can someone get into my lost laptop if I have a password on it

[plm4462]

I lost my asus laptop and I think someone has it. Can they or someone that knows about computers open it since I have a password on it? Can I retrieve any of my info from a new computer? In the bag with my asus was also an apple Ipad air 2 and an Ipad gen 2. I had track my ipad on the gen 2 but not the ipad air 2. What can I do?

 

[Colif]

They cannot get into windows without the password. The most they could do is copy your documents, but without a password they can't access your information.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

They cannot get into windows without the password. The most they could do is copy your documents, but without a password they can't access your information.

Incorrect. They might not be able to log in, but unless the drive is encrypted, physical access trumps all. There are a great many tools available for extracting information without logging onto an account.

 

[Colif]

They cannot get into windows without the password. The most they could do is copy your documents, but without a password they can't access your information.

Incorrect. They might not be able to log in, but unless the drive is encrypted, physical access trumps all. There are a great many tools available for extracting information without logging onto an account.

Hmm, okay. I am sort of glad I don't have a laptop now.

 

[ahnilated]

You don't need the password if you have physical access. There are MANY tools out there to change the passwords for windows accounts.

 

[rhysiam]

You can even just take the HDD out, chuck it in a USB caddy and copy all the files off... unfortunately without drive encryption it is that easy.

In terms of the laptop, there isn't really anything you can do.

Unfortunately there are also (nefarious) tools which reset your admin password and allow someone to log in as you. Because of that, if you have ever ticked "remember me" or similar on any websites, whoever has the laptop could after doing that simply go to those sites and be logged in as you. I'm thinking things like Steam, Ebay, Amazon, PayPal, etc. You should reset passwords on any of those services ASAP, along with any other services which have credit card details or personal information stored on them.

In terms of getting your data back, unless you backed it up or used cloud storage (like Dropbox or OneDrive), there's nothing you can do unfortunately.