
Ask HN: How to retroactively track a stolen laptop? - starlightchaser
I lost my Windows 10 laptop today - stolen - and the person hasn&#x27;t come online yet so that i can track down the laptop via the &quot;Track my Device&quot; option Microsoft gives. I wanted to ask that what possible alternatives are there in current day to track stolen laptops when there was no tracking software installed initially (except whatever windows might have by default). or is begging NSA the only way?
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ramtatatam
Unless you stick your own GPS I cannot imagine you will be able to track your
laptop. Especialy if thief wiped your HDD out and installed linux on top of
it.

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Piskvorrr
The answer is in your question, I'm afraid: "how can I do X without the
X-doing-device?" only has one answer: you can't. Get new hardware, restore
from backups, prepare _before_ next incident.

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soulbadguy
Which laptop is it ? If the laptop was company issued and support Vpro, they
usually have some tools to track it.

