Track and find your missing computer with Prey

Today I will show you a “mysterious” tool which will allow you to track your computer and collect informations that can help you to find your missing computer! This fabulous tool is called Prey, it can take a picture of the thief with the webcam, locate the computer by GPS using the WiFi connection, secure your computer and take screenshots, etc…

Prey is a free open source tool for monitoring your computer in case of theft … When using the web interface of Prey project, you can add all your computers in one place! You can even block the remote computer, or display a message to the person who found it.

Install Prey and track your computer:

Prey can be very useful,  here is how to use it:

1. Download and Install Prey from HERE (for Windows 32/64 bit), or from HERE (for other).
2. After the installation is completed Choose “New user”  on the Configuration page to create a new account, and press “Next”.
3. Fill out the form with the required informations, and press “Create”.
4. Congratulation! Now your account is created, just log to your Control Panel to see your devices

5. Re-open the “Configure Prey” page.
6. Select “Manage Prey settings”, and hit “next”.
7. Check “WiFi autoconnect” and “Enable guest account” and hit “Apply“.

How to track and find your missing computer:

After that you’ve successfully installed and configured Prey:

Log to your Control Panel.

Select your missing device, and set it as “Missing”.

Set time between each report, and hit “Save changes”.

For this tutorial we’ve set the Frequency of reports for 10, if you do so, you will have a report each 10 minutes and it should be something like this:

NB: .NET Framework 2.0  is required to complete the installation.