You want a second set of eyes on your computers. What does a Second Opinion look at?
You chose your IT provider, the reports they send describe the work they do, and for most companies that arrangement runs well. A Second Opinion is a different kind of document. It describes the computers as they are on the day we look, and it is written by someone who is not doing the work.
That difference is the reason to ask for one. It is also the reason this page is specific about what it covers and what it does not.
What it is, and how many computers
A Second Opinion is a review done by us. It covers up to 100 computers, with servers counted in that number. Over 100, ask us. Mac, Windows, and Linux computers count the same way.
It produces one report for the owner, with what we found, counted and dated, and what to consider next.
What we look at on each computer
- The software installed, checked against several public vulnerability, exploitation, and end-of-life sources, plus known-malware hash lists.
- Whether a restart is waiting on a computer, and whether updates failed to install.
- Programs that send files to outside services, such as file sync and file transfer. We report what is installed. We do not judge whether anyone should have installed it.
- Reports may show fewer checks on one computer than another, and the report says which. We do not claim every check runs on every computer.
What it does not look at
- Inside mailboxes. A review of computers cannot read mail, so it cannot tell you whether a forwarding rule exists in an account.
- Whether sign-in approval is required for email, remote access, or cloud administrators. Signals we read on a computer describe that computer’s sign-in, not the company’s rules.
- Browser-based tools. Anything a person uses only in a web browser is outside an installed-software review.
- Whether a person or an account was misused. A Second Opinion measures the state of the computers. It does not investigate an incident.
It is always yours to fix
We measure and report, and we do not make the changes. The report goes to you, and the work goes to whoever you choose: your IT provider, your own staff, or us under a separate agreement. That separation is part of the value of a second set of eyes. The people who review the computers are not the people who run them.
If your provider does the repair, the next review shows it, dated. If a finding stays, the next review shows that too.
What happens the next time
The first review takes the most of our time because every computer is new to us. On later runs we spend our review time on what changed: new programs, new computers, updates that landed or failed, and anything that was on the last report. A second report is shorter to read for the same reason.
This is a statement about where our attention goes. It is not a statement that unchanged computers are skipped.
What a clean report covers, and the decision
A report with few findings covers what we examined, on the date we examined it. Software past the end of its support date is one example of what we count and date: Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. CISA’s catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities is one public source we use to tell which findings matter first.
A person reads the result before it reaches you.
Three things help you decide. How many computers and servers you have, because up to 100 is the range this covers. Whether anyone outside your IT provider has looked at the computers in the last year. And who in your company would read the report and decide what happens next.
The decision is whether you want a measurement from someone who is not doing the work. If your provider is doing the work well, the report shows it, with dates.
Ask your provider, too, how a Second Opinion would reach them. A report is most useful when the person who does the work reads the findings the same week the owner does.
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Written by Craig Peterson, 35+ years successfully running IT and security for businesses. Last reviewed October 27, 2026.