People have grown accustomed to calling their tech support agent whenever something breaks on their pc. But are you overpaying for what can be fixed for a fractions of the cost? We researched what people tend to pay, and what you can actually get windows support for.

Option 1: Hire a local windows support professional:

Windows support professionals can charge between $30 and $120 an hour to troubleshoot and rectify the virus / issue you are facing. Although this may sound reasonable, consider what you are actually paying for, and how much of your dollar is going to the actual repairs.

The windows support agent will first ask you a series of question, much like how a doctor will ask you general questions that may help him isolate the issue you are having. A lot of issues have similar symptoms, so a similar questionnaire will likely not point to the final diagnosis. After asking you these general questions, he will start looking for the source of the problem, or try to trigger the problem itself so he can watch it as it happens and try to reverse engineer the issue. Keep in mind that he is officially on the clock at this point and he is charging you for him time. Not that it is not important to take these steps, but it could be costing you a lot more than you should pay. After finally diagnosing your problem, the windows support agent will proceed to apply the fix that he sees fit, and will eventually finish repairing your pc. Keep in mind, this is almost $300 dollars later, and he will be laughing his way to the bank.

I am not trying to say that windows support technician is charging unfairly, or is not executing the support in the proper way. The problem lies within the industry itself. It is impossible to apply service without knowing the exact problem first, and since the Windows Support agent is forced to seek the problem and try to make it happen again, he must do the cumbersome troubleshooting steps that will eventually cost you money. There is not real alternative way to find the issue, unless the user with the computer problem themselves have some evidence that will help point to an issue. As always, the more experience the agent has, the quicker this troubleshooting process will be, because at the end of the day, a lot of issues are easy to identify when they have been seen before so many times.

So, what are the economical solutions, if you cannot rely on your local windows support agent? Contacting an online broker for a microsoft support agent is one very good option, but there is another more popular option that many people are starting to rely on. This is the “self help” movement.

2) Google the problem, then apply the solution

Once you have found the correct result, simply following the directions is not advised. I would first create a backup of anything you are about to change, because face the facts; not everyone has the best intentions, or not everyone knows the proper solution and they may be causing damage to your system. I have fixed many issues by following what I beleived was the most relavent and helpful result, and you can even take it a step further: Post your exact question on a website that offers free windows support (like ours ) and hope that the author will provide his solution. The author may be googling the issue for you, but the end result will be a hand crafted solution to the exact problem you are facing!

So, say goodbye to overpriced windows support, and hello to tons of saved money.

New Ferrari anyone?

Update: Windows support for windows XP is actaully becoming less and less available, so get on top of this quickly!

As of 2013, Microsoft is pulling the plug on windows xp support, get it while it lasts.