Intel Anti-Theft Service is an all-in-one solution to protect your laptop or desktop from being stolen with encryption and locking capabilities.

Losing a computer to theft is a nerve wracking affair, especially if your computer contains a bunch of personal and important information. Intel Anti-Theft Service provides multiple ways to protect your computer from theft.

The most impressive function of Intel Anti-Theft Service is that it can remotely lock your computer if you report it stolen. You can either call Intel or log on to the Intel Anti-Theft Service website to mark your computer as stolen. You can add multiple computers to one account to control them all. While it's nice to be able to lock the machine, Intel Anti-Theft Service goes further by preventing the computer from booting, even if the thief replaces the hard drive, rendering the computer useless.

Intel Anti-Theft Service also includes a desktop application that creates encrypted virtual volumes. You can adjust the size you want and the app will create that virtual volume, which will act like any other drive. When you're done moving files, you can close the drive and your files will automatically be encrypted.

While it's great that Intel Anti-Theft Service can encrypt and lock a stolen computer, there's no way to recover your machine. Other programs like Prey offer a way to triangulate your computer's position once it connects to the network. Prey also features the ability to take and send photos periodically so you can get a visual on how your thief looks.

Overall, Intel Anti-Theft Service is a good service to protect your data but it won't do you any good if you want to get your computer back.