Most technicians bring along various program installers (such as the latest antivirus update, iTunes & Winamp etc.) on a USB drive to their clients houses because the client may not have internet access, it is very slow, or the program installer is very large.

MSN/Live Messenger used to be one of those installers that I frequently brought along to clients houses. However, ever since Microsoft started pushing their other “Live” products, they no longer offered a stand-alone, offline installer for Windows Live Messenger. I hated having to re-download it every time I wanted to install Live Messenger, so I found an easy way to get the stand alone offine installer. Heres how I did it.
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As a technician, occasionally you come across situations where you are not quite sure what to do. Its a fine balance of personal morals, ethics and just doing business. I have written 7 questions which are borderline and I’d love to know what you guys would do in these situations.
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This is a guest post written by Nathan H from our forums. Nathan has written us a quick reference guide on what you can/should do for a computer maintenance task.
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A few weeks ago I wrote about the problem with the computer repair industry. This week I will be talking about the problem with the software industry with a focus on Norton and Vista.
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As computers become more and more of a necessity, the elderly are embracing computers in greater numbers. Just two days ago I had to set up a new laptop for a 78 year old woman and her money is just as green as the younger generations so its a good idea to learn how to setup computers to be more usable for them. Here is a guide on how to set up a Windows machine for the elderly.
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We’ve all heard of of the dodgy car mechanic that will say all sorts of things are wrong even though you only brought your car in for a simple oil change. People are beginning to fear a new type of tradesman, the dodgy computer repair technician.

So whats wrong with the computer repair industry?
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I love my job. I really do, and I think of myself lucky to be as fortunate in business as I have been. However, there has been many times were I have really wanted to say something to a client but didn’t, because it would be unprofessional. This post is intended as a joke. However, all of these have really happened to me during my time as an onsite computer technician.
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A Pennsylvania man was caught possessing child pornography by a Circuit City computer technician. The technician called the police who seized the computer and arrested the man when he returned to pick it up. With child porn as evidence on the mans computer, it should be an open and shut case right? Wrong.

As you probably know, a policeman needs a warrant to search your house for any illegal items. This warrant allows the policeman to obtain the evidence in a legal manner. The big question is, was the child porn evidence in this case obtained legally? Should the technician have been looking though the files in the first place? Read on.
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One of our Technibble readers sent us an email and asked us at what point while repairing a computer do you decide it is time for a format? How do you determine wether you should keep spending more time trying to repair the system or just give up and wipe it clean? Heres our answer.
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There have been a handful of dodgy computer repair companies in the news these days. In these reports there are many shady or inexperienced computer technicians and they got what they deserved. However, keep in mind that these so called “news” reports are after ratings just like any fictional show .They will happily misreport or cut out critical parts of information to make the show more entertaining. In this article, I analyse the reports to determine whether the technician is dodgy, inexperienced or the media is just trying to make them look bad.
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