@ cptacek:

Yeah, I never know what to charge friends and neighbors so I usually end up doing shit like this for free. If I had to charge I would probably look at what I had to do, rather how long it took me to find the source of the problem. Sometimes it is just not worth spending countless hours hunting for something that may or may not be there and easier route is to just back up and reformat. It is also easier to bill people that way because then you can give them an itemized list along the lines of:

– backing up data to external drive
– formatting the hard drive
– re-installing windows
– finding, downloading and installing all the drivers (since you brought no CD’s)
– restoring data from the external drive
– downloading and installing requested software

Put a completely arbitrary price tag on each item and make it add up to whatever sum you are willing to charge them for this.

Usually something like this is easier for people to swallow if you give them a hourly rate that adds up to the exact same sum – because this way they can actually see what you did.

Thanks, Luke. I keep coming back to your pages for reference to fix my neighbors’ computers :blech: This last one took me about 10 hours to figure out I needed to take something out of the Run portion of the registry. So, how do you charge for that? 10 hours of meandering around trying to figure it out, when the answer was <-Backspace.

$30 an hour, or $300? She could have bought a new one for $375. $50 just to prove a point about not giving it away? What am I saying. Her husband was in our wedding, so yep, it's going to be free.

You might also want to try Metascan Online to check files for viruses, which quickly uses 19 antivirus engines to scan files for malware.

@ Kim Johnsson:

I really should set up disk images for some of my relatives who have me on speed dial for computer issue. At work we have a nice Clonezilla server for that very purpose. Of course 99% of time the first step is of course trying to recover the person’s last week or two of work, because they never, ever, ever back anything up.

@ Andrew Zimmerman:

Strange times we live in when paying for McAfee or Norton is actually counter productive seeing how 90% of infections out there specifically target and disable these products.

@ ST/op:

Oh, maybe that’s what they are doing right now. I don’t think the ever peddled anything malicious. I think it was always Yahoo and/or Google promotions. Still, no reason to install that stuff if you don’t need it.

@ MrJones:

Well, I’m not fixing it, am I? I’m just giving advice. :)

Luke!

*meme*

Y U post Malware Removal Tools when webpage slogan is “I will not fix your computer”?

Funny, but – at least here in Denmark – CCleaner has not been shipping any toolbars for a couple of years or so… Instead, they now want you to install Google Chrome and optionally make it your default browser :)

I agree. MSE actually uses the same definitions as their Forefront, so essentially you are using enterprise antivirus as a home user..no real reason to pay for antivirus anymore.

I am so glad I’ve moved away from everyone who needs my help with these things. And if anyone at work fucks up their PC, that’s fine. “Assign Rule-based Image”, netboot, done =)

@ road:

Good point. Security Essentials is actually pretty effective these days. Kinda surprising, but not in a bad way.

I’m surprised you didn’t mention Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool and Security Essentials. I find they’re usually as effective as anything else. Also I can never remember which tools are current and trusted (this list should help) and it’s so friggin’ hard to google for that sort of information because there are so many scanners that are malware, themselves. For that reason I like using stuff I download from microsoft.com.