Do you use password to lock your laptop?

After not using password for many years, finally I decided to use a password to protect my laptop. Since my laptop was my personal laptop, I thought no one would mess with it. However, once day when I was out a guest in the house booted my laptop and tried to use internet. Then I decided I need ti have a password for my laptop.

 

I do, actually, use a password on my laptop. It's a good idea to not pick something that you are using elsewhere, but I guess that's just common sense. The reason I mention that is if you sell or give away your laptop, or ever take it in for repairs, someone is bound to ask you for that password. The more dishonest among them might just try that password out on other sites, like your Facebook page or email address, stuff like that. In fact, my husband and I recently sent a pc in for repairs and the so-called repairman wanted that password, so he could get in there and test stuff. (Even legitimate repairmen will do this.) This guy was rude and crude with us, and we finally went elsewhere with our repairs. Days later, my husband noticed that his email was getting a lot of returned sent mail. Spam stuff that he didn't send out, that was sent to people he didn't even know. So he changed his password and all of that stopped. Turns out that the lock screen password was the same as his email. Bad move to do stuff like that, but live and learn.

 

As I had posted in some other threads, my laptop is my official computer issued by the office. And part of the security measure that I have to adhere to is the password to lock my laptop. And such password is submitted to our security department on a regular basis - we change password every 2 weeks or upon the memo of the security officer. There is a penalty if we are caught with no password in our computer, whether desktop or laptop.

 

I have to have a password for many reasons. The main reason would be that I don't want someone to get access to it and restore the default system. They could wipe everything that I have on my laptop so easily. I can't risk that, many people have work for their job, projects that they are working on stored on the computer.

I have many important things, so it makes sense to password protect it like you do your cell phone.

 

Not on my work laptop; I just encrypt the VM file for the virtual laptop and then decrypt it when turning it on and off.

The virtual laptop has its own username and password (so if someone were to manage to get past the encryption, they'd have to know the virtual password then before the BSD file system were decrypted for use to log them on).

I haven't had any problems.

Password protecting a laptop or desktop running Windows is easily subverted, though. Just boot from a bootable usb flash drive or live CD that lets you set administrative rights on next boot for one-time log in without any changes to the password (and no traces of that login except for log files if not deleted). If the bios restricts that, you could pop the CMOS battery and wait 5 or 10 minutes if possible to then use one of the above two methods. It'll keep kids out and maybe a sneaky coworker or two at the office, but not anyone serious about logging on.

It'd be safer to use drive encryption from the bios which, although that too can be handled and overcome through other means, it's a little more difficult for people than to just use a live boot media to fix or reset the password and log on automatically as if the password wasn't there.

I don't use windows anymore, but I've had to reset plenty of passwords and recover encrypted drives to where they lost them...and overall, recovery of the password took minutes to seconds, whereas sometimes the encrypted drives could take 30 minutes to several hours depending on what needed to be done and how large the data was to decrypt if it was done with different methods.

Simply put, password protection will keep out a family member or neightbor kid, but it's not going to stop a private detective or other who is determined to get at it in most cases.

They're going to have a heck of a time trying to get a login from shadow password data as opposed to windows conversely. Not impossible, but still not something most are going to do.

One way you might be able to protect your system is to use a DOS or linux pre-loader that requires a username and password (with or without drive encryption present) so that even if a user resets your windows password, they won't be able to get past that since it's non-standard. A program like that can have its own bootloader code that replaces the jump location for windows with its own code and then jumps to windows only after a successful logon. A person knowing this could try to jump to the correct location the NTLDR or other boot loader was moved to...but they'd have to know exactly where or figure it out which could take them a long time they might not have. You could randomize the start and jump location too just to make it next to impossible for them to do even if they had that time.

Just some ideas for ya.

 

I do have a password for my laptop. It makes it feel a lot more secure, though to be honest there isn't anything super important to protect. I travel a lot with my laptop and have to leave it unattended in places, it's comforting to know that there aren't people going through your stuff while you are away.

 

I do have a password on my laptop even though I live alone and it never really leaves the house but just to be cautious. I have too much personal information that I would not like to be seen by anyone else but myself.

 

I do not have a password on my laptop. Because it is always at home around people I trust. It's just another layer I don't feel I need. At some point I may need it but right now I do not feel that it is necessary.

 

Yup, even though I don't travel with it that much and it usually stays at home it's better to be safe than sorry. I have a lot of information on it that I can't afford to be compromised, I also installed a thief tracker in case someone actually steals it.

 

I use a password on my laptop. You really can't tell and it takes all kinds, but I want to be sure that when my house is broken into, the thief will at least have a harder time than usual. My brother knows my password, though, and I let him use my laptop when I'm not that busy. Some people are not very intuitive about the ethics of using someone else's personal property so a password is my assurance that they won't be able to access my files or whatever in my laptop.

 

I always have a password on my laptop and on my phone! It is the security thingy for me, especially with the phone as I often forget where I left it. I just don't like any one using my laptop

 

I didn't have a password on my first Mac but for some reason I have it on my second one. I don't just have poorly written fan fiction, homework, and art on my computer anymore. I have my client's personal information on it so I feel like the least I can do is have a password on it.

 

I don't think I really need a password to protect my laptop. I don't take my laptop anywhere at all. It just sits in my room 24/7. Nobody comes inside my room, too. Not even my son. When we chat, we sit in the living room or at a roadside cafe. However, when my laptop was set up, it was linked to my Hotmail account. So I had to use my Hotmail password to unlock it.

 

Yes I do but its no secret, I use a chrome book and it is connected to my gmail account and uses that password to get into the computer. My husband knows it, I should just remove it, I really have nothing to hid or anything I don't want people to see, but I haven't.

 

If you are using windows, you should always put a difficult to guess password to your user. A lot of exploits that are used to infect your computer take advantage of weak Administrator passwords that are easy to brute force. You are exposed when you connect your laptop to the internet with a weak or no password at all, so even if you are the only person using the machine and you never take it out of your home, please use a strong password.

Your laptop could also be stolen one day, another reason to have it password protected, this will not prevent access to your data unless your hard drive uses encryption, but it may serve to prevent access to it if the thief is not so
sophisticated

 

Yes, you never know when you are going to leave your computer unattended. If it was a desktop i think you could go either way but I think it's fundamental for a laptop.

 

It also depends on what you have stored inside your laptop. All my important data are stored in cloud devices. I feel that they are safer there. Things which I keep on my laptop are usually inconsequential items. I don't think anyone is going to get anything much by getting into my laptop.

 

I personally think that the use of passwords mostly happens when you have kids around or when you simply don't want other people to look at your files, however, I do not really like locking my laptop because my whole family use it and well, it's really annoying to unlock the laptop every single time they ask me for the password, i'd rather leave it unlocked, for real.

 

Every device I use has a password, same with my laptop. Even though I use only ever use it myself, I am kind of paranoid when it comes to these stuffs. It's always better to be cautious and its a good habit anyway with regards to security.It's not a big inconvenience either to enter a few characters before I (or anyone else) can access my laptop,

 

I inadvertently put a password on my 2nd laptop. It is such a pain. I have tried a couple of times to take it off, but somehow not doing something right. Passwords are important for certain situations but for my uses I don't really feel it is necessary. I am beginning to think that once you put a password on Windows 10, you are stuck with the password thing.