Prey is a tiny free tool which could help you to recover your laptop if it's ever lost or stolen.

The program hides in the background, taking the absolute minimum of resources. If your system ever goes astray, you simply log on to the Prey site and mark it as "missing". And then, if the system is able to go online, the Prey agent will detect your alert and begin sending regular reports.

These may be able to tell you the location of your laptop, for instance. If your system has a webcam then Prey will try to take a shot of the thief. You'll also see details like the name of the currently logged-in user (perhaps helpful if your system is shared by others), and a screenshot of the desktop will reveal what they're doing right now.

And that's just the start: if you want to take action, Prey can also help you fight back. There's an option to send a message to the system, asking for its safe return. You might choose to secure it, hiding emails, deleting stored passwords and so on. And there's also a Lock option which prevents anyone from using the notebook at all until a password has been entered.

The free Prey service works well, then, and you're able to protect up to 3 devices with the same account (the program works on desktops as well as mobile devices).

But if you need more, commercial Pro accounts are also available. These enable you to get "missing" reports faster, and more frequently, support more devices and make it easier to deploy Prey in the first place. Prices start at $5 a month and you can read more at the Prey site.