SECURE LOGIN
 
As indicated in the aforementioned chart, Cyberangel has an included feature for secure login, but that Trackion and Lojack for Laptops do not. If you choose to use Trackion, or Lojack, then you can try installing the Access Denied XP software which is suppose to provide a more secure password login than is provided in Windows. Or you can stick with the basic windows password login that you already have in windows if you are satisfied with that. Also there is the BIOS boot password that you can set up on your laptop, but you have to go into your BIOS to set that up. A note of warning: If you set up a BIOS boot password, then make sure that you use a password that you definitely know that you will absolutely remember because if you ever forget the password then you will not get into your laptop at all. If you want two-factor authentication where you use a USB key to log into windows on your laptop, then do a search on your favorite search engine to look at all the software for two-factor authentication that is out there. What I would worry about with two-factor authenication is if you lose your USB key. In other words, don't lose your USB key if you use two-factor authentication on your laptop.
 
You can also implement an automatic lockout policy for passworded user accounts in Windows XP. For example, you can allow only three, five, seven, or ten invalid windows logon attempts before Windows XP locks out the user from being able to get into the passworded windows user account that he is attempting to log into. From the Start Button, go into the Administrative Tools menu, click on "Local Security Policy", and then go to
Security Settings\Account Policies\Account Lockout Policy
in the left column. Over on the right side, do a right-click on "Account Lockout Threshold" and click Properties. Change the setting to either 10 or 7 or 5 or 3 as the setting for "Invalid Logon Attempts". This change should also automatically change the "Account Lockout Duration" and the "Reset Account Lockout Counter After" settings to 30 minutes each.

ACCESS MONITORING
 
As for monitoring unauthorized access to your laptop, there is the aforementioned Access Denied XP software which, in addition to secure password login protection, provides local monitoring of user account accesses your laptop and if the logins to Windows have been successful. This monitoring in Access Denied XP can only be reviewed by you while you are at your laptop and is not an online function. In contrast, Cyberangel provides online monitoring notification via email and fax. If you get Trackion, or Lojack for Laptops, and if you want to monitor the windows login accesses on your laptop, then get software like Access Denied XP which is additional software that you would have to pay for.

"HONEY POT"
 
If you get Trackion or Lojack for Laptops, you can set up the equivalent of a "honey pot" like in Cyberangel. This assumes you are using Windows XP. Some of what follows may work in Windows 2000, but you are on your own if it doesn't. Also, I have no idea if what follows works at all in Windows Vista - so you are on your own if you are a Windows Vista user. This is also NOT for Windows 98 if you are still using Win98. So, what follows in this section are suggestions on how to secure a non-password limited user account in Windows XP. For security tracking purposes where Trackion or Lojack for Laptops is installed, a secure non-password limited user account would act as a "honey pot" where the unauthorized user surfing the internet while in this "honey pot" account would be tracked by Trackion or Lojack for Laptops. More specifically, the laptop's IP location is tracked as the unauthorized user is logged into the "honey pot" account while surfing the internet. FYI, there are no guarantees and no warranties regarding the tips, suggestions, and everything else discussed on this web page - particularly since the most capable of advanced users know how to take computers apart.
 

A. Before doing any of these tweaks to make a secure limited "honey pot" user account, you should make a System Restore Point. By making a System Restore Point, you can go back to what your Windows settings were before doing the tweaks. To make a System Restore Point, click Start, go into the All Programs menu, go into Accessories and then go into System Tools, and click System Restore.
 
B. After setting up a System Restore Point, go into the Control Panel in Windows and click into User Accounts. Click on Create a New Account. Name this new user account. For now, set up the new account as an Administrator account. Do not put a password on this new user account. On the Home screen for User Accounts, if there is a Guest account, then turn off the Guest account.
 
C. If you are using the Access Denied XP software, do a right-click on the "Access Denied XP" icon in the system tray, click "Access Denied XP Administration" and then go into the "Users Manager," click to select the new user account that you made, and check the box for "User Can't Change Password." Click OK and exit out of the "Access Denied XP" window.
 
D. Download and install the TweakUI Powertoy from Microsoft.
 
E. Download and install Start Killer. After installing Start Killer, do NOT run Start Killer (uncheck the box asking to "Run Start Killer" when the installer is done). You will LATER run Start Killer when you are logged into the new user account.
 
E. Restart / Reboot Windows.
 
F. After your Laptop begins to reboot and before Windows restarts, press F8 and get into Safe Mode. Log into the Administrator user account. You only see this Administrator account when you are in Safe Mode. After logging into the Administrator user account in Windows Safe Mode, go into the Control Panel and then into User Accounts. Click the Administrator account and change / create the password for the Administrator account. Use a password that you definitely know that you will absolutely remember. Note that the Administrator account by default does not have a password. You want to secure your Laptop from anyone getting into Safe Mode by setting up a password for the Administrator account. After you have set up a password for the Administrator account, then restart / reboot your Laptop.
 
G. When you get the Windows login screen again, log into the new user account that you made in the earlier steps.
 
H. When you are logged into the new user account, go into Display Properties: Do a right-click on the desktop, click Properties, click on the Desktop tab, and then click the "Customize Desktop" button. Then uncheck all of the boxes for "My Documents," "My Computer," "My Network Places," and "Internet Explorer." Also uncheck the box for "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard Every 60 Days." Click OK. While you are in the Display Properties, you may want to change the desktop background wallpaper. Afterwards, click OK again. There should be no icons on the desktop.
 
I. Then while still on the desktop, create icons for Internet Explorer, or Firefox, and for the Wi-Fi and Dial-Up internet connections. You can go into the Start Menu, go through All Programs, look for Internet Explorer or Firefox, do a right-click on the menu selection for Internet Explorer or Firefox, click Copy, do a right-click on the desktop, and click Paste Shortcut. Rename the shortcut as "Internet Browser" (without the quotation marks). Do a right-click on your new "Internet Browser" icon and in the Comment input field, type in "Internet Browser" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK. For the Wi-Fi Connection, go into Network Connections, do a right-click on your Wireless Network Connection and Create Shortcut to place the shortcut on the desktop. For a Dial-Up Internet Connection, in Network Connections, click "Create A New Connection" to get the "New Connection Wizard" and click Next, click "Connect to the Internet," click Next, click "Set Up My Connection Manually," click Next, click "Connect Using A Dial-Up Modem," click Next, type in "Dial-Up 56K Internet" (without the quotation marks) for the ISP Name, click Next, leave the Phone Number blank, click Next, leave the User Name and Password input fields blank and uncheck the two boxes, click Next, check the box for "Add A Shortcut To This Connection To My Desktop," and click Finish. On the desktop, rename the "Wireless Network Connection" shortcut to "Wi-Fi Wireless Internet" (without the quotation marks). Do a right-click on this new "Wi-Fi Wireless Internet" and in the Comment input field, type in something like "Wi-Fi Wireless Internet Connection" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK. Do a right-click on the "Dial-Up 56K Internet" shortcut on the desktop, in the Comment input field, type in something like "Dial-Up 56K Internet Connection" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK. Also make a shutdown shortcut on the desktop: Do a right-click on the desktop, click New, click Shortcut, type in "shutdown -s" (without the quotation marks), click Next, name the shortcut as "Shutdown Computer" (without the quotation marks), and click Finish. Do a right-click on the "Shutdown Computer" icon and in the Comment input field, type in something like "Shutdown Windows and Turn Off Computer" (without the quotation marks). Before clicking OK, click the button for "Change Icon" and choose an icon image from the list which scrolls horizontally from left to right. Look for the Red Shutdown button image and click that. Click OK and click OK to finish. Now, there should be four icons on the desktop for Internet Browser, Wi-Fi Wireless Internet, Dial-Up 56K Internet, and Shutdown Computer.
 
J. Do a right-click on the taskbar. Move your mouse cursor up to Toolbars. If there is no checkmark on Quick Launch, then click Quick Launch. The Quick Launch toobar should appear on the taskbar next to the Start Button. An icon for "Show the Desktop" may appear on the Quick Launch toolbar. Then on the desktop, do a drag-and-drop of the "Shutdown Computer" icon from the desktop to the Quick Launch toolbar where the "Shutdown Computer" icon appears next to the "Show the Desktop" icon. Do a right-click on the "Show the Desktop" icon and click Delete. There should then be only the "Shutdown Computer" icon on the Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar by the Start Button.
 
K. If you are using Firefox as the Internet Browser in your new limited secure user account, run Firefox and click Tools on the menubar, click Options, check the box so that "Firefox Should Check To See If It Is The Default Browser When Starting" and click the "Check Now" button in the General section. Also while you are in the Firefox Options, you may also want to uncheck the setting to "Remember Passwords" on the Passwords tab in the Privacy section, uncheck all of the boxes for "Automatically Check For Updates" on the Update tab in the Advanced section of Options. After making the changes and any other changes you want to make in Firefox, exit out of Firefox.
 
L. Then do a right-click on the Start Button. Click Properties. Click the Taskbar tab and make sure that the box for Hide Inactive Icons is checked. Then click the Customize button and then set all the icons to "Always Hide" except set Volume to "Always Show." Click OK when done with the icons. Then click the tab for Start Menu. Click the Start Menu selection. Click Customize. On the General tab, uncheck the boxes for Internet and E-mail. Click the tab for Advanced and uncheck all the boxes in the scrolling section for Start Menu Items and also click the selection for "Don't Display This Item" for all of the other items in the scrolling section. Then click OK. Click Classic Start Menu and then also uncheck all of the boxes in the scrolling section. Click OK and click OK again.
 
M. Press the Windows Logo Key and the "R" key at the same time to get the Run dialog. Type in "regedt32" (without the quotation marks) and click OK. Regedit should then appear on the display screen. Minimize Regedit for now. We will be using Regedit after doing some other things first. Regedit should now be minimized on the taskbar.
 
N. Again, press the Windows Logo Key and the "R" key at the same time. Type in
"C:\Program Files\Start Killer\StartKiller.exe"
without the quotation marks and then click OK. Next, do a right-click on the Start Killer icon in the System Tray by the clock on the taskbar. Click Settings. Check the box for "Load On System Startup" and check the box for "Disable Start Menu" - and then uncheck the box for "Show Icon In System Tray" and then click the OK button. After clicking OK, the Start Button should disappear if it hasn't disappeared already.
 
O. Press the Windows Logo Key and the "R" key at the same time to again get the Run dialog. Type in "tweakui" and click OK. You will be using TweakUI to disable Windows Logo Key+X commands and a bunch of other things in Windows. While in TweakUI, then click Explorer in the left column. In the scrolling Settings section for Explorer, uncheck all of the boxes - and particularly make sure that the box for "Enable Windows+X Hotkey" is unchecked. Click the "+" sign on Explorer in the left column to expand the Explorer branch and then click Shortcut. Click None for Shortcut Overlay. Click Desktop in the left column and then uncheck all of the boxes for Desktop Icons. Click My Computer in the left columan and then uncheck all of the boxes for My Computer Icons. Then click the "+" sign on My Computer in the left column to expand that branch. Click Drives (below My Computer) in the left column and uncheck all of the boxes for all of the drives. Expand the "+" sign for Autoplay to expand the Autoplay branch. Click Drives (below Autoplay) in the left column and then uncheck all of the boxes for all of the drives. Click Types (below Autoplay/Drives) in the left column and then uncheck all of the boxes for Autoplay Drive Types. Click Control Panel in the left column and then uncheck all the boxes for Control Panel Extensions. Click Templates in the left column and then uncheck all the boxes for Document Templates. Click the OK button to finish and to exit TweakUI.
 
P. Now, you will be using Regedit to edit the Windows Registry to disable doing a right-click to get the context menu on the desktop and on the taskbar and to also disable accessing the Windows Task Manager in the new user account. The registry tweaks described in this paragraph are only for the new user account. So, you have to be logged into the new user account. If you are unsure about making editing changes in your Windows Registry, then stop and study what is written here to get an understanding what is happening here. You may also want to do a search on the internet to find out more about using Regedit to edit the Windows Registry if you are still uncomfortable about using Regedit. If you feel comfortable in editing the Windows Registry, then continue. Regedit should still be sitting minimized in the taskbar. Click Regedit in the taskbar to restore Regedit so that it appears on the display screen. While in Regedit, go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Then do a right-click on Explorer, then click New, select String Value, name the new string as "NoViewContextMenu" (without the quotation marks), and then do a right-click on NoViewContextMenu. Click Modify and input 0 (that's a zero). Click OK. Next, again do a right-click on Explorer, click New, select String Value, name this second new string as "NoTrayContextMenu" (without the quotation marks), and then do a right-click on NoTrayContextMenu. Click Modify and input 0 (that's the zero number). Click OK. Next, go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system
Do a right-click on system, click New, select String Value, name the new string as "DisableTaskMgr" (without the quotation marks), and then do a right-click on DisableTaskMgr. Click Modify and input 1 (that's the number 1). Click OK. Exit out of Regedit. Two of the registry tweaks to disable doing a right-click on the desktop and to disable accessing the Task Manager may take effect right away. The registry tweak to disable doing a right-click on the taskbar may take effect after a reboot.
 
Q. Either double-click the "Shutdown Computer" icon on the desktop or click the "Shutdown Computer" icon on the taskbar. Windows should then shutdown and your laptop computer should turn off. (You are shutting down Windows because you want to make sure that all of the registry tweaks take effect after you start up Windows again.)
 
R. Turn your laptop back on and log back into your regular Windows user account. Don't log into your new user account at this time. While in your regular Windows user account, go into the Control Panel and into User Accounts. Click on the new user account, click "Change the Account Type", and change the new user account to Limited. Exit out of User Accounts. The new user account that you made and tweaked is now a limited account where anyone using that account will only be limited to that area.
 
S. Log out of your regular windows user account and then log into the new user account. Test the new user account by trying to do right-clicks on the desktop and on the taskbar. Try accessing the Start Menu. Try to see if your wi-fi internet connection is working and try surfing the web using your Internet Browser. For the Dial-Up Internet, you could leave the settings for it blank and leave it for whoever takes your laptop to set up a dial-up internet account and input the settings (i.e., username, password, and phone number). With this secure limited user account, you should only be able to use the Internet Browser to surf the web but nothing else.
 

 
You should now have a new secure limited user account that will act as a "honey pot" for just in case if a thief gets a hold of your laptop. Any unauthorized user would see that he can't get into your regular passworded user account (and therefore can't get into your files that are in your user account), and then like a bee attracted to honey, the unauthorized user will go straight to the secure non-passworded "honey pot" limited user account and the unauthorized user will probably be happy just doing internet at their home or at their favorite Wi-Fi hotspot. Meanwhile, your laptop is being tracked by Trackion or by Lojack for Laptops. And after you have filed your stolen laptop report with your local police station, then Trackion or Lojack will provide the IP tracking information for your laptop to the police so that warrants can be issued to find and retrieve your laptop from the culprit who took it from you. The police would use the IP tracking information to trace where you laptop is located and to go get it. This tracing would be isolated to the ISP that owns the IP address and then the ISP would provide the specific information as to who was using that particular IP address at a particular time and where.
 
Once the unauthorized user is in the "honey pot," that user will most likely be satisfied with using the internet. From what I've noticed, most average non-advanced non-technical computer users do not use everything in the Start Menu and do not know how to go beyond the desktop. Even advanced users will have problems and would be blocked from going beyond what is available in this secure limited user account. In this situation, you are securing and limiting the new user account by removing the Start Menu, disabling right-clicks on the desktop and on the taskbar, disabling the task manager, and only giving internet access to the user. Any thieves who steal laptops would probably be much dumber than the average user and therefore would be much more confused as to how to get anything more than what they are presented in this secure limited user account. By using the "honey pot" in conjunction with Trackion or Lojack for Laptops, the chances are increased that the police may recover the laptop from the thief, or from the person who bought the laptop from the thief, because of the IP tracking information of the laptop that was obtained while the culprit was surfing the internet on the laptop logged into the "honey pot."
 
So, after this tweaking, you should have three working user accounts on your laptop: (1) Your regular user account that you normally access; (2) the Administrator account that you can only access when you go into Windows Safe Mode; and (3) the new secured limited "honey pot" user account that you just set up and tweaked. (If there is a Guest account on your laptop, you should have disabled it.) The first two user accounts should have passwords on them while the third is set up as a "honey pot" with no password. Perhaps needless to say, you can also use the new limited user account for any "visitors" whom you let access the internet on your laptop without letting them access the rest of your Laptop.
 
Again, as mentioned for the other extra features, if all of this manual tweaking to your laptop seems to be too much for you, but if you want a "honey pot," then get Cyberangel which automatically has the built-in "honey pot" feature. The Cyberangel "honey pot" works in pretty much the same way, but the unauthorized user gets into windows and is automatically routed to a secure "honey pot" after inputting the wrong password several times while trying to log into windows.

NON-DETECTION & NON-REMOVAL
 
Cyberangel, Lojack for Laptops, MyLaptopGPS, and Trackion are suppose to be non-detectible by the average user. Even if you have some technical ability, you still may have problems determining whether the tracking software is actually working on the laptop.
 
As for removal of the tracking software, Cyberangel does not seem to make any claim that its software cannot be removed - but you would need a password to remove the security software. Also, Cyberangel does not claim that formatting the harddrive will not remove the security software. Instead, apparently the stealth design of Cyberangel, particularly with its included "honey pot," should deter unauthorized users from finding the security software on the laptop and therefore any unauthorized users may not even bother thinking about formatting the harddrive even if they had the technical knowledge on how to do so. Also, most people would naturally be deterred from thinking about reinstalling Windows on a computer because of how time-consuming and how "technical" it is preceived to be by most average non-technical, non-computer, non-geek people.
 
For Lojack for Laptops, Absolute Software claims that Lojack for Laptops cannot be easily removed by traditional software tools and procedures. So, apparently the erasing and formatting of the harddrive will not remove the Lojack software. It's hard to imagine how Lojack could survive all that, but you would have to take their word for that and see for yourself.
 
Meanwhile, MyLaptopGPS claims that it uses a "Covert Operation Model" which "avoids detection by criminals."
 
Also, for new laptops, the people behind Lojack for Laptops and Cyberangel are reported to have made agreements with the manufacturers of laptops to include their security tracking software in the BIOS of new laptops and how their security software becomes even more impossible to defeat.
 
As for Trackion, in the FAQ section of the support page on the Trackion.com website, the Trackion folks provide instructions on how to defend your laptop's harddrive from being formatted by unauthorized users. What you would have to do is to go into the BIOS of your laptop and disable booting from the floppy drive as well as disable booting from the CD / DVD drive. You can also get the same effect if you set your harddrive to boot first before any other drive. It is also recommended that you set up a BIOS password to protect against anyone else getting into the BIOS to prevent any unauthorized person from enabling booting from the floppy drive or from the CD / DVD drive. Note that this is the password that you set up for getting access to the BIOS and is different from the boot password that you can also set up in the BIOS. If you set up a BIOS password, be sure to use a password that you definitely know that you will absolutely remember because if you ever forget your BIOS password then you will never again get into the BIOS. Note that you CANNOT defeat a BIOS password by removing a battery on the motherboard of a laptop because: (1) you are not going to open up the laptop case to get to any battery since that is much more difficult to do than with a desktop PC; (2) any such battery is most likely soldered in place on a laptop's motherboard; (3) the BIOS password would actually be burned into a special chip on the motherboard; and (4) the battery-removal trick only works on desktop PCs and not on laptop computers. Whether you use Trackion, Lojack, or Cyberangel on your laptop, you may want to disable booting from the floppy drive and from the CD / DVD drive as well as also protect the BIOS with a BIOS password.

BACK UP
YOUR LAPTOP'S
HARDDRIVE
 
You should at least do a backup of your confidential and personal documents and other data on your harddrive for just in case your Laptop becomes lost or stolen. If you have set up an encrypted "drive" on your Laptop, that "drive" should actually be in a "container" file that you can directly copy and burn onto a blank CD-R or blank DVD-R. So, if you are saving your confidential and personal documents and other data to the encrypted "drive", then that "drive" with all of those files would actually be located within the "container" file and then you can just simply copy and burn that encrypted "drive" container file to a blank CD-R or blank DVD-R. And that would be your backup for your documents and data.
 
If you have your harddrive partitioned as only one single C: Drive, then your encrypted "drive" will most likely show up as the D: Drive in windows. Note that the "container" file (which actually contains the encrypted "drive") would be a very large file sitting in a directory somewhere on the C: Drive. You should do a complete backup of the C: Drive. You can use whatever backup software that you want to use. You can even use the NT Backup software that comes with Windows XP Professional. Windows XP Home users will have install NT Backup software from the Windows XP installation CD - do a search on your favorite search engine to find out how to do this. Or you can use software such as Norton Ghost to make an exact mirror clone image of the C: Drive. I've found that making Ghost image backups help to avoid having to reinstall windows or any other software, and also helps to avoid the problems that may occur when using other backup programs, since restoring from a Ghost image backup is very easy to do and ensures that you have an exact copy of what your system was when you originally made the Ghost image backup. Burn the backup copy or the Ghost backup image onto a blank DVD-R. And then as you fill up the encrypted "drive" (the D: Drive in this example) with your documents and data, then you can just simply copy and burn the "container" file to a blank CD-R or blank DVD-R. Store your backup discs in a secure place such as in a safe or in a locked cabinet.
 
If you want to completely separate the "container" file from the C: Drive, then you could partition your harddrive into two drives with the C: Drive (containing your Windows operating system, your installed software, etc.) and a D: Drive (for your documents and data). You then set up the "container" file (which contains the "encrypted" drive) to actually be located on the D: Drive. The encrypted "drive" would show up as the E: Drive. You can then use image backup software such as Norton Ghost to make a complete backup image copy of the C: Drive. Burn that backup image of the C: Drive to a blank DVD-R. And since you should be saving your documents and data to the encrypted "drive", you should just copy the encrypted "drive" container file from the D: Drive to a blank CD-R or blank DVD-R. Again, store those backup discs in a secure place such as in a safe or in a locked cabinet.
 
Not to be redundant, but keep in mind that the "container" file is encrypted since the encrypted "drive" (which is in the "container" file) is, well, encrypted. So, your backup should be just as secure as it is on the Laptop's harddrive. And to be clear, you would have to use the same password to access the backup's contents as you would in accessing it on the Laptop unless if you later change the password.

ANTI-THEFT IDENTIFIER
PROTECTION OPTIONS
 
Yet another security option is to add anti-theft identifier stickers to your laptop and to register your laptop's serial number with a security registry like Inspice SmartProtec, StuffBak, TrackItAll, or BoomerangIt. The stickers and the registration of serial numbers would help the police to determine who are the real owners of any lost-and-found laptops and stolen-and-recovered laptops. News reports and testimonials indicate that one of the causes for the non-return of lost or stolen laptops is that the police do not know to whom to return the laptops to. Also, you will need to know your serial number as well as provide any other proof of ownership in order to get the return of your laptop. The sticker helps to identify the laptop as being owned by someone who wants it back. The registration of the laptop's serial number helps to connect the laptop's ownership to you. Companies like StuffBak sell special security stickers with serial numbers that you register with StuffBak. Their special security stickers are suppose to be difficult to remove. Whether the sticker is difficult to remove or not, the purpose of the sticker also serves as a visual warning to deter anyone from stealing your laptop. The logic is that when the thief sees the sticker and sees that your laptop can be traced by a serial number, then the laptop would be unsellable by the thief because no one wants to buy stolen property.
 
If you want to use a FREE service, Inspice's SmartProtec registers the already existing serial number on your laptop for FREE. For instance, on Hewlett-Packard Laptops, the laptop serial number is usually on a serial number sticker on the bottom of the laptop and can also be seen on the screen before you go into the BIOS on the laptop. If you find that you don't want to use any security tracking software like Trackion, Lojack for Laptops, or Cyberangel Security, then you may find that the FREE Inspice SmartProtec stickers and serial number registration to be all that you need if you want some peace of mind that your laptop's serial number is at least registered for just in case your laptop becomes lost, misplaced, or stolen. Apparently, it is the job of the police to run all serial numbers on all lost or stolen property recovered by the police to see if the property has been reported to be lost or stolen. After you report your laptop as lost or stolen, the registration of your laptop's serial number with a company like Inspice SmartProtec would then be fed into a central database that the police can access on a nationwide basis. So, you may want to at least register your laptop's serial number with a registry service like Inspice SmartProtec to prepare your laptop for in case something happens where your laptop is lost, misplaced, or stolen. For the anti-theft visible deterrent effect, you put a sticker on the laptop. The Inspice.com website has graphic images of "warning" stickers (also click here and here) that you can print on sticker paper to stick on the laptop. Or you can print the stickers on photo paper and glue that onto the laptop.
 

This is a modified sticker of the free
Inspice SmartProtec Sticker Image
edited to include the serial number
and glued onto the laptop computer.
 
What I did was take one of the free Inspice SmartProtec images and added my laptop's serial number to the graphic image using a Graphic Image editor like the Ulead Image Editor, or GIMP, or PhotoShop. I resized the image to a small sticker size, printed it on photo paper, cut out the "sticker," sprayed it with with several coats of clear shellac spray paint to "laminate" it, and glued the "sticker" onto the laptop using 3M General Purpose #45 Adhesive that I got at Home Depot. The 3M Adhesive is glue in a spray paint can -- just spray a quick light coat on the back of the sticker and that's good enough to glue the sticker onto the laptop.
 

You can use INVIS-ID Invisible Ink
to mark the Laptop as Your Laptop.
(An included Ultraviolet Flashlight
will reveal Identification markings.)
 
One other security option is to buy an INVIS-ID "invisible" ink pen to write your driver's license or your name and phone number on the laptop that can only be seen using an ultraviolet light. Or you can use a regular permanent black ink marker pen to write your serial number or other identification information inside the bays where the battery and the drives are inserted into the laptop.
 
Other anti-theft identifiers that you could add to your laptop is to change the windows bootup splash screen and the windows login screen to display images that include your name, phone number, and laptop's serial number on the screen when your laptop is turned on. You can get software like BootXP and LogonStudio to change the windows bootup splash screen and the windows login screen. If you are good at using graphics image editors such as Photoshop, Gimp, or any other graphics editor, then you should be able to do this yourself by simply adding text to the display image.
 
Yet another anti-theft identifier to put on your laptop is to attach your business card with a little picture of yourself onto the bottom of your laptop. Many laptops have a little see-through slip-in pouch on the bottom of the laptop for inserting a business card. Slip your card in there. If you have a small enough picture and some blank space on the business card that you would place the picture on, then people will be able to see what you look like and more easily identify you to return your laptop to you if you misplace your laptop at some place like at the airport. Or you can make a business-card-size card, write your name and cell phone number on the card, put your picture on that card, and insert that card in the see-through slip-in business-card pouch on the bottom of the laptop. Likewise, you can also change your windows login icon on the windows login screen to display a picture of your face. So, if anyone finds your laptop and turns it on, then they will see your friendly face next to your name on your user account as displayed on the windows login screen. You would have to go into User Accounts in the Control Panel in Windows to change the picture for your user account icon.

IS YOUR
LAPTOP
SECURE?
 
The mobility of Laptops allowing you to use your Laptop anywhere inside and outside your home or office contributes to the popularity and the market sales of laptops in the marketplace. Unfortunately, the mobility of Laptops also makes the Laptop easy to misplace and lose as well as attractive to thieves who prey upon unattended Laptops when the Laptops' owners aren't paying attention. If you are out and about outside your home or office, you should always pay attention to your Laptop, keep your Laptop close to you and always in your eyesight, and do not leave your Laptop unattended. Beware of people making distractions because such distractions could leave your laptop vulnerable to being lost or stolen since you were distracted from paying attention to your laptop. Get a laptop security cable and lock down your laptop if you are out and about outside your home or office. Use a nondescript bag to carry your laptop in - you don't want your bag that you carry your laptop in to display a laptop brandname or look like a laptop bag which screams that there is a laptop in the bag. These are common sense things that you should keep in mind. Pay attention to where you laptop is and beware of distractions. It only takes a moment's distraction or a moment's inattention during which your laptop may possibly vanish.
 
Heaven forbid, if your Laptop somehow becomes lost or stolen, you would hopefully have already prepared your Laptop beforehand by installing security tracking software such as Cyberangel Security, or Lojack for Laptops, or MyLaptopGPS, or Trackion, set up encryption to protect the data, documents, and other confidential information on your Laptop, made a backup of your Laptop, registered your Laptop's serial number, attached anti-theft stickers as well as any other anti-theft identifiers to your Laptop, and taken other security measures to protect your Laptop and help to increase the chances for the recovery of your Laptop.
 
Good Luck and Happy Laptop Surfing!
 
Cheers,
Ruel

 

BOTTOM-LINE COST SUMMARY
FOR LAPTOP ANTI-THEFT
TRACKING SECURITY SOFTWARE:

TRACKION = only $3 per month ($36 per year)
MyLaptopGPS = $9.95 per month ($119.40 per year)
Lojack for Laptops = $49.99 for one year
Cyberangel Security = $59.95 for one year

 

Click for TRACKION Laptop Tracking System

 

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LAPTOP ANTI-THEFT SECURITY

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Coming End of Moore's Law:
Laptops as Cheap Commodities