That might be the first thing
you would do. Thieves often aren't techies. They'll just boot it up and see if they can get it to work, and then pawn it or sell it to someone else.
If you want to be able to track your machine after it is stolen, just make sure it is easy enough for anyone to get to a web browser (easy-to-find guest account with restricted permissions, but can still connect to the local wifi?). Then run some software like
Prey. If you have sensitive data, encrypt it but make sure the machine is still bootable.