To Catch A Thief

Two weeks ago, I purchased a new laptop.  It’s a 17″ media notebook.  Since I’m in the computer business, here are the first things I did:

1)  Upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate.  2)  Removed Norton’s Anti-virus and installed Avast Internet Security  3) Installed Office 2010 Pro

Next, I installed Carbonite Online Backup.  If you’re still backing up your “stuff” onto CDs, DVDs or USB Drives, it’s time to move to online backup.  Here’s why I love Carbonite: it backs up my data files within minutes of their creation; it can’t get scratched and become unreadible; I can access my stored files from a different computer as long as I can get onto the Net; my backup can’t be stolen or ruined by fire or water.

Once I had my backup in place, the next thing I installed was Lojack For Computers – Premium Edition.  Why?  This is a very expensive laptop and I take it with me on all my service calls, to Microsoft Partner meetings and even on vacation.  Should my computer get lost or stolen, I want to be able to trace it.  Perhaps more importantly, since I bought the Premium edition, I can actually delete my data files remotely.  (Remember, though, I have Carbonite, so my data is safely backed up on their servers!)

Carbonite and Lojack For Computers – if you have a laptop, you should be using these products.  This is definitely a case of “doing what I do and what I say!”