Today is Thanksgiving 2009 and some folks celebrate at mom’s house. Many people support their parents or siblings computers and today is a day to take the time and update, enhance and in general make YOUR life easier when you have to provide support.
So here are 5 things you can do to provide quick and easy support to your loved ones and hopefully they’ll be extra thankful today for your generosity. 
1. Firefox
If you haven’t already installed Firefox on their computer, do so. In general, it’s a bit quicker, a bit more secure and renders web pages in a more standard way. Plus, most likely your family member’s computer is an older one. Firefox can load quicker than most browsers on older computers. Make sure you provide shortcuts to their top 3 or more favorite sites on the desktop.
2. Virus Update
If their computer already has virus protection, make sure it’s up to date. If they don’t have virus protection and its a Windows computer, download and install the freely available Microsoft Security Essentials. Make sure you set it up to do a daily Quick Scan. You can do the scan when your family member sleeps and then…
3. Automatically Shutdown Their PC
You can pick between any of my articles on How To Shut Down Your Windows XP Computer, or How To Automatically Shut Down Your Windows Vista Computer, or How To Automatically Shut Down Your Windows 7 Computer .
Now, depending on what Anti-Virus software you’re running, that software might include an automatic shut down as well, after a virus scan. So go for a scan when they’re sleeping and then auto-shutdown the computer. A computer that’s turned off is a safer computer.
4. Remote Control Software
Don’t ya’ just love those late night calls or in some cases every night calls? Ease the pain by installing remote control software on your relative’s computer.
I prefer LogMeIn Free. But, I’ve also used Copilot. Copilot is one of the best and quickest ways to connect to someone. However, you only get 2minutes free. If it’s someone you support occasionally, CoPilot also offers a Day Pass for $5.00 that gives you 24 hours of support. The Copilot Day Pass has worked wonderfully for me.
5. Backup, Sync and Share
While working on Mom’s computer, you might need to transfer files or keep a quick backup of necessary tools, documents, etc. For that, I use Dropbox. With 2GB of online storage for free, Dropbox is incredibly fast and a secure way to backup, sync or share files that you might need while supporting computers.
There’s plenty more tips, tricks and techniques I will share in future articles, so make sure you subscribe. Happy Thanksgiving!!
Photo Credit: kevinspencer
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome tools! Subscribing your feed right away
Btw, have you tried any of GotoAssist or Webex?
You hit the nail on the head with both the virus protection and the remote control software. First, I constantly find that my parents cannot detect the difference between a harmless pop-up and one that’s full of nasty things; virus protection has saved me tons of time. Second, adequately understanding what in the world they’re talking about when trying to diagnosing a problem is near impossible. It just helps to see what’s going on in order to fix the problem right away.
I’m new to your blog and would say its an informative one. These tips are really amazing. I’ll keep in touch to get more of such stuffs.
Thanks for sharing this information.
Very true. a computer should have those things even is your moms or other person. When you skip this issues may aquire fast windows reinstal.
when mom it’s using you have to keep very safe the pc. !
Thank you for these amazing tips. Its true we need to protect ourselves and our computers. I use firefox too because it has great add ons and plugins. I guess I’d have to check on Microsoft Security Essentials for virus protection.