The Spinning Donut

Helping People Use Technology

5 Tools You Must Have to Take Care of Mom’s Computer

By 81 Comments

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!!   🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. 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.

  3. Hey Bill,

    thanks for sharing the must have tools. my parents already know their way on the internet. pay bills, look for cooking recipes, play poker, etc.

    is there any software or commands on the PC to shut it down at a desired time and only can be switched on also at a desired time and it’s password protected?

    i’d like to experiment it on my dad’s PC. he’s a facebook & online poker addict. would love to see him sleep earlier on his working nights. or i’m just gonna have to confiscate his machine. LOL!

  8. I love the post. I implemented some of your advice in my Mom’s Computer. Thanks for sharing this information.

    Josefina – Viva Mexico!

  11. This is perfect information, my mom is now 67 years old and insists on using the computer. I need all the help I can get in keeping her computer running smoothly!!

  12. @All:

    Thanks for stoppin’ by.

    I was just talking to my mother-in-law and she couldn’t figure out how to maximize a firefox window. Some how she made a little square firefox window about an inch in diameter. She didn’t know how to maximize or restore the window. I used LogMeIn and it took two seconds to fix. Tried to explain it to her in less than a minute but I don’t think she really wants to remember what to do. 🙂

    Later!!

  14. I think a good addition to the list will be Anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and few fine tune programs that can help improve the PC performance.

  16. I like this information. Mom’s computer is always messed up. LOL. I’m going to look into these tools they might be easy enough to use for her if not for me to keep her computer running with some of the tools at the least. thanks.

  17. Great post. However, anyone have tips about how to get mom to actually start using a computer? The rest of the family communicates via facebook, and I know she would like to be in the loop. However, I just can’t convince her to get one.

  23. Some spyware add on too plus a sw firewall.

    Always show the user how to scan and browse safely, ie non admin accounts and sandboxing.

  33. A great find! This has been very informative and I even tried some of the tips to our computer and I’m glad I did because it worked!

  34. 1.)Automatically Shutdown Their PC
    2.)Remote Control Software
    3.)Backup, Sync and Share
    This three take Care of Mom’s Computer which is very useful for my mom. I want to see these tools, they may be very easy to use

  36. Nice profile. What measurement was used to determine the top 5? Regardless, I’d also mention Xcode for the OSX users and KDevelop for KDE. Visual Studio gets my vote though. I’d happily switch to another IDE, but MS is way out in front of everyone else in the full-featured IDE game. For some things, Eclipse comes close.

  37. I never used my firefox for about 3 months I think. I actually hate the fact that it always crashes. Though it saved all the sites I’m currently browsing, I eat up most of the time going back to the site again. I really don’t know the reason behind this crash.

  39. Backup is the most important tool we need for home users, because we dont know most of the when our PC crashes. I lost my data recently becuse of the problem. Thanks for listing this 5 tools ,Hope it helps every users a lot

    James

  41. Using a couple of the above…love Dropbox…it’s been massivly helpful. Wanted to mention TeamViewer as well. Free option has saved me several trips…let you see what they see. Helpful!

  43. Luckily, my mom does not use a computer so I never have to take care of it. she is a bit old and never been into tech stuff.

  46. I’d add an instant chatting software like Yahoo Messenger or Windows Messenger so she can contact you every time she gets a new virus when she clicks the “you won 200000$” annoying banners on the online games websites 🙂

  47. @Mike Ramsey@excessive sweating: Assuming she can even run a messaging tool after getting a virus. I’ve got her set up pretty good so that hasn’t happened yet (cross fingers). Thanks for stoppin’ by.

  48. @Bill: True, is very likely that she can’t run such a program if she gets a really ugly virus. My mom had lots of trojans and viruses on her laptop but I never had the time to take a look so I just formatted the HDD 🙂

  49. I think the most important is the Virus Update and the back up just in case anti virus can’t control the infected computer. This will keep all your mom’s file on her desktop computer.

  50. Firefox seems to be a default browser for those who aren’t really into complicated stuff while browsing the net. My aunt uses that, though.

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