First of all I'm going to be blunt. Me and a friend are opening a computer store,
Good luck. I hope it works well.
but I was wondering and cant seem to find an answer. I worked in a computer store for a few years. But theres got to be a product out for us what can I use to remove viruses from a customers pc. I am of course willing to buy it. Need a solution does anyone have an answer.
There is really not any correct answer to this one. Up until 8 months ago, I was working in a computer shop for 11 years. Over those years I have been using a combination of AVG, McAfee, Nortons. If the end user is not willing to pay extra for the software, then go AVG free.
In all honestly, it really come down to whether or not your customer is going to pay for your services to
1. Actually go in to their computer system and root out the virus.
2. Back up data, format computer, scan back up data, restore data. AKA :-
'Nuke the entire site from orbit"
Option number 1 really only works if some one is going to pay you those hours for scanning and possibly going into registries. This might not be so bad if the customer has a small hard drive or not a lot of data, or can not afford the down time for you to re-install from scratch.
Option Number 2. Have a standalone computer for backing up peoples data. Firstly purchase a drive imaging program like Nortons Ghost and make a hard drive image. This is so that if you happen to
"loose any data" you can retrieve it.
Then copy across the following directories to this stand alone PC.
* Documents & Settings (or at least the Documents, Photos, Music, Movies, Favorites.
* Back the email. Best use the export and import commands in the email clients. Otherwise, manually look around for the PST (outlook) or MBX (outlook express). Do not forget the WAB file (Address Book)
* Ask the customer if they have any accounting data on the computer. Eg. MYOB, Quicken. Back up the entire directory.
* Don't forget to ask if there is any other important data that they need to back up.
After to back up every thing onto your standalone computer, start scanning it while you are rebuilding the the other computer.
Then after you have finished re-installing windows, installing drivers, you can then start copying files back.
Then before you give the computer back to the customer, run a complete scan.
In my experience, I have found that a virus will be in the C drive. Rarely have I found them any where else on the PC.
Option Number 1 is the better solution for the customer, however I have seen people take about 3 days to clean out a virus. Most end users are lucky to pay you more than 3 or 4 hours for your work. Any thing more and they might as well buy a new PC.
Option Number 2 is the better solution for you running your business. You can normally have every thing completed a 2 to 4 hours. And most people are willing to pay for that.
When it comes down to virus scanners, just explore a few and use which ones that works for you.
Keep in mind that some people might favor one brand over another. The other thing is that AVG Free does not put money in your pocket.
The other thing is this. Do not offer warranty on virus removal. The warranty ends the second they walk out the door. I have seem some people come back the 15 minutes later because they tried loading some cracked software.*
In a nut shell, use the tools that you are comfortable is using and promoting.
* Worst one that I have ever seen was this one guy that had a cracked version of AVG Corporate. And then he would have the nerve to complain to me on why I installed AVG free. Thankfully his parents were more understanding.
