Thief counter measures

I currently own a laptop (MS XP) and read the article:

http://macscripter.net/articles/173_0_10_0_C/

Is there a program that is recommendeded to allow remote and UNDETECTED access to a laptop if it ever gets stolen by stupid thieves (assuming that they don't know how to reformat and there is a unpassworded account) ?

there is also something called a bios password. This way, they won't be able to reformat. Leaving an unpassworded account on a laptop is just plain stupid.