Key takeaways
- Yes, I do one-time computer setups and business computer repair in Dallas by the hour, with no contract: $100 per hour remote, $150 per hour onsite during business hours.
- A proper business setup is more than unboxing: removing bloatware, joining the computer to Microsoft 365 or the domain, encryption, antivirus, printers, and moving the old data over.
- Plan on roughly one to two hours per computer for a clean setup, less when there are several identical machines and I can prepare them in a batch.
- Repair makes sense for a business computer under about four years old with a single failed part; past that, the hour spent diagnosing is usually better spent on a replacement.
- One-time help is a good fit for occasional needs; if you are calling every month, a managed plan usually costs less and includes the setup work.
Can you get one-time IT help setting up new computers in Dallas?
Yes. I am Anthony Omini, the owner of Cross River Tech, a small IT company in Dallas, and a good share of my week is one-off work for businesses that do not have, and do not want, an IT contract. Setting up new computers is the most common request. You ordered three laptops for new hires, or replaced the front-desk machine, or the whole office is finally moving off computers that are eight years old. You want someone to set them up properly, once, and go away until you need them again.
That is exactly what my hourly IT support is for. There is no agreement to sign and no monthly fee. You pay $100 per hour for remote work and $150 per hour onsite during business hours, with a one-hour minimum. A good part of a computer setup can be done remotely once the machine is on the internet, which keeps the cost down. Delivery, unboxing, physical connection and printer setup are usually onsite, and I schedule visits by appointment anywhere in Dallas–Fort Worth.
The same hourly arrangement covers business computer repair: a machine that will not boot, a failed drive, a laptop that has slowed to a crawl, a desktop that blue-screens twice a day. I diagnose it, tell you honestly whether it is worth fixing, and fix it if it is.
What does a proper business computer setup include?
A computer out of the box is set up for a consumer, not a business. It has trial software you do not want, a personal-account sign-in prompt, no encryption, no backup and no connection to anything your office already uses. Here is what I do to every machine I set up for a business, whether it is one or twenty.
- Remove what should not be there. Manufacturer trial software, games, consumer antivirus trials and the sign-up nags that come with them.
- Update everything. Windows updates, driver and firmware updates from Dell or Lenovo, and the applications you use. A new computer often ships with months of updates waiting.
- Join it to your business identity. For most small offices that means Microsoft 365 with Entra ID, so people sign in with their work account and you keep control if someone leaves. For offices with a server, it means joining the domain. I explain the difference in plain words before you choose.
- Create the right accounts. A standard user account for the person using it, and a separate administrator account held only by the business owner and Cross River Tech. Day-to-day work should never run as an administrator.
- Turn on encryption. BitLocker on Windows, with the recovery key stored somewhere other than the laptop itself. A lost laptop without encryption is a data breach; with it, it is a lost laptop.
- Install your security tools. Business antivirus or endpoint protection, not the free consumer version, and confirm it reports back somewhere.
- Install and sign in to your applications. Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, your line-of-business software, your browser with the right settings, your VPN if you have one.
- Connect printers, scanners and shared drives. The things people notice on day one.
- Move the old data from the previous computer, and confirm the person can find their files, their email and their browser bookmarks.
- Turn on backup for anything that is not already living in OneDrive, SharePoint or Google Drive.
- Write it down. Serial number, who has it, what was installed, where the recovery key is.
Skipping any of these is how a "quick setup" becomes a support call three weeks later.
How long does it take to set up a business computer?
It depends on how much is on the old machine and how many computers there are. The table below is what I typically see, so you can estimate the cost before you call. Times are per computer and assume the internet at your office is reasonably fast, because a large part of setup time is waiting on downloads.
| Scenario | Typical time per computer | Mostly remote or onsite? |
|---|---|---|
| New laptop for a new hire, cloud-based office, no old data to move | About 1 hour | Mostly remote |
| Replacement computer with files, email and settings to move from the old one | 1.5 to 2.5 hours | Mixed |
| Computer joining an office with a server and shared drives | 1.5 to 2 hours | Mixed |
| Five or more identical machines prepared in a batch | Under 1 hour each after the first | Mostly remote, one onsite visit |
| Specialized workstation (CAD, dental imaging, legal software with plug-ins) | 2 to 4 hours | Mixed |
Batches are cheaper per machine because I prepare the setup once and repeat it. If you are ordering several computers, tell me before they arrive; I can have them shipped so that updates and enrollment happen before anyone sits down in front of them. For the specialized cases, the time is mostly in the software: a dental imaging sensor driver or a CAD license server has its own setup that a general-purpose guide does not cover, and I have done enough of them across the industries I work with to know where the traps are.
Should you buy the computers yourself or have me source them?
Either works, and I am happy to set up machines you bought. If you want my opinion before you buy, it is this: buy business-class, not consumer-class. A business laptop from Dell or Lenovo costs somewhat more than the same-looking consumer model at a big-box store, and in return you get a longer warranty with onsite service, parts that stay available for years, a docking station that works, and a machine that was built to run for eight hours a day. I explain the specific lines I recommend and why in buying and supporting Dell and Lenovo business computers.
If you would rather I handle the purchase, I work with Dell and Lenovo and I quote the exact configuration for your use, with the warranty term I think fits. I do not mark up hardware as a hidden fee; the quote shows the hardware and my setup time separately. Some owners prefer to buy on their own account for accounting reasons, and that is fine too. Just send me the model numbers before you order so I can catch the mistakes that are cheap to fix before purchase and expensive after: too little memory, a Home edition of Windows instead of Pro, no docking port for the monitors you already own.
One request: do not buy Windows Home for a business computer. It cannot join a domain, cannot be managed the way business machines need to be, and upgrading it afterwards costs more than the difference would have.
Do you do business computer repair in Dallas?
Yes, on the same hourly terms, and I start with an honest answer to the question that matters: is this machine worth fixing? Here is how I decide.
- Worth repairing: a business-class computer under roughly four years old with one clear fault. A failed hard drive or SSD, a dead power supply, a cracked laptop screen, a bad memory module, a fan full of dust. Parts are inexpensive and the repair is usually an hour or two plus the part.
- Usually worth repairing: a slow but working machine. Replacing an old spinning hard drive with an SSD, adding memory and cleaning off years of accumulated software makes a five-year-old desktop feel new for a fraction of the replacement cost.
- Usually not worth repairing: anything old enough that Windows no longer supports it, a machine with a failed motherboard, a laptop where the battery, keyboard and hinge have all gone at once. Every hour I spend diagnosing it is an hour that could have gone into setting up its replacement.
I tell you which category the machine falls in before I spend your money on it. If the answer is "replace," I say so and you pay for the diagnosis, not for a repair that would not have lasted.
Repair work is remote when the problem is software and onsite when it is hardware. Software problems, which are the majority, include machines that will not update, programs that crash, printers that have vanished, email that has stopped syncing and the general slowness that builds up over years. Hardware repair happens at your office by appointment; I bring the common parts with me and order anything unusual with the price agreed first. Data recovery from a failed drive is possible in many cases and I always attempt it before anything else, but I am careful not to promise it, because sometimes the drive is simply gone.
What about moving data from the old computer?
This is where most do-it-yourself setups go wrong, so it deserves its own answer. What needs to move depends on where things live.
If your office uses Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace properly, email, calendar and contacts move themselves the moment the person signs in, and files in OneDrive, SharePoint or Google Drive appear on their own. The move takes minutes and I mostly confirm that everything is there.
If files live on the old computer's desktop and in its Documents folder, they have to be copied over deliberately, and so do the things people forget: browser bookmarks and saved passwords, the signature in Outlook, the scanner software, the QuickBooks company file, the folder of PDFs someone kept on the C drive since the last computer. I use a checklist and I walk it with the person before I wipe or retire the old machine. The old computer stays untouched for a couple of weeks in case something was missed.
If files live on an old server or a NAS, nothing moves; the new computer just needs the same drive mappings and permissions. And if this is the moment your office finally moves those files to the cloud, that is a small project of its own that I can fold into the same visit. See Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace support for how that goes.
Old computers should be wiped before they are donated, sold or recycled. I do that as part of the job, and I keep a note of the serial numbers that were wiped.
What other one-off IT projects do you take?
Computer setup is the most common, but any bounded project with a clear finish line fits the hourly model. Requests I take on a one-time basis include:
- Setting up a new employee end to end: computer, Microsoft 365 account, phone, printer, access to shared files.
- Offboarding someone who left, so their access is closed and their files and email are kept.
- Replacing a failed or ancient Wi-Fi router with proper business equipment.
- Moving a small office from personal Gmail accounts to a real Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace domain.
- Setting up a network printer or scanner that "worked at the old office."
- Cleaning up a computer after a suspected virus and confirming nothing is still there.
- Installing a small server or NAS and moving files onto it.
- A second opinion on a quote from another IT company.
- Running a few network drops and setting up a small rack, which is its own service at data cabling and IT room setup.
What does not fit the hourly model well is anything open-ended. "Keep an eye on things" is not a project; it is what a monthly plan is for. I will tell you which side of the line your request falls on when you describe it.
When does one-time help stop making sense?
Hourly, no-contract support is the right answer for a lot of Dallas businesses, and I never push a contract on someone who does not need one. A five-person office with cloud email, no server and reliable hardware might need me twice a year. Paying by the hour for that is clearly the better deal, and I cover this in IT support without a contract in Dallas.
The math changes when the calls become regular. If I am setting up a computer this month, fixing email next month and replacing a switch the month after, the hourly total starts to approach what a monthly plan would cost, and the monthly plan includes things the hourly work does not: updates applied every month, antivirus managed instead of installed once, backups checked, and unlimited remote support with onsite at no extra charge when remote cannot fix it. Managed plans are month-to-month and cancel anytime, so there is no lock-in to be afraid of.
A simple test: add up what you paid for IT help in the last twelve months, including the hours your own people spent on it. If it is close to what a per-user monthly fee would have been, it is worth a conversation. If it is nowhere close, keep calling me by the hour and I will keep answering. The full comparison is in hourly vs monthly IT support: which is cheaper?
How do you book a one-time computer setup?
Send me a message through the contact page or call (214) 612-7080 and tell me four things: how many computers, whether they have arrived yet, what the office uses for email and files, and whether there are old machines with data to move. From that I can give you a realistic estimate in hours and suggest whether the work should be remote, onsite or a mix.
If the computers have not arrived, I would rather hear from you before you order. Ten minutes on the phone about models, Windows editions and docking stations saves the most common return trip. If they have arrived, keep them boxed; there is no benefit to powering them on before setup, and a machine that has already been signed into with a personal Microsoft account takes longer to bring into the business.
For the appointment itself, I need somewhere to work near the desks the computers are going to, the passwords to your Microsoft 365 or Google admin account and to any line-of-business software, and the person who will use each machine available for ten minutes at the end to sign in and check their files. Then I leave you with a short note of what was done, the serial numbers, and where the recovery keys are, and you do not hear from me again until you need something. I work across Dallas and the suburbs; if you are in Plano, Irving, Richardson or elsewhere in the metroplex, the service areas pages show how I handle each.
Questions people ask
Do you set up new business computers in Dallas without a contract?
Yes. One-time computer setup is billed by the hour with no agreement and no monthly fee: $100 per hour for remote work and $150 per hour onsite during business hours, with a one-hour minimum. A clean setup for a cloud-based office takes about an hour per computer, and batches of identical machines take less per unit.
What does a business computer setup include that I could not do myself?
Removing trial software, applying all updates, joining the computer to Microsoft 365 or your domain, creating a standard user and a separate administrator account, turning on BitLocker encryption with the key stored safely, installing business antivirus, connecting printers and shared drives, moving old data, and documenting the machine. Most owners can do some of it; the value is in doing all of it, consistently.
Do you offer business computer repair in Dallas?
Yes, on the same hourly basis. I diagnose the machine first and tell you honestly whether it is worth repairing. A business computer under about four years old with one failed part usually is; a machine too old for current Windows or with a failed motherboard usually is not. Software problems are handled remotely, hardware repair happens onsite by appointment, with parts quoted before purchase.
Can you move everything from my old computer to the new one?
Yes. If your office uses Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, email and cloud files move themselves once the person signs in. Local files, browser bookmarks, saved passwords, Outlook signatures, scanner software and application data are copied deliberately from a checklist. The old computer stays untouched for a couple of weeks in case something was missed, then I wipe it before it is retired.
Should I buy the computers first or talk to you first?
Talk first if you can. Ten minutes about models, memory, Windows Pro versus Home and docking stations prevents the most common mistakes. I work with Dell and Lenovo and can quote business-class machines with the right warranty, or you can buy on your own account and I set up whatever arrives. If they have already arrived, leave them boxed until setup.
Sources and further reading
Market price ranges in this article are my own observation of quotes in the Dallas market, not a published survey. Where I state a rule or a standard, the source is linked above.
