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When you leave your company, it becomes very challenging to differentiate between a work laptop and a personal laptop. We have to play games and watch movies through USB drives in our personal life. These devices may contain harmful viruses and steal information without your knowledge. Here we will help you know how to convert work laptop to personal without risking the confidential data on the drive.
Work laptops have confidential information; privacy is the priority in such cases. Third-party software is installed which are licensed and doesn’t steal company information. No unauthorized individual is given access to the data.
A man lives in a social community as he is a social animal. Thieves mugged people in the past, but nowadays, the scenario has changed as technology has advanced. Seeking privacy and security is a basic need of a man. Therefore, people are always in need of secure life.
Here are some professional methods to convert a work laptop into a personal one.
How to Convert Work Laptop to Personal
Method – 1: Change Windows Firewall Settings
A work laptop contains information about worthwhile projects, employee data, and other software. These items need a thick shield against security attacks from remote places.
All the high-tech companies provide programs that act as shields against cyber-attacks. Windows farewell is one such program that prevents laptops from being hacked by online scammers and hackers.
So, when you are trying to change a work laptop into a personal one, disable its windows firewall.
If you are connected to public internet or Wi-Fi, it is recommended to disable the Windows firewall to prevent the laptop from hacking.
Method – 2: Stop Windows from Updating Through the Internet
Installing new updates about the windows is only required when working in the company. These updates provide new security features for the safety of work laptops and better performance.
When you are out of the company, installing updates is just a waste of time. But you have the option to install only recommended updates any time when you have internet access.
You have to click on the option ‘turn off windows updates during personal use.
Method – 3: Use Browser in Incognito Mode for Internet Surfing
Each browser now has an option of private searching. You have an incognito mode in Chrome when you click on the three dots present in the top right corner.
In this tab, neither search history nor caches are saved. Search evaporates as you close this mode. It is the most private and effective method of searching.
Other users of the same laptop cannot access your files as incognito mode keeps the files private.
Method – 4: Encryption through Diskcryptor
When you bring your work laptop to your home, family members may access the data. They may use the laptop for gaming or watching movies. The valuable data becomes insecure and may be displaced on another disk.
Diskcryptor is the solution in such problematic situations. It’s open-source, which encrypts the data and makes it inaccessible to your family members or friend.
So it’s the easiest and simple way to protect the data on a work laptop for future use.
Method – 5: Disabling Windows Defender
After fresh installation of the operating system into the laptop, anti-virus software is required. This anti-virus protects data files from attacks of spyware and malware.
When working in a company, it’s recommended to install multiple anti-virus software. Sometimes, such programs are installed along with windows. Anti-viruses scan laptops, detect damaged files and remove them.
However, when a work laptop is to be used for personal use, there is no need to install an anti-virus program as they use a lot of power. As a result, the laptop becomes slow.
For better laptop performance, disabling all anti-virus programs for personal use. Windows defender plays a vital role in securing and protecting data files from spyware and malware.
Method – 6: Have a Separate User Account
All laptops can create more than one user account in one laptop. It is a golden opportunity for job holders to hide the data from the eyes of unauthorized persons.
By creating a user account, you can save personal data into folders no one has access to. Have a unique user id strong password, and that’s it – you have created a new user account.
You can copy and delete your files from your account and move them to a work user account. No one can go into your user account and misplace any information.
Method – 7: Using Steganography Application
When your data folders are open and accessible to everyone, the data can be misplaced. Applying password to these folders prevent other users from going into folders and accessing files.
Steganography software and many others provide this facility of password protection of folders in the market.
Access to any of your folders is restricted when a strong password is applied.
So, this method is one of the most productive and effective ones to convert a work laptop into a personal.
Method – 8: Disabling Fast Start of Laptop
All companies install fast startup into laptops for quick booting of the system. When you use a single laptop for both work and personal use, efforts are required for switching users.
A lot of time is saved when the fast startup boot is disabled while switching the accounts from personal to work and vice versa.
Implementation of this method secures the information while switching user accounts as it sends alerts to only authorized personnel.
Method – 9: Windows Reinstallation
Windows installation into a work laptop is carried out when you permanently want to convert it into a personal. For this purpose, a factory restore setting is available on every laptop.
When you lose the protection password applied on folders, the best way is to uninstall all protective software. It may crash the data stored on the hard disk.
The best solution in such a situation is to install a new window protective program that will be wiped out. The work laptop becomes new and fresh.
Method – 10: Add VPN for Online Purchases
VPN – every technical person uses it for their required purposes. It’s easy and safe to use while browsing.
You have to purchase a VPN system and add your credentials. A new IP address is shown on the internet with a different location when it is started.
No one knows who is behind this work laptop. So, you become anonymous, and no one can access your folder to steal information.
Method – 11: Applying Bit locker to your drive
Bit locker is software that is purely provided and installed by Microsoft windows. This software aims to protect the hard drive through a password.
It helps prevent or loss of data from disk by unauthorized persons. It can encrypt all the system files or user data on the OS drive.
You have to click on the required drive and turn on Bit locker. You can instantly change your work laptop to a personal one through this.
Bit locker can be applied to USB drives, and recovery keys will be saved to G-drive.
Method – 12: Using Portable Programs
If you don’t want to install any program on your laptop, then save the program to the USB drive. You can start working with that software or program at the time of need.
USB drives can be used when you are using a work laptop. So this is one of the easiest and most unbelievable ways to change a work laptop to a personal.
Method – 13: Using Caches of Application
In this method, you have to keep installing the required programs for your company into your laptop.
When you open any software, it will produce caches in the laptop. Close these programs while you are using your laptop at home.
When the laptop is started in the company, caches will start working, and the required program will open up in a few seconds.
Method – 14: Uninstalling Extra Protective Anti-virus Software
The organizations have loads of work; that’s why they install more than one anti-virus program as they want to keep sensitive data secure.
This software requires more memory and applies stress over the processor. It results in slow performance of work laptops and low efficiency.
So, when you are using a work laptop as a personal, disable all such applications to enhance speed and less usage of RAM.
Method – 15: Use self-destructive Application
Installing a self-destructive application on your laptop can make it easy to use for personal practice. This Application will automatically delete data files formwork the laptop after setting the time and date.
This data is not wasted but stored on USB as message files. These files are accessed at any time for personal usage. These message files are shared with another fellow instead of saved into USB.
Conclusion
This article has shared 15 unique methods to convert any working laptop into a personal one. Morally, it’s not a good practice to use a laptop provided by the company for individual work. As companies have sensitive data accessed by anyone else, it will not only affect your career but the reputation of the company.
Most methods are easy and effective but may require external programs, so you must be careful.
If you have any urgent task to complete, you can use any of the above methods to convert a work laptop to a personal one. Moreover, if you know how to convert work laptop to personal with all features enabled do let us know in the comment section below.