimes failing to update the public page with the laptop's location, even when Loki on the laptop itself knew where it was. So I'd use it with caution.

And don't forget that Rick has already told you about how you can rescue a stolen laptop with Laptop Cop, but that costs $50/year. To me, that sounds like Laptop Cop is for people who hate money.

Dave Johnson

View all articles by Dave Johnson on CBS MoneyWatch »
Dave Johnson is editor of eHow Tech and author of three dozen books, including the best-selling How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera. Dave has previously worked at Microsoft and has written about technology for a long list of magazines that include PC World and Wired.

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