Spent 3 hours pre-installing a Dell Laptop. Doing a pre-installation properly, bespoke to the user can take a long time.

Backup and Restore
Windows Updates
Office Updates
AntiVirus
Winzip
Acrobat Reader
VPN
Yadda Yaddda

Anyway after doing this type of thing for years I am pretty good at it.

The laptop died within 30 mins of me giving it to the user on a blue screen. The memory was faulty, this was identified quickly and replaced but the windows install was damaged and I had to start all over again. THANKS DELL

For people with WindowsXP installs that wont boot. This link is the one you want.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545

To top my day off a Spyware infection on an Executives home computer.

When I was researching the spyware infection (Smith Fraud) an infection that makes you think you have spyware and wants you to pay for it to be removed I found finding trustworhty advice on removal was difficult. Who can you trust.