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Configuring a Windows PC For a Senior Citizen?
An anonymous reader writes "I would like to know if there are any resources on the Web or elsewhere describing how to configure a Windows PC for an older parent not living in the same household. Assume little computer familiarity or aptitude. Some stuff is obvious, like using only a few large icons for favorite Web sites, or an icon perhaps for composing email and another for checking email. Other considerations are eliminating nuisance messages from Windows update and antivirus/firewall. What works and what doesn't? Can anyone who has worked/volunteered at a senior center offer some insights?"
I've had the same problem with my parents for years, going back home each Christmas to reformat windows and spending the week getting the configuration back to normal. For the last 3 years they've used Ubuntu, with some problem with the printer the first few months, but now I'm just spending a few minutes pushing the "Upgrade Version" button instead of a total reformat. They can check their mail/internet and you don't have to worry about virus/firewall, win-win :)
My father has his own business with two employees - him and his wife. He wasted years of his life (and lots of money) messing about with XP. He came to me in despair one evening, he'd had enough. I told him to try a mac (linux was not very friendly 3 years ago). Now he runs his business himself with zero IT problems and he owns about 5 macs. He still has no idea how computers work, but it doesn't stop him getting the job done.
This message was scanned by European governments and contains no terrorism.
Unless you can get them to understand the basics of security(which means teaching them how to use a decent virus scanner, a firewall, something like Revo Uninstaller and maybe Process Explorer) your fighting a losing battle.
The problem will not be large icons and the magnifier set up, but keeping all the crap, malware, data farming toolbar add-ons and such off the machine. If you cannot keep this stuff off, you will be doing a serious maintenance every six months or so anyways.
With my own mother, I think alot of that crap she ends up with are from simply mis-clicking links, or possibly on notification windows. Hard to configure against stuff like that. You can no-script them to death, but then they have to know enough about it to let the safe stuff through.
I have just resigned myself to cleaning up my mothers machine once a year at the holidays.
You're doomed. Just give them your telephone number and book out 3 hours per week of your time for the rest of your life.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Make sure you give the computer with remote administration capabilities pre-setup and tested. Be prepared to be called with questions, and remote desktop can save you a LOT of time when grandma discovers popups. Or when something inevitably goes wrong.
Warning, knife is sharp. Please keep out of children.
DON'T!!!
I've done some tech support for people in my mother's building (and since then, re-affirmed my oath to NOT FUCKING do that ever again!),
You may as well surf all the virus/trojan loaded sites before you give it to them and save them the trouble.
And save yourself the trouble of having to explain why all their pictures are gone, or why they're victims of ID theft and not able to do anything about it.
Many people are going to shout "UBUNTU!!! They can just do the updates themselves."
Yeah, and then you're gonna be over there figuring out what happened when they do a version upgrade and it not just breaks, but shatters to pieces.
I got my mom a mini-mac. The only issues I've had to fix are getting an old version of photoshop running on it, and telling her that "no, you don't have to pay for Open Office, that's a donation button, like on PBS."
Disclaimers: I use ubuntu on my systems; no problems, I like it. I am not a mac fanboi. I know not every senior is technically inept; I've seen plenty who do amazing things on their systems, I've also seen some who shouldn't be allowed to own a toaster.
1) Don't make the assumption that older folks can't grasp computing concepts. You'll know their abilities better than the /. horde, but even so...
The other stuff puts the machine in a kiosk mode. It reduces the functionality of the machine, but can make remote troubleshooting easier.
2) Get their comfort level up so that they don't worry about "breaking" the machine.
3) Have some method of restoring a known state to the machine. There are even ways to do this automatically on boot. I actually did this by running Windows in a VM on a Linux host. There's plenty documentation online on the procedure.
4) Set up a non-admin account that auto-logins. Lock the desktop. Set applications to save to home directory rather than desktop.
5) Set up some remote admin capability.
KLL
My parents have never driven a car, and i plan on buying them one for christmas.
As well as never driving, they tell me they have no intention of learning but they fully intend to take it for a spin on christmas morning to go an see my brother who lives 50 miles away.
Can someone recommend me a good car to buy them? preferably one which will work for it's entire lifetime with no maintenance or refuelling, and is instantly drivable by someone who does not know how to drive?
Older people generally have either no sensitivity to malware, or are extremely oversensitive on the subject. If you can make clean re-installs easy for them you'll be doing them a great service.
I know this is not the answer you are looking for but I have to say...... install linux (and gnome). It's accessibility software is far better than windows. I once introduced an undergrad with _ very_ limited vision to linux, I turned on inverted desktop colors. His reaction was amazing, he could see screen for the first time ever. I then showed him the gnome-magnifier and kmouth. It was as if the world had changed for him. The next day he came to the office with a fully installed copy of Ubuntu (installed without any help). Personally, I don't like reading long documents and text I have written, I find kmouth an invaluable aid and would find it very hard to go back to windows or any other computer without such a tool. I know windows has some of these tools, but for linux they are so configurable (using the gui), you can arrive at a desktop which is relay suited to you and your disability.
My father had a succession of Windows boxes. Hopeless: he's not naive, having used systems back to Wordstar on CP/M in the late seventies, but they kept on getting screwed up. My mother got fed up with the email breaking, so I slung Linux (Redhat 7 or something) on an old laptop: she loved it, and nothing seemed to break. But she wanted Office to interwork with newsletters she was helping on. So, although at the time I had little to no Mac experience, I got her to buy an iBook G4. It just worked. Dad bought one. It just worked. I switched my house over later, building on their good experience. A lot of their friends are making the same switch. Windows just doesn't work unattended, or at least the effort required to make it run unattended is beyond most people.
the 1st and the most request i get from senior is: "i can't see can i get bigger words and icon?"
Something like the eeepc linux distro would be a good idea (with all that big big icon)
Easy solution. run the computer at a lower resolution. Works for all OSs and apps.
Second suggestion, use the zoom option in Compiz, or if you use Windows, use a third party add on that gives this feature.
The simplified desktop idea is ok until you start up an app, when you go right back to little writing and little icons.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
My biggest issue with a 92-year-old using Vista was how to turn off the computer. He had problems clicking on the shutdown command. I put a batch file on the desktop and got past that hurdle. Other than that, he picked up what I taught him through constant repetition. Getting a senior up to speed takes time BUT IT IS WORTH IT. Once you give a senior the chance to see the world, you've given them a new lease on life.
The responses of "Use Ubuntu instead" are not all based on fanboi-ism. Most are probably based on the fact that the question as asked is not a solvable problem. In that case, "You can't but, I've used another OS to accomplish this very thing for my parents and it's worked very well" seems like helpful advice to me.
My father is 81 and uses a Windows XP machine daily. His primary use is email, the web and some basic office stuff (writing and the occasional spreadsheet using Microsoft Works). He sometimes downloads photos from his digital camera and prints them out. My parents bought a Kodak mini photo printer just for that.
He runs as a limited user, has Firefox for the web and Thunderbird for email. I've set up a static IP and installed VNC, configuring the router to only accept incoming traffic from my external IP. We use Microsoft OneCare for AV protection and I can monitor that from my wife's Vista PC (same OneCare "circle").
I rarely have to get involved in administering his computer. Windows Update does the majority of stuff, and I have a quick look at his machine every couple of months, although I do have the VNC access for other times.
It can be done! The biggest issue for me is that his eyesight isn't brilliant and he likes to run at 800x600 on a 17" (CRT) monitor. I'd like to get him a bigger monitor so he doesn't have to scroll, but a lot of LCD monitors look bad in non-native resolutions. Any ideas?
I used a combination of the task scheduler and options within the programs to automatically update Spybot and AVG and to automatically run a scan. I set Spybot to scan on boot (this is the only annoyance I haven't figured out how to hide). They eat at noon like clockwork, so I set AVG to automatically scan then.
They use Thunderbird for email. Initially I setup Outlook Express thinking the "normal" Windows way would be easier in the end, even though I used Thunderbird myself. Nope, to many headaches. Firefox and Thunderbird appear to work great for them. I have a 19" monitor running at 1024x768 which seems to be ok, but I'm on the lookout for needing to lower the resolution or increase the text size, so far so good.
Something I have found, they love Frozen Bubble.
The only thing I have to do is from time to time do a "big" upgrade when AVG releases an update that can't be done automatically, about once a year, or clean up after a younger cousin, not after my grandparents. I used to have it locked down automatically logging in with a user rights account to keep my little cousins from screwing it up, but Lexmark made that difficult and Granny couldn't remember a password. Lexmark drivers required admin rights just to use the printer. I figured out which folders to blow wide open, but Lexmark kept finding another way to make it difficult, and of course their answer for bad driver writing was to contact Microsoft. I finally found it was easier leave the thing auto logging in as Admin (I hate that) and educating/threatening my other relatives. After 10 years of educating them they've finally stopped installing spyware on my grandparents system, and seriously slowed down installing it on their own systems.
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From a security standpoint I would repeat the advices that I given on the Network Security Blog:
- The **most** effective thing is using a "non-standard" environment. You can take a look at my post titled "Windows XP High Security Configuration". Applying the listed security measures will prevent 99.99% of the malware from running!
- don't let them run as admin!
- if possible, use Vista (again, because XP is much more widely spread, most malware currently targets XP)
- don't use mainstream programs! Use FoxitPDF reader, not Adobe Reader. Use Firefox (or Opera) instead of IE.
- Use software restriction policies to set where programs can be run from.
- Keep the PC up to date! Run Windows Update regularly and use something like the Secunia PSI to check for vulnerable software!
- Use a hosts file to block sites in combination with OpenDNS.
- Configure the firewall to block all incoming connections if possible
- Disable Autorun (http://hype-free.blogspot.com/2008/09/autorun-malware.html)
- And, lastly, just for defense in depth, use an AV. Here are my configuration guides for Avast (http://hype-free.blogspot.com/2008/10/installing-avast.html) and AVG8 (http://hype-free.blogspot.com/2008/10/installing-avg-8.html). Probably I should also do one for Avira, but last time I've tested them, they were very ad-loaded (admittedly this was several years ago).
If you use these methods, the chance of the computers getting malware is almost nil.
This is one of the areas where steering them to purchase a Mac is a good thing. Yes, an iMac may seem pricy, but with AppleCare, the relative can get questions answered at a Genius Bar or via the Apple line and not have to keep bugging you. Linux is also good, but one advantage of Macs is that the older person can ask more than just you, as a lot more people run Macs than Linux boxes. Another factor is that the older person will be keeping the machine a lot longer than the usual 2-3 years a normal PC is used.
Another advantage is that Macs run almost all popular software. Say the relative wants to watch a Flash movie or find a podcast, Macs happily do this with few issues. For word processing, iWork is easy to install and use and does most of the basics.
Security-wise, ensuring the computer is behind a hardware firewall/router will keep the port scanners off the box, and setting OS X's firewall to "Allow only essential services" will do the rest. A basic lecture of not downloading stuff from the Web and running it should minimize the chance of Trojans, perhaps coupled with a decent A/V program. Give them an account with administrative rights so they can run Software Update and you are pretty much done.
For loss of data, backups are quite easy with OS X. Plug in an external hard disk, configure Time Machine, walk away. For further protection, there is always Mozy which can back up the entire machine with unlimited storage for around $6 a month.
This is just my personal opinion, so take for what its worth, but an iMac with an external hard disk (for Time Machine), a decent hardware firewall/router, and having all these plugged into a good UPS should get an older person up and running on the Internet and greatly decrease any chance of 2am "tech support" calls.
OS X isn't perfect, but in this case of getting a user set up and as independent as possible, it might be one of the better solutions available.
will be tough but I speak from experience with a couple of nonagenerians (grandmother and great aunt) and a couple of septagenerians (aunts both) -- they will do things in Windows... things that will be difficult for you to figure out on the telephone. You need to be able to get to their desktop if you're going to have a chance at all (e.g. some flavor of VNC). The most important thing I learned during the many hours I've spent over the years supporting family members: mouse usage basically becomes a random variable with seniors as their motor control declines. So a) they have no idea where and what they clicked and b) they will frequently do things that produce inexplicable results. An example: a family member called one day to describe a gray screen covering about 90% of the display. Turned out that my grandmother had (somehow) unlocked the toolbar in Windows and dragged it all the way to the top of the screen, rendering the machine useless. Try figuring that out on the telephone. I've never found a tool that would allow me to freeze the desktop and menu items so that they didn't get scrambled... just plan on periodically having a UI puzzle on your hands. Having remote desktop access will help but the only problem there is that you may not be trusted to take remote control, i.e. privacy is an issue. Sigh. Seniors really need only a couple of apps: web, email, and Solitare. Windows is overkill and will be the pebble in your shoe.
Really, do not install Windows for your older parents. They will just get in trouble with it. Get them a Mac or some really user friendly Linux distro, like Ubuntu.
The #1 problem with Windows is not usability, but malware. As older people don't probably have any clue about security, it's best to let them use an OS, that will keep them out of trouble.
(I'm going to set it to mount / as read only to prevent this when I go there for holidays)
I don't know if thats such a good idea. I know where you're coming from, so hard power offs won't corrupt the filesystem (thanks goodness for ext3/journaling), but what if mahjong or whatever writes or wishes to write data like saves, high scores or something to the hard drive? You might crash your mom's card games like that, and even worse if some important daemon critically relies on logging or (warning: !myareaofexpertise) GNOME/X11 configurations write temporary data to the disk?
I think it would be less risky to just mount the filesystem as read-write and let journaling have its way. Fsck runs automatically in Ubuntu every $COUPLEOF mounts anyways, so in the kind of rare case you would have to reinstall, its just a card game. I also have insomnia and while I play games like Halo and whatnot, if I only played a cheesy card game like that, I wouldn't lose any sleep (haha) over losing a few high scores.
just give them a PC with no OS on it and an OpenBSD CDrom and Theo's phone number :D
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
The original question was about Windows, not mac/linux, so here's my windows answer:
1. Partition the hard disk into two parts, drive-C: should be about 20gb and the rest goes to drive-D:
2. Do a clean install.
3. Install a VNC app (or enable remote desktop).
4. Setup an application based firewall and pre-approve all applications the end-user may need.
5. Setup icons on the desktop for the most important apps (and shortcuts to important folders such as my documents/my pictures/etc...)
6. This is probably the most important, after everything is working correctly, create an image of partition-C:. Once you have an image of the OS parition if the OS starts to degrade, you always have a solid starting point that doesn't require 4 hours to install (takes about 30min to restore a 20gb image on even slower machines)
Use VNC to help remotely so that you won't have to visit for every little fix.
There are other things you can do, but this is the crux of it.
Zoom Player Lead Dev.
I'm very serious. I have parents in Canada. A PC each, Dad on Windows XP, Mum on OpenSuse Linux. Dad is always calling with problems with virus warnings, scare-ware pop-ups and hangs. A recent virus scan found over 400 suspect infections of which around 20 could be regarded as extremely undesirable. And this is with a regularly updated AVG.
The worst problem from Mum is she can't figure out how to put a picture in her newsletter or she's accidentally hidden an email folder.
Remote admin to the Linux machine is a whole lot easier and quicker with SSH than Remote Desktop.
My mother-in-law, who is only a few miles away also uses OpenSuse. I update her system ever year or so and she never has any problems.
I don't give them the root password.
It's way to easy on Windows to fool the unwary into doing something stupid.
...with all the comments about not using Windows. I know the original question was how to setup Windows but why pay to give yourself lots of extra work? If the person does not know much about computers there will be no learning curve from Windows to Linux, no need to make sure firewalls/AV are updated, even if you do use AV for Linux it can be updated silently and emails sent to the grand kid admin :)
My brother used windows for years and eventually after he phoned complaining about lots of pop up pr0n (Which he didnt mind at first....sigh) and finding over 400 occurrences of various virii I installed Ubuntu. There was the initial "Where's this/where's that" but once he got familiar with the main menu he was sorted. Now I hardly ever hear from him...
I do work occasionally for the elderly in setting up WinX computers and I regularly donate my services to various individuals.
Apart from setting up their desktops as I've detailed in a previous post http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1072163&cid=26221671
you need to install some helper apps.
Avast Antivirus can be set to automatically delete/quarantine anything it finds with no user action. AVG 8 free doesn't scan chat/webcam so stay away from that if they want to use it.
Find a good Hosts file: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm is very good.
Point their DNS to OpenDns http://www.opendns.com/ and use their filtering to stop phishing and other bad stuff. It also allows you to easily make customized error pages in case they find themselves in hot water.
I would not switch off Windows Security Centre and have updates set at a reasonable time on automatic.
Windows Media Player 11 is a must and set it to do everything.
Also, set their screensaver to My Pictures Slideshow. They really appreciate that as many have pics of grandkids etc.
Some elderly need good JPG editor. The easliest to use is Microsoft's PhotoEd which came in early versions of Office, Microsoft Office Picture Manager has now replaced it. It is much better in some regards as it can open larger jpegs, but the gui is considerably different. A bit of training helps. HP scanning software is very good as it has a decent editor inbuilt. Also Picassa 3 is my choice for a freebie.
Open up their My Pictures folder and set it up in Film Strip view and to open maximized.
IE vs Firefox: I always install Firefox and set it as default. But some apps decide to run IE, even though it is not the default. IE 6 is preferable here as it is very similar to Firefox's gui. But for security's sake, IE7 should be used and some more training required in case it pops up inadvertently. If you remove the shortcuts and pin Firefox to the Start menu, then that will be fine.
One or Two clicks?
This is a hard one. Some elderly can't do a double-click fast enough or accurately enough as they move the mouse off the icon by the time the 2nd click comes along. So you have to change the mouse timing (Control Panel/Mouse Properties/Double-Click Speed), or use the single-click approach. Try and stay away from the single click, because if they double click then most probably an editor of some description open up. This is particularly bad for pictures, especially when they are in Flimstrip mode or trying to copy and paste any other file.
The other thing is to remind them to click the icon and not the words below, or otherwise they'll start editing the filename (as Rename) instead of opening something up.
Most elderly switch things completely off. That includes monitors, speakers, modems, so check the BIOS battery every year.
They also need a checklist in turning things on. This sounds dumb, but the calls I get that the internet doesn't work because they switched their modem on last gets annoying. Switch the modem on first. By the time the modem is connected, the computer has booted and they're ready to go.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
No matter what you do to the computer, it's not enough. Take the time to write a short, concise manual (or "cheat sheet") and print it on dead tree paper, in large and clear fonts. Write in the manual basic things like how to update the system/antivirus, etc., etc.. You can always tell them what to do but you can't expect them to remember every detail well.
This is not meant to be an insult on senior people. You said these people are unfamiliar with computing and this is an approach for them to familiarize themselves with it. Human memory is unreliable, especially for unfamiliar things.
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Senior citizens really, really, don't need computers complicating their lives. It is not uncommon for my grandma to call me 3-5 times weekly on just how to work the TV remote; imagine what it would be like if she was trying to watch a "dot com." Senior citizens won't view email or web browsing as a convenience. If you want an older person to take advantage of global mass communication infrastructure, the best thing to do is get him/her a telephone with huge, easily readable buttons.
Ten "ubuntu is easier than Windows" comments later, I can't believe I am twistedly talented enough to be the only guy to break unbuntu in 5 minutes flat.
Recipe:
Begin with a nice, roasted Dapper Drake.
See flashy "Upgrade LTS to LTS - Dapper to Hardy".
Visit Synaptic & (attempt) to set repositories to Hardy.
Begin update attempt.
"You must freshen files before getting the new release".
Attempt to get new versions of existing.
"Edgy Eft is available" (No mention of Hardy.)
Clicked to get some Edgy Files.
Lights out.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
actually, in many modern linux distros, /tmp is mounted as a memory fs by default. and even if he chose to have /tmp NOT be memfs, there is nothing stopping you from mounting /tmp separately from / so that / really can be read-only.
/home from power failure, use a journaling fs...
as for protecting
Since you're talking about a senior citizen, sometimes it pays to consider their physical disabilities, too. For example, consider a large-screen TV/Monitor, if they have trouble seeing the small typefaces.
Consider using a large-keys keyboard (http://www.fentek-ind.com/bigkey.htm), if they have parkinsons, or other motor-control problems.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
When my Grandmother was 81 I bought her an iMac, so I could send her digital pictures and she could see my work. I'm a Mac user and wanted a machine I could help her with if She got confused. I ordered the iMac online and had it shipped to her. I called and said, "have the driver put it in the corner and I will set it up next week." She said ok. I got an email from her the next day. She got out the computer and set it up. Followed the simple instructions to get internet access and she was going. Let me qualify this story, my Grandmother never drove a car or had touch-tone phone service. She never used an ATM or Cable television. The main interface between her and the world was the newspaper. She lacked the mental model to understand how a computer is used and why. Apple's instructions and seductive packaging got her out of her comfort zone. She was very happy with the experience. I may be a nerd but my Grandmother was not. That's a success for an older age group.
Assuming he's running Windows and that is what they have, how about running Firefox in Kiosk mode? Is there such a thing cause I would like to do the same, I know Internet Exploder has the switch, can anyone point out the same for FF?
Get up!
"1.) /tmp is still under /, which he wants to mount read only "
See what the AC said or if you really want it is shit easy to symlink it to another partition.
"2.) And if /home were its own partition, does that necessarily make it immune to hard poweroffs?"
It means the whole system does not get hosed due to "Unnanounced poweroffs", just the latest "Mahjongg" save game or whatever. I'm sure you'll agree that this will lead to a lot less in the way of critical fuckups overall.
"You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
I've tried to explain to my mom that she's not utilizing the full power of her graphics card and that if she wants large fonts, she can adjust the font size in the display properties to be whatever she wants. I even set it up for her once. The next time I came over, it was set back to 640 X 480 because "it looks better". Apparently big blocky fonts are easier for seniors to see than big smooth fonts. Who knew?
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Some of those acres are self imposed, let's see:
a) If you're installing SP3 every time (as you should be), why are you doing it separately? You should be slipstreaming the SP3 installation into the original installation media, so no separate installation is required, it's integrated as part of the main install. This will save a significant amount of time (by your estimation, an hour), and many would argue, is cleaner as well. It'll probably even save space, as old files from the RTM/SP1/SP2 installation won't be backed up.
b) Assuming these are just everyday desktop boxes, most of the hardware should be found on Windows Update in the hardware section, this isn't a guarantee, but I've had great success with it. It of course won't be the latest available much of the time, but it will likely have been tested by Microsoft and certified, so stability is likely very high. What isn't found, manually install.
c) When copying the saved data back, the permission specific metadata will usually (I add the qualifier for specific cases that no doubt exist) automatically change to match the logged on user doing the copying. If they don't, change them? You say you should be able to change the UID, by UID, I assume you mean either the owner or the permissions. You can change the owner and permissions of all files and folders in a directory recursively through the permissions GUI in Explorer, or do it by the command line: takeown.exe for fiddling with ownership, cacls.exe for ACL's (icacls.exe is preferred in Vista). You have _BOTH_ a GUI and CLI frontend to make the changes you desire, so what's the problem?
Finally, some of your estimations seem a little "padded", I've done a ridiculous amount of XP installations, and THREE HOURS?! What are you installing it on? You'd be hard pushed to find 2001 era hardware from the original XP release that took anywhere near that long. In my experience, 1.5hrs is usually the upper bound, with 30minutes the lower bound.
Bluntly, this comes down to competence; a competent technician knows the tricks to accomplish his objective efficiently and save time, just like a efficient Linux/Unix admin will save time with his tricks of the trade. The above three recommendations, _especially_ the first of slipstreaming the service pack is ridiculously basic. If you aren't doing this, I wonder what else you are doing wrong that isn't in your account.
I'm not even going into the whole registry, security, out of control dev's of your last paragraph. It'd take forever, and is just a random selection/rant of Windows issues that are frequently not issues and just poorly understood and managed.
I am a senior citizen and have configure several PC's for my fellow seniors. The thing to do is have a fellow senior experienced with PC's configure it for them. I configure PCLOS or UBUNTU for them. Then explain how to use it. Usually that involves setting up email, setting up Kopete or pidgen, OpenOffice and firefox. The I show them how to contact me with Kopete. Most seniors are more comfortable with other seniors.
Oh God I used to dread my "holidays" down at my parents place, fixing up all the problems with Windows (starting at 3.11 and ending at 2000). Then I installed RedHat with a "Redmond" theme and...no phone calls, no teeth gnashing, no drama, no tears...heaven! Since then, only a few minor niggles when the ISP changes. And an change a few years later to Ubuntu when RedHat went all Gates on me. Oh, and one major niggle when a local IT "guru" reformatted the drive for my mum and reinstalled windows because "you can only access the internet with windows".
He has since been run over by a truck. How is that for karma?
P.S. I do not have a truck licence.
Try installing Windows SteadyState. A reboot will fix the PC every time. :)
I've set up a number of PCs for family members of the years. I'll talk about the XP/Vista/2000 side of the house, I've done Linux before but about 100 people already posted ahead of me :)
Some hints:
1. Install the OS on one drive, or partition and then the very first thing you want to do is point the users's profile (My Documents, etc.) at another partition or drive. We'll get to that later.
2. The "blob" theory. I've learned in over a decade of working support that the average users has blobs. They have an "e-mail blob" a "web blob", a "get my iPod synched" blob. They don't care what the blob is called, they just know it does some mystical thing that lets them get to want they want. So make sure those blobs are in an easy to find place :)
3. Replace IE with Firefox/Opera/Chrome/Your choice. 99% malware is dealt with this way. Install AdBlock Plus or equivelent. replace Firefox's icon with the IE icon if your user is particularly stupid. Remove all shortcuts to IE.
4. Set up automatic updates for the Windows crap and the anti-virus. Set it to go off at some point when you know they'll be using it. Most people turn their PCs off so having automatic updates happen in the middle of the night is a waste of time. Spend several patient minutes teaching them to pay attention to that little yellow shield and obey it when it appears. :)
5. Install TightVNC, or DameWare, or subscribe to Webex, or some other way that you can remotely control it with. Install a blob on the desktop that'll tell them their IP. Punch a hole in the firewall to allow access. Webex has saved my parent's PC (they live 4,000 miles away) on dozens of occasions.
6. Don't let them install ANYTHING without contacting you first. Preferably have them call you and let you do it. It's amazing how much crap users put on their PCs on a whim.
7. Now you done that, Ghost the system partition. They're going to have it broken in a month or two and you're going to want to quickly reinstall it. That's why we put their profile on a separate drive or partition.
So what you're saying is you're like Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness. Seems like a lot of work to protect a few people, but it is entertaining. :-]
From what you've written, I'm assuming you're a Windows admin professionally. The solution you've found fits well in that light. But for the people out there that aren't Windows admins, there are much easier ways to get to a satisfactory result.
Have you tried Kubuntu? Most of the functionality you mentioned would already be installed and configured correctly, and the package manager makes installing new apps and updating old ones a breeze. You've also got a lot more flexibility for writing custom backup scripts and such.
I feel like I should speak to this as extensively as I can, since I'm self-employed as a tech support guy, and around 95 percent of my 250+ clients are seniors.
The suggestion about using Ubuntu is a good one, but Ubuntu may not be going far enough in the direction of ease-of-use. I'm surprised more people don't seem to be aware of Linux Mint, which removes the hassle of installing video codecs and browser plugins, so the setup process for a basic user is two steps - 1. Install the OS, and 2. Install Acrobat Reader and the browser plugin for it. This takes around half an hour, and then you're done, and Mint 6 is based on Ubuntu Intrepid anyway, but the menu is a bit slicker (imho), and the artwork more polished.
Putting icons on the desktop for the browser and the email program, and also the word processor, is essential, of course. Ubuntu or Mint is a great Windows replacement for nearly any beginning or advanced user - it's normally only intermediate users who want to install lots of random crap from the internet who might get upset when they can't under Wine. In my experience, most seniors fall into the "basic user" category anyway, so they won't really notice a difference between Windows and Ubuntu unless they're already dependent on AOL 9.
With seniors, the most important thing is to be not just patient but reassuring. Many seniors have a mental block against technology, but if you patiently reassure them that yes, they really can figure it out if they just read everything on the screen and use logic, eventually they'll believe you and try. This can be time consuming at first, but in the long run it will save you a great deal of time as they start to become self-sufficient. It's a natural human tendency in most people to bug someone else if you think you can get away with it, rather than trying to fix your problems yourself - training that out of a person can be tricky, but is ultimately very beneficial for both you and your time.
Wipe the drive clean and install Slackware. Let them do their own configuration. No need to coddle them. They'll learn quicker that way.
Never liked granny that much anyway.
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I would recommend creating a custom XP install disc using nLite. With nLite you can pick and choose which components of Windows you want to be installed. You can also add patches, service packs, drivers, accessibility options, and custom programs to be included in the DVD like Firefox and AVG.
This is what I've done for my grandmother. After creating a disk that comes with all the software she'll need, all the drivers, I've got a restore disk that I can just throw in the drive if it ever needs a reformat, and it's an unattended install.
I keep a copy of the nLite image I used for her on my local machine, so for this christmas, I'll load it back up with some updated patches, and throw it in her DVD drive when I get there (after backing her bookmarks up on a USB drive of course).
nLite has a learning curve, but it is small. I would recommend trying a VPC install once or twice before getting your disc "set".
Apparently big blocky fonts are easier for seniors to see than big smooth fonts.
Not necessarily; it's not that simple. As an old guy with crappy eyes, I can tell you. Your Mom is not dumb, and probably has a good esthetic sense. Anything more than a very minor amount of font scaling in Windows just looks ugly and stupid. The scaling is not entirely consistent, and does not apply at all to other graphical elements. Caveat: I haven't tried Vista, but I don't consider that a viable choice for other reasons.
The bitmaps don't scale, which is understandable but results in real problems. Less forgivable is the fact that things like scrollbars and title bars don't scale. You end up with things like a ludicrously tiny scroll bar with elements you can barely hit with a mouse, and ludicrously thin title bar within which the system is trying to display nice large text which won't fit.
Dialog boxes become an insuperable problem. The nice large text gets clipped by the stupid box, or by the size of the text design element within the box.
Try setting up XP with readable text on a 15.4" 1920x1200 display sometime.
By design, Windows is not truly display independent or size preference adaptable. It never claimed to be, really.
So many comments and nobody thinks this was satire? Not one single funny mod? I was laughing through the entire post and can't imagine the parent was serious. I could be wrong, but this reads like a geek version of an SNL skit.
Programmers in mirror are brighter than they appear
XP:
I was supporting a friend's parents' machine for about 4 years a while ago. Initially I loaded XP for them, using Eudora as mail client and IE as the browser. The problems I had with this was that they would get a virus about once a month... and they did try to be careful. I eventually tried some anti-virus applications (extra cost!) but this only got them more confused and slowed down their machine. From a UI point of view it was pretty good. Also it supported multi-users quite well. After the 2nd crash (machine not shut down correctly, etc) the registry hive file was totally trashed this time and not even a restore from any of the two backup files helped, I decided to take the plunge and give them Linux.
Linux:
I picked Xandros here (at the time it was the most user friendly) I personally used Suse, Debian, RedHat and Mandrake (so I know my GNU/Linux). It all went well for some time. At least the machine did not crash and we had zero virus problems. Alas however, the multi-user switching was slow and clunky, and the file permissions (they wanted to share some stuff between the mom and dad) was a royal pain (it was workable, I know how to set up s-bits etc, but it was still a pain). Then there was the problem that the dad's favorite windows Golf game (although it worked), did not work well, but this is not really a big issue. Another issue was that the word processor (OpenOffice) had a very limited clipart selection, and the mail application was not as cool. And lastly, a MAJOR problem was the lack of a system-wide way of setting the default font's larger... every, single, application, had a different way of setting this, and some application you just could not change certain font sizes... even when setting the DPI under X11 differently did not have the desired effect... it was just terrible! One thing I have to say... they DID need my help much less, and was happier with it than with windows! lol
(Using Firefox and Thunderbird)
Mac Mini
Then I bought myself a tiny Macbook G3... and I was SO impressed with it. It did it ALL perfectly. (Even had a nice Golf Game! lol). Clipart, good UI, good fast user switching, snappy, nice apps, good font visibility. It had it all. But unlike the other solutions it came at a price. But considering they insisted on paying me a small amount (they felt they needed to do this to ensure my continued help and dedication... lol!) this was not really such a big issue. That was about 3 years ago now...
(Using Firefox and Mail.app)
So:
So in conclusion, XP for 1 year... Linux for another, and the rest Mac.
For myself I stick with all 3 variants at home. But I will never recommend Linux or XP to any elderly person or computer-Luddite. A Mac works like an appliance. you don't even know it's there. The thing I have to add is that old does not imply they are incapable. They just don't see the need to struggle with equipment. They actually tought me a thing or two about Linux and Windows. :P
Clean XP/Vista Load,
Setup your admin account
Get printers/office/drivers updates ect
Install your fav winvnc software (ultra vnc, gotomypc ect)
Test machine, ect
Install Windows SteadyState >>> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx
create new user account for user
setup account walk user though account, save settings
use Windows SteadyState to lock down new account
make ghost/XML drive image(s) of machine
your done!
this is also great for Hotels and Public Terminals!!!
My in-laws are not good with PCs. My mother is. They're all in their mid to late 60s.
The difference is that my mother worked in an office environment for 2 decades, where developing PC skills were essential. My mother-in-law is a nurse and my father-in-law (now retired) was a book keeper. It's not that they're unintelligent, it's just that their jobs never had them develop those skills. Now, in their retirement years, my in-laws just don't have much interest in learning PC skills.
Still, they have picked up all of the basics--Word editing, web surfing, Outlook e-mail, and even Yahoo IM chatting.
I really think they could do everything on their own, but they have PC-savvy children and in-laws that they can pursuade to do it for them. I'd say that's intelligent.