Do you want to use your work laptop for personal tasks or struggle to balance your personal and professional life?
Working from home has become the norm for many of us, but it can be challenging when using the same laptop for work and personal use.
Fortunately, there’s a solution.
You can easily switch between work and personal tasks without hassle by converting your work laptop to a personal one.
This guide will show you how to convert work laptop to personal one step by step. Follow along, and you’ll be on your way to a more organized and stress-free life.
Table of Contents
What is the Difference Between a Work Laptop and a Personal Laptop?
There are some significant differences between a work laptop and a personal laptop; one of the most crucial differences is that a work laptop is designed to work in a corporation and is supposed to be used by its employees.
A work laptop is much more expensive and powerful than a personal laptop. A work laptop restricts the use of any site or input that involves sharing files from a work laptop to any other outer source and is necessary to keep the company’s information completely safe.
On the other hand, a personal laptop is for an individual; he fills it with all its files, such as entertainment, movies, seasons, and music.
A personal laptop will contain all the personal information, writing papers, and spreadsheets of a single person without any involvement or authorization from a third party.
Personal computers are prohibited from using communication sites such as WhatsApp, email, and other social media.
You can also connect a USB to a personal laptop to transfer files, while this feature is restricted in work laptops to prevent the company’s laptop.
However, rugged or military laptop is different type of work laptop. The difference between military and normal laptop shows how much they differ laptop.
How To Convert Work Laptop to Personal?
There are several ways to convert your work laptop into a personal laptop, and one of the easiest ways is to delete all the work information and reset the laptop completely.
But it will also delete all the files and software inside the laptop. If you want to keep the files, you will have to disable the security settings on your laptop to transfer files via USB.
Here is a complete list of methods and ideas that you can adopt to convert your work laptop to a person;
Disable Windows Defender
A work laptop contains multiple antiviruses to help the laptop protect from several viruses to enter such as; the software includes Microsoft Security Essentials. There will be plenty of other antiviruses installed in your laptop to help prevent the access of any unauthorized device.
Every corporation wants to secure its data and takes several actions. It would help if you had a lot of antivirus programs to ensure the safety of your company’s files.
These antivirus programs ensure that no hijacking software attacks the laptop and prevent ransomware and spyware.
This bulk of antivirus is only necessary when working in an organization; if you have a personal computer, you can remove all these extra antivirus programs and keep one that is reliable and good.
These extra antivirus programs take up a lot of space, processor power, and memory, slowing down your computer and the processor going down now and then.
You should uninstall these extra antivirus programs and enable Windows Defender; you will be good to go because these defenders are built and can take care of the laptop and its functions.
If you enable windows defender, it will be enough to keep all the malware and spyware attacks from your laptop, and it also involves safe browsing without any malicious software or sites.
Back-up Relevant Data
One of the most important things you need to do before you start the conversion process is to create a backup of all the data you want to save and don’t want to lose in the conversion process.
You can save all the valuable programs and antiviruses to the personal files you save on your laptop. To create a backup site, you can save all the files into one drive, or a cloud backup is also easy to make and adds an extra backup layer.
With the help of this backup, you can now start the conversion. Backing data is essential as most of the time, when converting your work laptop into personal, most of the files that might be essential for you get lost or deleted permanently along with some security sites.
After converting your laptop into a personal laptop, you will need these backups to bring the data back.
TrueCrypt to Encrypt Data
TrueCrypt allows you to encrypt all the data available in your laptop; this encryption protects all personal information and does not allow anyone to access it and any of its information.
With the help of TrueCrypt, you can encrypt and create open-source software through which you can add protection and privacy to folder disks or even partitions in these folders.
You can also create a virtual encrypted file and save your sensitive information that nobody can access without your strict authorization. This TrueCrypt feature allows you to save these protected files into a USB and email them to the existing operating system.
TrueCrypt makes it impossible for the hijacker to take any information from your laptop, and you can safely use it without the risk of ransomware and spyware.
Consult an IT Company
If you want to convert your laptop into a personal laptop without any security or encryption interference. In that case, you can take your laptop to an IT company if you know any or an IT expert who can help you deal with all your computer-related issues.
These IT experts know how to take and flush all the unnecessary information, sites, apps, and other software installed in your computer that you don’t need in your personal computer.
You can keep the one you like and delete all the other files and sites that were there due to the company’s policy. This option is the best one, but you might need to create a backup before you take your laptop to the IT company, as it will delete all the data, and you will not have anything.
Before taking your laptop for conversion, sit back and entirely back up the data you want to keep and let go of the one you will not see again. Through this process, you will get your essential data and a converted personal computer.
If you don’t have any access to the IT company and don’t know any IT experts, don’t worry, there are other ways through which you can easily convert your work laptop to personal.
Disconnect from Work Networks
You can easily convert the work laptop into a personal laptop if you disconnect from all the work networks. To keep up with your privacy and security, you must disconnect from the work networks and make your laptop personal.
Employees also need regular communication outside the workflow; the restrictions on the laptop make it impossible for them to communicate outside the work network.
If you can disconnect all the work networks on your personal computer, you can easily communicate outside the work circle. You also need to change the work email to your account, which will change the screen name.
If you want to take the company’s network as you still work there and also want to communicate with the outside world, here is what you can do.
You will have to disconnect the work network from your laptop for the communication and then connect it back after doing your work, this is a risky process, and you will be putting your job at the stack for this purpose.
If you have a laptop or PC for personal use, you can be more productive and take care of many things quickly. Most employers do not allow working from home due to the reason that personal laptops are not safe to use.
Uninstall Work-Related Programs
If you are planning on downgrading your work laptop into a personal one, you need to uninstall all the work-related programs from your laptop. These programs are there on your laptop for the security of the work data; if you uninstall these programs, you will get specific security warnings on your Windows laptop.
You should know that different software security programs available on your laptop or PC need removal if you also want to use them as a personal computer at home.
Several other apps and programs have no connection with security, but they are work-related programs just taking up space and making the functioning slower; you also need to remove them for better workings.
All these work-related programs need your access to uninstall programs as you are the one handling these programs. If you install all these work-related programs, you can easily convert your work laptop into a personal one.
You can also do this by installing the application as a portable on your PC; you need a portable version of the application for this purpose.
Some applications are not compatible with the portable version, and you need to install them, don’t use them to get rid of the work-related programs.
Factory Reset and Reinstall Windows
When you have created a backup cloud of all the files and data, you will need to reset and reinstall windows to make it new, and then you can use it any way you like. The reset will remove all the data from scratch and delete all the work-related software.
You can also reinstall the complete operating system or Windows on your laptop to use it your way. Through this method, you can rebuild the laptop as you always wanted and app the relevant apps, and there will be no old files and trash.
This reset option will convert your laptop into a baby and allow you to rebuild it as an adult by adding all the necessary information. Press the reset button only after backing up all the files you need on your personal computer.
Change the Setting to Personal Preferences
Usually, people use different settings for work and home laptops; you can customize the setting on your personal computer and make them according to your needs and the way you like things.
Changing the settings on your work laptop is something most people do regularly to make the laptop work according to their own needs. While converting your work laptop into a personal one, you can change the settings to control your laptop and eliminate all unwanted programs.
You can easily use your laptop by personalizing the settings, changing the desktop’s appearance, and adding other shortcuts for your help. You can also transition from work to home and back within seconds with the help of changing settings.
You can also change the wallpaper to a personal photo or anything you like. In short, you can change all the settings and make the preferences according to your settings.
Import Your Email Account
One of the most significant things you need while using a laptop is your email entered in it for personal communication and staying in touch with friends and family. When you work in an organization, they don’t allow you to enter your email account on your work laptop, and you can only use the company’s laptop.
This work email is under inspection; you can only send work-related emails as it is the company’s email address. You can remove the security restriction and then open your email quickly.
If you need essential emails from your work email into your account, you can import your email account into your work laptop and then convert the same email as your email.
You can then use this email on your personal computer by clicking on accounts in your laptop’s settings and then adding the account option, email, and password. Now click on the import option, and your email account will get imported on your work laptop.
Changing Work Profile to A Guest Mode
While changing your work laptop into a personal laptop, you can shift it into guest mode and use the natural mode as a personal laptop. Every laptop has a work mode; you can use it in your office and convert it into a normal mode when you want to use it as a personal laptop.
This way, you can use your laptop for personal use, and you don’t need to remove the data related to your work. Removing all the work data might be demanding as you need it sometimes.
Final Verdict
The article provides a solution for individuals who want to use their work laptops for personal tasks or those struggling to balance their personal and professional life.
It highlights the significant differences between a work laptop and a personal laptop and how to convert it into a personal one. You can utilize four ways: disabling Windows Defender, backing up relevant data, using TrueCrypt to encrypt data, and consulting an IT company.
While disabling Windows Defender is easy to implement, it is also the riskiest, as it can open your computer to attacks. Creating a backup and consulting an IT company are safer options. However, using TrueCrypt to encrypt data is the best method to keep your data safe and protected.
Frequently Asked Question
How Do I Wipe a Business Laptop?
Wiping a business laptop is easy and one click away but make sure before you wipe your laptop, you have a backup available in your laptop, so you don’t need to lose any data. To wipe the data, you need to go to the settings and change PC settings; here, you will see the remove everything option. Click this option, and your whole data will wipe. Then you can reinstall windows to use.
How Do I Separate My Work and Personal Computer?
You can separate work and personal computers by making separate profiles on a single PC; one will be your work profile and the other for work. You can also use two different operating systems, and this feature is specifically for Mac users. You can also partition the hard drive, perform work, and simultaneously use it as a personal computer.
How Can I Use My Work Laptop at Home?
Using your work laptop at home might be unethical as your company has several privacy concerns. Your company usually monitors your activities through the work laptop; it is against your privacy concerns, which is why it is unethical.