Hopefully you won’t ever have to activate the software I’m going to tell you about today, but if your laptop does get stolen you’ll be very glad that you installed it.

The software I’m talking about goes by the name of Prey. In a nutshell it’s free software to track your computer should it get stolen. Thanks to some nifty software, the Prey team have made a tiny agent that silently lives on your laptop, desktop, tablet device running Android, Windows, Linux or Mac OS. (A bit like having a mini James Bond at your disposal should a thief strike!)

Whether you are the victim of theft or just left your item on a train or in a taxi, Prey will quickly alert you regarding its location, who is using it (through the use of Facebook for example), and even trigger specific actions like locking the device, or start removing sensitive data from it.

Using the device’s GPS or the nearest WiFi hotspots allows you to grab a fix on its whereabouts. You can even take a picture of the thief with your laptop’s webcam so you know what he or she looks like! Have a read of some remarkable success stories: http://lifehac.kr/oULPhE or http://bit.ly/nJw3Ln.

The agent cannot be removed without your administrator password, which means it will keep running until you’re able to get the police involved to track your laptop down.

Any type of loss can be upsetting, but when it’s an expensive computer with personal data, your prized music collection, treasured family photos, it can be all the more depressing.  This outstanding software works on your PC or phone, silently waiting for you to wake it and work its magic. Let’s just hope you never have to use it!

Here’s the link to Prey: http://preyproject.com/