This post is going to be filled to the brim (and overflowing) with obviousness, so first let me don my captain obvious costume…
There, that’s better. Not it’s time to rant about one of my biggest pet peeves since I graduated college: why oh why oh why does everyone of my friends, family members, friends of friends, and acquaintances have to think that the profession “Software Engineer” means “Computer Repairman”!? You know what I’m talking about, you know you’ve been a victim of it… you go visit your family for the holidays, the neighbor drops by to chat, complains about their computer being slow… and a family member proclaims “James is in computers, you should have him take a look at it!”
Not that it hasn’t led to minor amusement in the past. In college I remember a colleague of mine asked “Hey Jimmy, my PC has been pretty slow… if I bring it by and give you some beer, could you make it faster and install windows XP on it?” I replied sure… yet to my surprise the machine he brought over was a 266Mhz Pentium 2 with 512mb of RAM. Even more amusing, I have a friend with a newly received PhD in Computer Science… and he gets the old “You’re in computers… can you fix my printer” line too! 
I guess it just annoys me that people assume my hard work to get my degree and my hard work to improve my skills as a software engineer equates to a job that I could have done in 8th grade. Although I don’t mind helping a friend or family member out, I rather hate dealing with the problem some people wind up having with tons of spyware, malware, and trojans they have on their machine. I have better things to do than spend the day unraveling a clusterfuck because someone decided to visit untrustworthy sites, download anti-virus software from “this site that said I have viruses” or, the worst I had seen.. downloaded Norton Anti-Virus off of bittorrent. 
Get clue folks… we’re software engineers. We write code for a living, we develop software. Some of us went to school or studied very hard to get where we are today. We didn’t take courses in “Installing Free Anti-Virus”, “Speeding Up Computers” or “Hooking Up Printers.” I will take requests like “Could you build me a killer website?” or “Could you build me an application to manage automatic payments” for a good price… however, I will not help you fix your printer, hook up to the internet through your decade old modem, or “make your computer faster”, those are jobs your 8 year old nephew you can do for you.
It isn’t just software engineers. And I get it hourly. And unfortunately fixing everyone’s computer IS part of my job.
Your post made me smile so thanks! As a fellow developer I know the feeling.
Asking me how to open a docx file on your PC (I’m a Mac user to boot, I hate Windows) is like asking a brain surgeon to sharpen your kitchen knives or asking Lewis Hamilton to clean your car! Just Google it you lazy retard!
I’m now referring people to http://letmegooglethatforyou.com for all their computer related enquiries.
So just tell them to spend the equivilant time doing yard work for you or something, since your time isn’t valuable to them. Oh, make them pay in advance too.
I have been in that position many times
It’s not that they think a Software Engineer / Computer Scientist is the same as a computer repairman, but that they know you know more about computers than them.
It makes sense. If they don’t know what to do, the chances are greater that you know what to do.
That’s why i have no friend and never visit my family.
@SoftwareEngineer yep, that is true.
Reminds me of the (classic) oldie but goodie, The Tech Support Generation: http://www.newsweek.com/id/55444
Thankfully I have a brother-in-law that actually is part of a PC support team so I can easily defer.
And with my wife’s family, I just made them all buy Macs so I don’t really have to do anything on that front either. 
Oh, man, I feel your pain. I envy guys like you for the work you really put in, and the things that you really can do that I only dream about. (That’s true – I am a frustrated pseudo-mathematician).
I also can empathize from real life. I am a semi-retired professional magician. I do sophisticated sleight-of-hand and high-end mental magic, which I practiced till my fingers bled and frontal lobes ached, yet I still get, “My son is five and just loves magic – will you teach him a trick?”
I try to remember that they mean no harm by it, and it’s a form of flattery. But I still want to choke them!