It depends on whether I live alone or not. I lived with other people for pretty much all my life and I had password set in BIOS for both booting and entering setup. But now I live alone and I don't have password anymore.

Wow some of you don't trust the people you live with, eh? But I understand that if there are situations like roommates or other people who might be inclined to play games with you. Worst I had to deal with was a teen who was punished with no electronics, internet, etc and they reset the router to defaults to gain access. That solution was a case of lock, key, and a longer duration of punishment.

I've already voted "no", never at work, never at home. Someone at work pulls that stunt, they risk the possibility that we'd order an immediate replacement and lose the time due to set up and re-establishment of a system, thus putting some prankster in the uncomfortable place of having to fess up to causing all that. And then they'd probably get fired for being an idiot. I guess also that I work with people who are a tad more busy and professional where this isn't even an issue that I'd conceive anyone taking their time to do.

I think it is more about not wanting to worry than not wanting to trust. Certainly I will be pissed off if I find out someone has tampered with my system, and they I will take measures. Or I could take measures before it happens and then I won't get pissed off, and someone's reputation with me won't be tarnished.

I think I'll leave the password off, because I want to know who I can trust more than I care about a stupid BIOS password that can be easily reset.

I'm with you, you cant even boot my portable without a password. Locks keep honest people honest.

Noooooo

I have had this experience - I think! Years ago (like mid 1990's) I set up what was then a primary workstation in a shared office facility not controlled by myself for a few weeks while working on a project.

After returning the machine to my own office, I was blocked by a password request!

I removed the CMOS battery and jumpered the line to ground, reset to defaults and started life over. I never knew for sure who or how, but for a while afterward I always set my own BIOS password for that reason... but I have dropped the habit, not much of an issue for me these days.