I would have a major issue with that .. time to clean out my cold bore and warm her up ... still do a long 500 yrd shot heheheh

that is assuming that the user knows not do download trojan infested cracked software ... torrent clients are there for a reason ** the general consumer assumes that it is there for downloading pirated movies and software ... that is it ..

so ... you can't figure out something you have been using for over a decade .. oh, here is something else now .. good luck .. oh and no one will help you support it either ...

GREAT REAL WORLD ADVICE ...

I dont work at CC .. but a larger "repair centre" in canada ...

We have, as part of our SOP, child pornography related rules. They call them "criminal images" in the verbage, however, it is the same. I have yet to "find" something criminal, but to my knowledge, no one goes "fishing" though a computer to look at a persons data. I think true repair techs don't really care WHAT is on someones computer, just get paid your paycheck to fix the thing. IF we are testing a burner and need to use data from a system (ie pictures folder) again .. drag drop, dont care what it is .. test .. label DVD "test burn" give to customer when they come to pick it up.

After doing this for 20 years now .. I can tell you what you ALWAYS will find on a computer that comes in for "repair".
1. Lime/Frostwire - the bane of my job - and telling a "customer/uneducated person" that those types of programs make it more likely to get a virus, they immediately ask you "well, how else can I download free stuff" - my response " you can't"
2. Some sort of torrent client - see #1
3. expired/outdated or no antivirus - which leads to #4
4. massive amounts of spyware/malware/virals

This is my daily grind. Trying to inform the public that just because you CAN do something doesn't mean it makes it A: legal or B: not harmful to your computer environment - "You mean downloading all that porn got me a virus? You mean my limewire folder has massive amounts of trojans in it? ---- but I paid for it ....

Sucker # 12,488 line up please ....

Seriously Conference Board of Canada, seriously? Did they think that people wouldn't check up on this??

I work as a tech monkey / computer mechanic at a FutureShop in canada / BestBuy Canada.

Honestly, what do you expect from a retail chain where margin of their product is basically 0.

You sell a laptop .. you get MAYBE $5 in your pocket .. you sell a service contract you might quadruple that .. so where do you think you are going to make up money? On the service end of things .. IBM seems to have understood that ...

If you think that the general population KNOWS how to actually setup a computer ... how to do basic updates etc .. you are sadly mistaken. They DONT want to talk to someone over the phone .. they dont want to do things for themselves .. welcome to modern life .. do it for me and make sure it is done correctly .. whatever correctly is ...

Sure EVERYONE that reads this site can setup systems in their sleep, make recovery media while snacking and replace a kybrd/hd/lcd in the bathtub .. but can average Joe do it? no...
Flat no. And the only reason I say it, my phone at the store rings off the phone by the minute asking me these questions.

in the end ... duh .. yes there are service and setup options ... look at EVERY industry ... you will find them

Why do people hate it so much? I understand it is not the best, biggest, etc ... however, I use VistaU64, VistaU32, XPpro64, XPhome, ubuntu and Suse .. I get my Mac taste from the GFs laptop, I use them all relatively frequently and find they ALL do what they are supposed to do, just sometimes you might have to actually LEARN the OS you are playing with to do something "not out of the box".

I work at a FutureShop in Canada as one of the managers of the computer repair areas, we get the "isn't Vista bad?" questions all the time. I tell them, it does what you need it to do for most users. It is a PIG and can be frustrating, however, I am not about to unleash redhat or ubuntu onto them.

Most of the people who think that Vista has problems also believe everything else that mass marketing has told them. Mac just MS to the punch.

Dont get me wrong .. a MS puppet I am not, however, you get me something besides a mac onto those shelves that has the driver support of MS/Vista products and I will gladly tell people to take a look ...