Laptop support

I always struggle with this subject: a user come back from vacation and instead of chocolate, she bring her laptop and want you to fix it. Why? Because she used the hotel WiFi and her unsecured private laptop is now a bag full of viruses.
As the cheap (well, more FREE then cheap) available technician I'm the obvious choice for the user but should I provide this service?
This is one of the major dilemmas of the OneManITShop administrator at a small firm. You can't say no, definitely not to partners or managers but due to the delicate politics in a small place, not even to the last employee in the food chain.

So I get this laptop and meet some familiar friend: Personal Antivirus. a nasty maleware that I've seen in the past. I was lucky to remember the solution I used last time so it didn't take that long and using Malewarebyte's software I was able to get it off the laptop without a sweat.



This is a great tool that never failed me. It gets the latest update and start working, scanning the hard drive. Within the hour I got the list of the rogue files to be deleted and the laptop was cleaned.

Keep in mind that in a small shop users expect you to be available for their personal computer support and as long as they keep it reasonable, try to keep them happy and safe. Educate them - on the long run you'll get something back, either they'll learn something and prevent future problems or you'll need something back and they'll be more then happy to pay back a favor.