latitude e6400 question ...

i will not have a pc at home for about a month but can use my work laptop as ive been given permission. its a latitude e6400. i want to know how the ubuntu live cd environment works ... i dont know if my employer has installed hidden software on the machine to log/monitor use when its not logged into a corporate server ... regardless, my needs involve access to personal finance, facebook, email accounts and i dont want any of this information scripted or logged by the machine. i don't trust any large corporation with my personal accounts as far as i can throw them.

so i am wondering if i use an ubuntu live session and can boot into ubuntu directly from the cd each time, whether it will be completely independent from hard drive access ? what about the bios, does the bios in this laptop have any logging capability to monitor any information ?

the laptop uses windows xp, its got one hdd and a dvd drive. the dvd drive is hot swappable, so i could also get a caddy and install my own os on a seperate hdd to use my own OS installation without touching the xp installation.

anyone have some suggestions ?

 

the IT dept. also said that i could access the bios to check and make sure that it's set to boot from dvd if a disc is inserted, but i've tried using F2 during the splash screen, nothing happens. the splash disappears so fast, and i don't see any keys listed to press for bios access. i would suspect they have this locked or there's a different way to enter the bios.

 

you worry too much.... since it's on xp. you'll do fine.
just install ccleaner and clean your cookies, history and other stuff using cccleaner every time you feel like it

i doubt that there any key logger installe

live cd will also do, but, eveytime you shut i down, it wouldn't save your files

 

i agree with you on the worry part...
its already got ccleaner installed, so i could use that to clean out stuff anyway. i know xp pretty well i also clean up event logging once in a while but id feel more secure running my own OS on my own hdd.
they sell caddys for hdds that fit in the dvd slot so i might try that but i cant access the bios....

 

Usually corporations don't monitor that much detail, it would be a ridiculous amount of data to store. If you're really worried, swap out the HDD with any SATA 2.5" drive and install Windows on there yourself. Or, use a VM (Microsoft Virtual PC is free).

 

I would not recommend doing anything personal on a work laptop. You never know who what where will see it at anytime they chose.

One guy I know got permission to do something similar to his work laptop. So what he did was buy a new harddrive and just swap it in and out when he wanted it to have his own system, and swap the work drive back in when he wanted to do work.

The caddy is interesting if you can get it to boot from there when you want but leaving it in there full time would make me nervous.

 

Make sure you turn off your webcam and microphone

 

I always use F12. This option (i) lists the available boot devices and lets you select which to use for the current boot-up; and (ii) has a link to the BIOS setup.

John