Why?? (Just a rant)

[Easyscor]

hehe, never fix someone's computer right away, wait at least a week after they start crying. Unless it's your mom of course

I wish I could take that attitude of walking away from one that someone has "fixed". I have two brothers (in their 50s) who both know they can fix anyone's computer. Yeah, right. Last time she flew me 1700 miles for IT work hehe. She learned, and doesn't tell them when she messes up now so they don't get to installed their favorite email reader. Now the conversation usually goes something like "mom, click on the date to re-sort your email"    She's 83, and I'm always amazed she hasn't had more problems with all the health sites she visits, they're worse then porn. 

[Ghosth]

LOL daughters system sat for 3 months after the last one. I was in no rush to fix it to only have to fix it again.

BTW one other minor tip that has worked well for me.
When reinstalling partition the drive to at least 2 partitions.
Install your main working OS not on C:\windows but on D:\ windows.

Its amazing how many bugs simply can't make that one simple little switch.

Or put a linux distro on C:\  same difference only with more options if you get bugged up again.

Also for that system which is infected a "boot from cd" linux distro like Ubuntu 10 can be a pretty handy cleaning tool with no chance of it getting infected. 

[Heater]

Same thing here, 3 Daughters the Youngest one thinks she knows everything, after the 3@4 time of screwing up her laptop, I told her next time you on your own, and I will block the mac address on the firewall and you will not be on the network @ home... 2 months later and she is still not on the network, and I now feeling the pain as her older sisters will not let her use their laptops etc...

ages 22, 20 and 17... the Youngest is the biggest pain in the ass.... you would think she would learn!

[zeromajin]

Instead of fixing peoples computers.....send them to http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 have them read (try this before posting)....then let them spend a day scrubbing and I'll bet they will be more carefull about what they click on.  If you fix it for them they won't care. If they fix it they won't bother you anymore.  

Truth ^