LoJack for Laptops Security Review
BY: Greg Ross, NotebookReview.com Contributor
by Greg Ross
LoJack for Laptops Security Review
LoJack for Laptops is an easy to use anti-theft security software that promises to aid you and police in recovering your laptop should it get stolen. At $49.99 for a single-year license, and $99.99 for a three-year license, CompuTrace’s LoJack for Laptops is a cheap and effective (but not perfect) way to help protect and recover what you hold dear.
What LoJack for Laptops Is Good For
Laptops get stolen every day. According to the FBI, over two million notebooks are stolen every year. That means that on average one laptop is stolen every 16 seconds! They are very portable, very valuable, and potentially contain much more information about you than you care to give to a common criminal.
As far as security solutions go, there are two types of tools you have available:
Those that reduce the chances of theft
Those that increase the chances of you recovering your stolen hardware
While there are plenty of products that help prevent theft, there are very few tools that help to recover information or actual hardware in the event of theft. LoJack for Laptops is one such product that helps you to track your hardware that has been stolen, and with a little help from police recovering your laptop is certainly possible.
Installing the Software
Lojack can be purchased online at www.lojackforlaptops.com and the installation is painless. For this review, a complementary license was provided, but normally the key would either be displayed on your screen or emailed to you once your purchase is made. After creating your account, registering your laptop and serial number, and providing your license key, the software is installed via an ActiveX control in Internet Explorer.
Yes, installation is that easy! (view large image)
The only potential problem is that this software DOES NOT work with several brands of notebooks. Apparently, this is because of a software conflict with an OS Restoration utility found on Averatec, Asus, Twinhead, and Systemax laptops. I do not know if that problem can be circumvented, but I have to say it is likely that this software will not work if you own one of these laptops.
Note that some laptop brands will not work with LoJack (Averatec, Asus, Twinhead, Systemax)
Once the software is installed, and one reboot later, LoJack will be silently running in the background. CompuTrace claims that the software is hidden to the user and can never be found, but that is only partially accurate. You are not going to find any information about LoJack in the Programs Directory, the Control Panel, or even as some part of IE in Windows. But, you can see some evidence of the software if you know where to look. It runs behind the scenes out of an innocently named file under the C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory, and under the Task Manager you can see an extra process running in the background. While both the file and process is innocently named, this just shows if you know where to look you can find evidence of LoJack on the laptop. However, the common criminal is probably not going to know where to look for this evidence (or even know that the evidence indicates the presence of LoJack on the laptop).