Regular old Windows logon passwords are easy to get around. Windows has an encryption feature that is very hard to crack but I think it only works on files and / or folders and I assume people rarely use it, but it's good. And the best - and what should've been on this laptop - is a third party program than encrypts the entire hard drive and is nearly impossible to crack.
OK, the feature I am speaking of seems to be new.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1825740,00.asp
I read about a customer in a computer store setting a password that made the drive useless to the store owner.
Seems like any laptop with sensitive information should be encrypted. Windows makes it easy. I assume Linux and MacOS do too.