The Older Generation

[MatthewL]

I currently help support a few people with their home computers and I have an elderly lady in her late 70's that is signing up for all sorts of stuff and getting herself in a right pickle at times. It can be very frustrating but is there anything I can do to help do you think?

 

She had no family so is kind of left to her her own devices to sort things, don't get me wrong she is quite capable and aware but when it comes to things online and even cold callers at the door she can often sign up to probably not the best thing and I have a good feeling she may have lost some great sums of money.

 

She managed to change all her internet/tv packages from Virgin to BT ok to save herself some money without any help but I am just a little concerned. She is not the easiest of people to talk to so sometimes I just leave her to get on with it and say something if its really bad. I don't want to get too involved with it, I just gained her as a customer from someone else and could not really say no. I get called every few months to issues like tonight, most of the time I just LogMeIn to her PC and fix it.

 

Have rebuilt the PC a few times where it has been riddled and now have an image of it but that is getting less and less, is there anyone I can put her in touch with?

 

She also has a habit of signing up for these gambling things where she thinks she can make a bit of money and it all seems to go wrong. Any help on this would be appreciated.

[CyberNerd]

Install Linux. It works great for non expert users and doesn't suffer from half the crapware that infests windows.

[witch]

Can you stop her being able to download stuff? Or stop her running exes?

[elsiegee40]

Is there any sign of family around? Her children would be very afraid of this.

[MatthewL]

She is quite happy using XP, currently the account is a local administrator, very tempted to make this a normal user to help some of these issues.

 

Although never probed I don't think she every married as she is a Miss. She is a competent user but gets led astray a little with what she gets on email and looks for.

 

The only relation I know she has lives in Jamaica as she went there last year when her sister was ill. I just have a few concerns but nothing that panic's me, at the end of the day what she does is her own business and I am there to just fix a PC but just want to help educate her about things but not sure how. If she had family I would rather it come from them, I don't want to be seen to interfere but I am just a little concerned if you get my drift.

 

Suppose its a unique situation really just not sure what to do.

[CyberNerd]

If your worried about her, speak to age concern: 0800 169 6565

[Arthur]

Install Linux. It works great for non expert users and doesn't suffer from half the crapware that infests windows.

^ This (or get her to buy a ChromeBook or ChromeBox to replace the XP PC).

 

Even if you create a non-admin account in XP it will get trashed in no time if she clicks on random links in e-mails/web pages or visits a compromised website (even more likely if she doesn't keep Flash Player and/or Java updated!!! ).

Edited February 14, 2013 by Arthur

[MatthewL]

If your worried about her, speak to age concern: 0800 169 6565

 

Thanks for that, will give them a bell and see what they recommend.

 

Not fussed about the machine getting trashed that can get fixed its just the other issues.

 

Thanks for the replies all, will speak to Age Concern and see what they think.

[flyinghaggis]

Would suggesting she get an iPad (or a tablet) be safer than using a Windows based PC?

 

Less to go wrong and less chance of being scammed?

[MatthewL]

She is ok sticking with her pc just needs to learn to not believe everything she reads is good. What ever she had she would still sign up for it.

[SPM]

I gave my dad who is now 85 a Linux EeePC netbook about 5 years ago. He still uses it, and shuns the new Windows laptop my brother got for him last year. It has a reset to factory settings feature, so pretty well nothing can mess it up. The only downside is that recently his eyesight has been getting worse.

[Arthur]

shuns the new Windows laptop my brother got for him last year.

Install Windows 8 on it.

 

Metro apps typically have larger text making them easier to see and there's a factory reset option too.