Note: The methods explained in this post are solely for educational purposes with no intention to promote unlawful activities i.e. stealing or hacking.
Do you want to know how to make stolen laptop untraceable? You have landed at the right spot to know the answer of this query.
No doubt, gadgets get stolen in every part of the world. The best way to encrypt your laptop is linked with your skills to tackle that technology.
Similarly, the identical technique is utilized by the people that buy stolen laptops in cheap from the underground sellers.
If you are a good at creating strong passwords, you will do great with making your recently bought stolen laptop from IP trackers and hackers as well.
If you happen to buy an expensive laptop at a throwaway price from someone, it must be a stolen one. The foremost thing to do is protect the newly bought gadget from getting tracked by the ones pursuing it.
To complete the task flawlessly, there are multiple secret methods that will vanish your laptop from the hackers’ database. However, a few methods do work with stolen laptops, and some might not.
To make sure it works, it is advised to start with the simplest one before cracking the most wearisome and equally dangerous methods when bypassing the stolen laptop privacy firewall.
Table of Contents
Can You Make the Stolen Laptop Untraceable?
Yes, everything is possible if done the right way. A few laptops are easier to make untraceable, and a few others are hard nuts to crack.
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There are multiple DIY methods to make the stolen laptop untraceable by performing simple tweaks from the settings tap. This includes changing the IP addresses, MAC, and password removal.
Changing your laptop settings to “Always on Display” also works if you are okay to keep your laptop turned on forever. Reinstalling the Windows OS also works for some laptops.
If you are Windows user, it is easiest to delink your system from tracking devices. For Macintosh users, the process would be tedious and mostly requires a professional to get the job done.
In conclusion, you can make the stolen laptops untraceable one way or the other. The effort and time it requires vary accordingly with the OS and system type.
How Laptops get tracked?
Tracking a laptop is effortless if the system settings are linked to Microsoft account. To track a laptop, go to the Microsoft Account and select Devices.
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From there, select your laptop and click find my device. If the laptop is connected to the internet, Microsoft will get you straight to the laptop’s pinpoint location.
If not, it will show you the recent location from which your laptop had accessed the internet. Microsoft also provides anti-theft solutions for logged in accounts.
Select Find and Lock settings from the browser and lock your device if it has been stolen. When selected, the device will automatically lock itself and only unlocks when the user enters the password.
Mac laptops can also be tracked and locked if they are connected to the user’s iCloud account. To lock or locate your Mac laptop, go to iCloud settings, and select System Preferences.
Now, log in to the Apple account and click iCloud button. Click on Find my Mac and select the target device. This will pinpoint the location from which your laptop is being accessed.
If your device is currently offline, check regularly to get the latest location from which your device was logged on.
Additionally, there are several freeware and paid apps that help in tracking stolen devices for both Windows and Mac OS.
These apps deliver exact location tracking and help you track the laptop from any device when you are signed into the software.
How to Make Stolen Laptops Untraceable
Below are the 5 most authentic and likely working step-by-step methods on how to make a stolen laptop untraceable. Let’s dig in.
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Protect the laptop in the First Place
This method is for everyone. If you are worried about your laptop getting stolen with private data getting lost to hackers or burglars, or you are trying to break into the stolen laptop, password cracking is the most concerning issue.
The password/pin protection varies with laptop maker and OS. Some laptops have built-in fingerprint privacy options with two-factor or sometimes multi-factor authentication on several wrong password attempts.
A few other laptop manufacturers offer minimal security. Even a windows reinstallation would blow the password up.
Although the newer Windows OS are trying to fix this issue with data erasing and a few other authentication methods, still Windows passwords are easiest to crack.
Mac OS, however, has strong password protection and it does not allow jailbreaks simply by reinstalling the OS.
The best and simplest technique to make your laptop password indissoluble is to set a strong password in the first place.
If possible, try fingerprint authentication with online 2FA enabled. If not, make sure you have set up an elongated password along with biometric verification.
Here’s how to make your laptop password headstrong for rookie burglars.
- Create an unpredictable, lengthy, and bizarre password and note it down in your secret diary
- Make sure to mix up letters, symbols, numbers, and dashes
- Never use your password twice for other devices
- Change your passwords regularly
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A Bolted Screen Saver would be a Nice Move
If you have managed to break in once and can’t do it again, an always-on screen with intelligent sleep mode and peek proof display would be a great help.
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Bolted screen savers have saved laptops from turning off. Bolted screensavers work in those situations when the encryption settings are such that users cannot open the device once it is turned off.
This is done by laptop manufacturers to prevent data theft and deliver maximum security to customers. However, if you happen to get your hands on such a laptop, here is the solution.
- Go to the home screen
- Right click and enter Customize/Personalize settings
- Now locate the “Lock Screen” and enter the “Screen Saver Settings” from there
- In screen saver settings, click on “Display Logon Screen” and check the box.
- To always turn on the screen, set “Pause” to 5
- Then, select any screensaver from the menu and click OK
To change your screen to “Always On mode, follow these steps:
- Open Settings
- Go to Control Panel
- Select System and Security
- Further select Power Options
- Click on Change Plan Settings
- Pick Turn Off Display to 5
- Save your settings and enjoy with bolted screensaver
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Always Back Up to The External Drive
If your laptop is stolen or you are worried about it getting stolen, the best way to keep your data safe is to save it regularly to the external hard drive.
A USB or external HDD would be of great help to make sure that the data remain duplicated if it happens to get stolen. If you have a cloud storage drive, back it up online.
For stolen laptops, there’s always a chance that the original user might block the IP with all your data getting lost. To tackle the problem, it is always better to store the data to a safe location regularly.
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Delink Your Computer from Tracking Software
If nothing of the above tricks have worked for you, try doing it the hard way. The process to delink your laptop settings from tracking devices is hard but doable.
To sneak into the core settings in your laptop motherboard, you need to open BIOS settings and disable the tracking software.
There are countless videos available online that explain the stepwise process on how to disable tracking from BIOS settings. Watch them attentively and try it by yourself or hire an expert to perform the task.
Sometimes, the BIOS settings are also protected by an additional layer of security. To disable multi-layer security from your BIOS settings, you need to take out the primary and BIOS batteries out for a minute before reinstalling them.
This will reset the system clock and flash the drive to further creep in into the system. If this also doesn’t work, try changing your IP address which will be explained in the next section.
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Modify your IP address
Laptops are easily traced by locating the system’s IP address. If you are able to change the existing IP address, tracking software won’t bother you again. To change your laptop’s IP address, all you need is to follow a simple process:
- Open your browser, preferably the system installed one i.e., Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer
- From the menu at top right, click on Tools
- Now go to Internet settings and select Connections
- From there, go to LAN settings
- Locate the menu which describes “Use a proxy server for your LAN”
- Change the proxy server IP address from the existing address to a newer one (confirm that the new IP is authentic and working)
- Change the port address
- Confirm the settings and restart your browser
Conclusion
Stolen laptops have become harder to decode nowadays. It is because of the modern encryption tools employed by laptop manufacturers in their newer versions.
Moreover, latest laptops are connected to built-in anti-theft software which featuring constant GPS monitoring over the internet. This enables users to track their laptops through live positioning, making it harder for stealers to access or resell the laptop.
However, there are still rare loopholes that can be exploited by hackers to crack the security layering to enjoy the free meal with cheapest stolen laptops.
If you happen to buy a stolen laptop, try these tricks to get your lifetime bundle of hassle-free access without spending hundreds of dollars on the latest product.
If you want to save your laptop and the files inside it from getting stolen, reverse engineer these tricks to your advantage and make your laptop irretrievable for burglars to break in.
Faizan Ali is a Master in Computer Sciences and has been writing content for computing, gaming and mobile technologies since 2016. He has written content for number of online magazines, websites and blogs and now writes for “the buyers trend”. Feel free to contact him for any sort of writing for your technology related blog, website or magazine.