If you, like me, have heard the story of Kait Duplaga, who got her Mac back (whole story: http://tiny.cc/jrge1) and you thought, gosh, I wish I had one!….you will love that little awesome tool I will show you today. In the article you can read: “Ms. Duplaga exploited the latest software applications installed on her laptop to track down the culprits and even get their photographs”.

Now everyone can do that. Just visit http://preyproject.com/ website:

Click the green button, to download the tool. Run the installer, go through  “Next” and “I Agree”. Then choose where to put the program. I myself do not like the default option C:Prey. If you have at least a bit smart thief, that might minimize your chances of getting the laptop back. I created fake folder and in the end installed the program in C:Program FilesIcon ExtractorPrey

If you like the idea, instead of Icon Extractor, choose anything you like:

PhotoFiltre, Artweaver, Easy Duplicate etc, Unless, of course, you are actually using one of these programs. For the same reason, I did not create Start Menu shortcut. In the next step Prey will mark Configure Prey Setting which is recommended.

And warns you

In the next windows, Start from the default Setup reporting method

The next window gives us two options:

In the first option, everything can be done on Prey’s website. The second one allows you to choose your own settings but you have to have your website and give e-mail details.

You can try that one, if you like. I prefer the first option. If you choose Prey+Control Panel (from previous picture) and click next, you will be asked to create a new user or use an existing account, e.g when you have more than one laptop.

When you choose new user you will be asked to fill in that form:

Your name can be anything you like. The e-mail will be used to send you reports. Remember to add it to white-list. Hotmail, as always, treated confirmation e-mail as spam. Device name can be anything you like. Type is Portable or Desktop.

Press create and enjoy these views

Now, you can have a sneak peak in your folder. The program is clearly visible, but does a good job in hiding what it does.

The actual program is in platform folder. If you ever need it.

With our fake folder we might have luck, if the computer was stolen by an occasional thief -someone, who would not break in to your house, but who could not resist taking it from your half open backpack.

Ok, so what now?

Go to your mailbox and expect to see something like this (Google mail did not treat it as spam):

When you click on it, it will take you to a log-in page. Use your e-mail as login and the password you have created. When you do it you will see:

If you remember, I have named my computer platanus. Here it is. My chosen name was gigi and Prey greats me friendly J

The red name (of my laptop) is clickable. When you do it, you have a bunch of settings to change. I recommend doing so.

First of all, this is the place you actually have the option to panic and say:

“OMG, where is my super-extra-the-best-on-the-planet-baby-laptop-friend?” Yes, I do treat my laptop very emotionally.

Let’s go through the options. Every important option has the exclamation mark sign, which is pretty self-explanatory.

In the first part you have the Missing? Button. Here is where you panic.

Part two is the configuration.

The Notify options let’s you choose if you want to get automatic e-mails. The auto-update is a bit tricky. Choose wisely. They might come up with some great features in the future, but it is a risk, that it stops working, or somehow show itself to the thief. The option is off and for now, I leave it like that. It is still in beta. You can change it later. I think that changing the time to 5min instead of 20 is a good idea. The bad, in my eyes, thing, is that Prey will send us the first report after the chosen time. I think that the first report should be sent as soon as possible, and later after given time. Maybe in the future. But for that reason I choose 5min. The thief might not use my laptop for full 20min.

Next part is the modules configuration. This is the default view.

On the reports side I want everything on. On the action -off. I do not want to scare the thief. I want my laptop back. But you can decide for yourself. The most interesting is the geo-location, which worked pretty well for me. Was off by only about 50 meters.

When you mark the device as missing (at the top), you will get an e-mail with a direct link to the reports (and e-mailed reports, if you chosen this option).

For obvious reasons, I am not going to show you my full report ;-) Just check it for yourself. I got a picture of myself. Network information:

Remote IP:

Internal Ip:

Complete Trace:

Gateway Ip:

Mac Address:

Public Ip:

Screen shot of my desktop and list of

Modified flies,

Active Connections and

Logged User.

All of that happened behind University firewall and Antivirus. No tweaks needed. There are loads of key-loggers out there. Knowing what the thief writes would be great too. Kind of revenge, but this is extremely easy tool. It can give you IP and a picture of the thief. If you keep your Serial Numbers and other computer info safe, Police should treats you seriously, and the IP+picture should be enough for them. Consider also keeping all the data scanned some place safe, online. Many laptop thefts happen during holidays.

A small remark. If you have only one account on your computer, it will also ask you, during installation process, create a Guest account. This is a good way to make sure, the thief will turn on the laptop and use it, before reinstalling the software. It is also good to have password on BIOS and primary boot option from HDD and not from CD/USB. You can of ocurse do all of that yourself.

You can follow more than one device. Simply install Prey on each of them and just choose new device during the configuration process.

After all, turn on your computer as missing. See if everything works as promised and please turn off the feature. This service is given for free, so do not abuse it. We want these guys to continue working on it.

After all, pray not to ever need the Prey.