Keep a remote switch on every laptop you rent out

Within a few seconds when the laptop is online. The agent keeps a live connection to Rentablez, so a lock or unlock is sent to it straight away, on Windows and Mac alike. A laptop that is switched off, asleep or without internet gets it as soon as it reconnects. Until the laptop confirms, the board shows the unit as lock pending rather than locked, so you are never told a machine is locked when it has not answered yet.

Not easily. Opening the setup app on a protected laptop only offers Request uninstall: you get a pop-up and a browser notification in the Guard app, and the agent is removed only if you approve. On Windows the agent runs as a service hardened so stop and delete requests are refused, with a watchdog that restores it. On a Mac and on Linux it runs as a system service a standard account cannot switch off, though on Linux an account that can use sudo can remove it (you get an alert). A determined administrator with enough time can still interfere with software on a machine they physically hold, so give customers a standard account and treat Guard as a strong deterrent and an evidence trail rather than an absolute. The right to lock the device must also be written into your rental agreement.

A locked laptop stays locked, because its last instruction is stored on the device. Restarting it or pulling the network cable does not unlock it. A laptop that is offline when you click Lock gets the lock as soon as it reconnects. Being offline does not lock a laptop by itself. If a locked laptop really cannot get online, you can issue a one-time code that unlocks it for 1, 3 or 7 days. The next time it connects, it follows Rentablez again.

Yes. Set your own heading, message and contact details once in Settings, and every locked laptop shows them, Windows and Mac. Change the wording while a laptop is already locked and the screen updates within seconds. If you set nothing, the laptop shows a standard message asking the customer to contact the rental provider.

On business Lenovo ThinkPads, yes, with two BIOS settings you switch on yourself: a supervisor password and Bottom Cover Tamper Detection. Once the bottom cover has been opened, the laptop stops before Windows loads and asks for that password. A new drive does not get round it, because the password is stored on the motherboard, not the disk. Guard checks that both settings are on and keeps the password encrypted in Rentablez so only an admin can reveal it. It never changes BIOS settings itself. This check is in Beta, is available on Windows ThinkPads only, and does not work on Macs or other brands. On every other laptop, hardware-swap detection still alerts you when a part changes.

Yes, approximately, and at no extra cost. Each time a laptop checks in, Rentablez works out the city from the internet connection it is using and puts it on a map, roughly to within 10 km, with a history going back up to 90 days. Nothing extra is installed and the customer is not asked for permission, because no data is read from the laptop itself. A VPN or a mobile hotspot can place it in the wrong city, so treat it as a lead, not proof. For street-level position, install the agent with Precise location: with the customer's permission, the laptop reports where it is from its own Wi-Fi or GPS every few hours, usually within 20 to 100 metres, and an admin can press Locate now. If the customer turns location off, you see it and can be alerted.

Yes. In the Guard app under Settings → Alerts you choose email, WhatsApp or both for each alert: hardware swap, format protection lost, precise location turned off, and laptop offline (after 1 hour to 7 days, 24 hours unless you change it). Alerts go to the WhatsApp number and email in your organisation details. Email is on unless you turn it off; WhatsApp is off until you turn it on, and each WhatsApp alert uses 1 credit.

Yes, in Beta, on Ubuntu 22.04+ and Debian 12+ laptops, desktops and servers. A locked Linux machine switches to the Rentablez lock screen and stays there through screen switching, logging out and restarts. Set a machine up as a server and Lock also blocks every connection except its link to Rentablez, so its websites, SSH and databases stop answering until you unlock; nothing is stopped or deleted. Linux machines also get a health monitor: free disk space, memory, temperature, load and failed system services every 5 minutes, with a 30-day history and an alert when a reading turns critical. The health monitor is Linux-only. Try it on one or two machines before rolling it out.

On Lenovo ThinkPads and Dell Latitudes running Windows, OS format protection (Beta) closes the easy routes. The agent switches off Reset this PC and turns it off again within a day if someone re-enables it. Each day it also checks the BIOS settings you set yourself: a BIOS password, USB boot and the F12 boot menu off, and Secure Boot on. Each laptop shows as Protected, Partially protected or Unprotected, and you are alerted if a Protected laptop drops out. Guard never changes BIOS settings itself. A customer with Windows administrator rights can still run an installer from inside Windows, so give them a standard account.

No. Guard reports a hardware fingerprint, when the device last checked in, its hostname, the agent version and the approximate city it is connecting from; with Precise location switched on and the customer's permission, also its Wi-Fi/GPS position every few hours. On Linux, the health monitor adds disk, memory, temperature and load readings about the machine. It does not read documents, capture the screen, log keystrokes or track browsing.

No. Inspections are part of the Rentablez rental plans from Growth upward, not part of Guard pricing. They pair naturally with Guard because both run against the same asset record, which is why they are shown together here.

Rentablez Guard is licensed per asset. One licence covers exactly one laptop and is held for as long as the agent is installed on it — it is not a floating seat and it cannot be shared between machines. Licences are bought in blocks of 100 at ₹1,000 per block per month (₹1,180 including 18% GST), and you top up a block whenever the inventory grows past your current allowance. Uninstall the agent and that licence returns to your pool the same day for the next machine. Pricing does not depend on how many staff you have or how many branches you run.

Five licences are free for the life of the account, covering up to four Windows machines and one Mac. Every Guard feature is included on the free tier. Nothing is held back and it is not a trial. You buy your first block of 100 licences only when the fleet outgrows those five.