Protect your laptop from thieves with a Power-On Password!

I have so many friends and other people I know who have at one point or the other complained that their laptop computers have been stolen by some very cruel homo sapiens!

But I think there is one way which many laptop owners fail to use so that thieves can not have easy meat over their laptops. This is by simply setting up a power-on or boot-up password on their laptops. With a power-on password set, the user is prompted for a password every time the laptop is switched on. As far as I know, it is very difficult to crack this password and it can only be reset by the laptop's manufacturer. This means that once the thief gets hold of your laptop they will not be able to use it and therefore it will be useless. With this in mind it might be easy to recover the laptop especially if you report the theft to police. Definitely, if all laptops had their power-on password set, that would greatly discourage the common PETTY theft of laptop computers. I think PETTY theft of laptops and mobile phones is a global phenomenon. Is this true in your country? In my home country, Malawi, laptops and mobile phones are a big target for these shameless thieves.

The power-on password is set using the computer's BIOS setup utility. If you don't know this and you want to set up one, then ask any person who is much knowledgeable in computers to do it for you. But remember not to forget the password as you might lead yourself into a self-lockout. Also remember not to choose an easy-to-guess password. It is always good and advisable not to use personal information for passwords. Lastly, but not least, keep the password secret to yourself!

Cheers!