Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: How Best To Set Up a Parent's PC?
CodingHero writes "My mother uses a recent enough PC running Windows XP and has a broadband connection, but her primary method of interacting with the online world remains the AOL software. She also likes to download and use various seasonal wallpapers, screensavers, etc. Usually all this works fine and I don't get family tech support calls, but occasionally something big goes wrong. Since she lives 400 miles away, that means I get to provide phone tech support. While I can usually get something fixed through simple instructions, sometimes it's just too complicated to properly diagnose and explain over the phone (e.g., a trojan infection that anti-virus won't get rid of on its own). I'd like to set up the system so that her account is not an Administrator and that I can easily (and securely) remotely connect to fix problems, install stuff she really wants to use (after proper vetting of course), and so on. Moving to Linux or a Mac is not an option. Upgrading the system to Windows 7 and breaking the AOL habit, while seemingly the best course of action, is going to mean a lot of my time up front to explain how to do things all over again, time that I don't have a lot of right now. Has anyone else had a similar experience? If so, what did you find was the best way to re-educate a parent and/or set up a method to securely and remotely manage a system, or at least lock it down to better protect it?"
Get her one.
Walking a parent through steps over the phone can be a frustrating experience. Even after moving my father to a Mac I still found myself having to deal with his issues for the first couple of months on a near-daily basis. Using TeamViewer helped this immeasurably. Free for personal use.
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
"Recent enough PC running Windows XP."
Walk away. Just walk away.
"My mother uses a recent enough PC running Windows XP and .. Moving to Linux or a Mac is not an option"
Why are you asking here and not on a Windows forum?
AccountKiller
Don't.
I use it to for family "IT" support too. Works great. Logmein is another good option.
Walk away. Just walk away.
I've done this. Set your parent up in XP with a non-admin account. Ensure you can have her sign in as admin when necessary. Worst case, she signs in as admin and there's a big icon on the desktop (make the background color red or something to make ti really obvious) for running joinme session, and nothing else. On her default desktop, all the usual icons (as well as joinme). I also set up FIrefox w/ adblock, and the PC has been virtually problem free. Only had to walk through setting up a new printer.
logmein.com/
If you're willing to move her to Win7 and away from AOL software, why not just move her to Linux? The best thing I did for my parent's computer (they are 6000 miles away) is to replace their WinXP computer with one that runs Linux that's configured to open a web browser immediately upon startup - no login required.
The computer also ssh'es to my public server and opens a tunnel back to their computer so I can connect via VNC if needed.
When they got a new camera, I was able to remotely set up a script so If they plug in a memory card from their camera, it copies the images from the card automatically and uploads to an online photo album.
This covers 100% of what they use a computer for, and completely eliminated their recurring virus infections.
All right, typo, TEAMVIEWER
1. Install logmein (logmein.com) - the free edition is just fine.
2. Make your mom a standard user. Non-administrator.
3. Create an "Admin" account. Do NOT tell her the password.
It's working so far for my mother-in-law. Her old computer was so badly infested that I just gave up and gave her one of my spares. (She had no reload media.)
Now, even with her teen grandson surfing porn (yes, I caught him at it, yes, we had a long talk about it but I doubt he's stopped) it seems to be clean.
She has Windows 7. Maybe it won't work as well with XP.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
If the machine gets infected, then have her restore from the clonezilla partition and she is back to where she was. For added fun, you could teach her how to make subsequent backups.
I had a similar situation with my mother. I bought her a generic HP laptop from Walmart with Win7 for ~$400. Installed LogMeIn and I can access whenever I want to maintain.
Really, my Mum has Linux now. Firefox and Chrome look just the same as on Windows. 1200 km away in a different country but it's reliable this way.
Copilot is free on weekends.
https://www.copilot.com/
I know you said it's not an option.
But I converted my brother and a friend to Ubuntu. Both extremely reluctant to move. So I saved their old Windows hard drive, told them they'd never have to worry about a virus again, and that I would help them figure out anything they didn't understand. It's been a resounding success. Support calls have dropped from several per month to one every six months.
"downloading seasonal wallpapers and screensavers"
I can't think of a quicker way to get my Windows system infected. Seriously, if you're going to break the AOL habit, move her to an iPad or Linux. You won't regret it. Actually, you owe it to her and yourself.
they have a free version for home use, simple interface and nothing has to be initiated by her after the initial install. i use it with my mom who can't teach honors calculus but can't figure out changing desktop icons
Use them, and apply them to her user account.
Moving to Linux or a Mac is not an option.
Because you don't know how to use Linux or Mac OS?
Or because your mother's need to look at seasonal wallpaper and screensavers is more important than tens of hours of your time every year and more important than keeping her e-mail and other credentials secure?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=remove+local+admin+rights+for+local+user+in+xp
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=vnc+for+xp
going to 7 is not that much different than MAC or Linux for a user the way you described.
I went through the same thing with my mom back when vista came up.
Mover her over to ubuntu. today she does not want to touch a Windows PC because they "break" to easily.
Created a non-admin user for her. Log in about once a month through SSH to update. Every now on them I VNC into her desktop to help her out. It did help that she was on Open Source software for a while before moving from XP to Linux. to create her presentations and documents for her voluntary work.
My mother in law went into a much different direction, as she pretty much only consumes content, she got an IPAD and has been happy ever since. In fact to this day, she only gets new apps on the IPAD (now on a retina IPAD2) when she visits us, we we visit them.
The interesting thing, both of them are is over 4K miles away from me in South america. the worst I have to ever do was recreate her user in an older computer back in 2010, and walk my mother in law to reset and restore the ipad from icloud.
The key for both of them, they were not married to an app or OS, they just wanted to do specific tasks..
Break the bad habits that are holding her back such as AOL. Next time you see her educate her. Show her the internet works without aol (I suggest chrome since it has flash and auto updates). This way you can move on from win XP. Where you go from there is up to you. IF she is just doing email, it sounds like a perfect solution fro a Chrome book. Logmein Free works pretty good for remote support. You can get in whenevery you need to run updates.
for a lifetime of stress.
Send her a map to her local BestBuy and make it the Geek Squad's problem. Or tell her to get with the program and modernize so that you stand a chance.
What you are asking is similar to asking how maintain a car when you've taken most of the tools out of the toolbox.
You can set it up to run as a service and it is free for personal use.
Don't.
Have her buy something from Best Buy or wherever, and direct her to ask them for support.
Seriously, why do you want to be her 24/7 tech support? DON'T DO IT!
I was going to suggest the same, but then I thought 'he might actually like his mother'.
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
I face the same problem with my parents computer until the day i installed Team Viewer on my parent's computer. It makes things a lot easier now since I just have to tell them to turn on the computer (the application runs on startup) and then I take care of it from there.
Team Viewer works well for me.
Shame Linux isn't a option. Not only can my father not deal with an English only user interface, he has no sense of online security at all. So I installed Ubuntu with Chinese on a second hand P4 for his email and web-browsing habit. There is very little maintenance on my part because he doesn't do much of anything else. Occasionally I will go in and delete the unexecutable crap that gets downloaded unintentionally, but that's it. That was more than 3 years ago. Haven't had a serious problem yet. Haven't looked back since.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Use them, and apply them to her account.
LogMeIn or TeamViewer for remote support (don't leave RDP open to the outside).
I'll glady be my parents' tech support for as long as they live. Why? Because they were my complete life support for about the first 16 years of my life, setting me up with the opportunities to learn skills I need to make triple my parents' income doing "tech support" for nameless faceless companies like Best Buy. No way in hell am I going to tolerate my own mother to drudge her way through tech support at places like that.
Ultra VNC can be run as reverse vnc and will even build a little self-contained executable that is preconfigured. Install the remote on her end and all she will need to do is doubleclick. You can point it at a ddns resolver if you don't have a static IP. There is also the old school remote assistant built into windows which works ok. That said, I would suggest moving her from xp to windows 7. It is much more secure and you can change most things to "classic" mode to make them look XP like to make learning easier. You can also install a router capable of running clamav or some sort of scanning to check those incoming wallpaper executables etc. for trojans and that might make life a little easier. Oh, and if hardware upgrades are ever on the map, consider a mirrored raid. Harddrives for home use are cheap and most motherboards support raid1 nowadays, so considering how few people actually make backups this might be a lifesaver for her and one less headache for you too. It won't protect from everything a good backup will, but it will save her from a sudden disk failure and the built in backup on windows 7 is sufficient for many home users.
Get a web developer
Setup her system with windows xp with steadystate. When she wants to make changes once a month come in as admin and make the changes to the system. But remember it is dangerous to have your parents on the internet. Do your best to Keep your parents off the internet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9R-2X9Bl5w
you want her to be able to install without occasional trickery and not have admin? and you think malware cares about her not running as admin?
setup remote access, do it with that(not so nice when you have to reboot a lot though). use logmein or whatever.
if you don't want to setup that then get her on skype, dead simple screen sharing, let's you at least see what you're trying to explain to her to do.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I recommended the free version of Mikogo to a manager so he could remote into his elderly friends machine. He seemed to like it and it was easy enough to setup a session for both users.
I sometimes do this type of support across countries for my parents as well...
If the network is good, then you may be able to use the windows "remote assistance" feature... this will give you a remote desktop access without really knowing or having your parents know the IP address...
Skye video conference s/w will also let your parents share their desktop view rather than camera stream... this can be helpful while walking your parents through the steps for starting a remote assistance session.
Remote desktop s/w (like VNC) are helpful... but you need to be able to initiate a connection from the outside. a Router with NAT will likely get in your way of using this path.
logmein.com has a free version that I use to help about a dozen friends and family. Works great almost all the time.
I installed Ubuntu for my parents back in 2008. Gave them a small amount of training and they have been mostly problem free ever since.
Install AOL under Wine or in a VirtualBox VM. That way if she gets a virus it's contained.
My parents live in India and we skype a lot. I manager their computer remotely using logmein free.
When they got new laptop, first thing I asked them is to install logmein. That was the only time I had to do phone support, to make them install logme in. I performed a new install here simultaneously so that I can walk them through easily, rather than asking them to explain the screen.
Once install was done, I cleaned up crapware, installed anti virus software and easy peasy from that time. whenever they say something popped up on screen, I logmein to their machine.
After trying several different hand-me-downs over the years including a 486, original iMacs (Lemon-lime), and a recent desktop Apple, I've concluded that the next machine will be the iPad with the largest display that I can find.
Consuming content - check
App in the same place as it was before - check
buttons and menus not moved around even inadvertently - check
1. Partition the hard drive into an OS partition, and a DATA partition.
2. NOTHING goes on the OS partition but VirtualBox
3. You can always format, reinstall on the OS partition and lose nothing
4. Run a virtual machine from the DATA partition.
5. Set up a task to backup the virtual hard drive file as often as you like (every day, once a week, once a month, whatever)
6. When something breaks, restore a backup of the VDI. (Very easy to talk someone through over the phone.)
7. If it goes really bad, format, reinstall the OS partition, build a new VM using an existing VDI on the DATA partition.
You can even store the VDI backups in the "cloud" so you can download it, fix the problem, and upload the fix.
I set up my mother with Ubuntu, and she loves it. She appreciates the "tidiness" of the desktop, and the simplicity of it all.
... and I popped on and fixed it. And then reminded her about the dragons.
I left her set up with the ability to sudo, but with the warning that "there be dragons", and to contact me.
I set up OpenVPN so I could always SSH on, and fix anything.
The only time I've ever had a problem was when my sister's Windows-using ex boyfriend tried to install something, and stuffed up the firewall rules. I simply talked her through sudo iptables
Years of trouble-free computing.
Get your own free personal location tracker
"Moving to Linux or a Mac is not an option" .. ..
"Why are you asking here"
"Because a true nerd is platform-agnostic."
Then the original question stands, doesn't it? Platform agnostic does not mean "single platform only" any more than it means "you have to like everything".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Buy them something that comes with phone support. Seriously.
Sure, the support contract may be somewhat expensive, but it's a lot easier when you don't have to worry about support yourself.
Buy them an iMac and get them AppleCare support for 3 years for 169 USD
Buy them a Dell Inspiron One and get 3 Year Enhanced Support for 149 (I can't find a direct link to a description)
Buy them an HP Envy and get an HP 3 year Care Pack149 USD
Or some other company - it doesn't matter. What matters is that they can bother someone other than you about these things.
It boils down to something like 50 dollars a year for ease of mind - both for you and them. Sure, it's easy to call you, but they also worry that they're disturbing you. Much easier to pay someone else to do it.
It sounds callous and harsh, but honestly, having worked in phone support for two of the companies, I can tell you, that once you explain to these people that instead of having to worry about bothering their friends or family, they can simply call us and not have to worry about bothering anybody, you can almost always hear a a load being removed from their shoulders.
Yes, we like being able to draw on help from friends and family, but we also don't want to come off as needy and helpless.
I setup my mother with Ubuntu years ago and ssh as needed to maintain it. As long as she can get to a handful of web sites and email, she is a happy camper.
Teamviewer works for me. Sets up easily, and you can log into the computer even when she is away once it is set up. It runs in the system tray, and can be set up to run on the computer turning on, even before the log in. I hope on once a month or so to update it and check it out. No complicated set up required, and if it breaks, all you have to do is talk her through re-installing teamviewer.
A) Users aren't administrators. Don't give them administrative access.
2) No Internet Explorer. Ever. At all. For any reason.
If you want to go above and beyond install Microsoft Security Essentials, Chrome, and some remote management tool like LogMeIn so you can see what they see. You will also need to have an administrator account (I prefer to have my OWN account with administrative access, rather than use the "administrator" account).
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
have her install a VNC server or the RDP client on her computer
then configure her firewall to forward the ports to her computer
then every time she calls have her look up her public IP on her wifi router so you can VNC into her computer
or you can just have her install logmein or teamviewer to make it easy. unlike what most of the slashtarts will tell you
or tell her to buy an ipad which is even better
"Moving to Linux or a Mac is not an option."
Okay, fair enough: Migrate her to the platform(s) you are most comfortable supporting and/or use at home. "But, but..." Give your mother some credit - she will adapt.
After a couple of years of getting 5-10 calls per week from my parents about random errors and pop-up ads on their eMachines PC running Windows XP, I was forced to give them a politely worded ultimatum: If they wanted me to continue supporting their PC, they needed to run what I was comfortable supporting over the phone. They now have a Linux desktop and a Windows 7 laptop, both loaded with Firefox and Openoffice. The laptop only has problems if they shut it down in the middle of a software update, and the desktop only when something outside of the system is causing the issue (e.g. their router needs to be reset). Any issues related to the desktop are handled by phone in 5-10 minutes by walking through the steps on my personal Linux systems, which use the same distribution and the same window manager.
If your mother is anything like mine, she too will appreciate not having to call you 1-2 times per day due to weird Windows problems and malware. Make it easier on both of you and consider my advice.
When I have to help folks out with Windows, I use ninite (http://ninite.com) to set up a nice selection of applications. That is a great site for getting an installer that will load a very nice suite of applications, without getting all the toolbar/addon crapware. The installer can then be used regularly to bring all the applications up to the latest versions.
Make sure TeamViewer is one of the applications you choose.
Or, better yet, install Mint or Ubuntu, but if you do, expect to hear a lot of whining from other folks about your choice.
- Install Teamviewer so you can fix stuff remotely
- Install Chrome
- Drag and drop her AOL favorites from the browser directly into Chrome's bookmark manager
- Remove AOL from the system with extreme prejudice
- Go have a Mai Tai, you've earned it.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Super easy to use for both sides. Easy enough that you can pawn off some of the IT help to other members of the family.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
Chrome OS just screams out for usecases like this.
I moved my mid 70s parents to chrome for a browser and successfully use chrome remote to help them out.
Chromebook: the perfect "parent computer".
Faronics Deep Freeze. Worth every penny. Set up the home directory to be unfrozen and you will never hear a complaint. I use it on my computer, every time I restart I get a fresh development machine.
Deep freeze + windows 7 + office 365 basically covers all disasters.
I had the exact same problem with my parents, both non tech savvy and my father with early dementia (ie will click on any link and believe anything online).
They used to be on XP and I used to pull my hair every few days.
Bought them an iMac and a Macbook. No more viruses and malware (or very rare, usually via Yahoo mail).
Also installed Google chrome, then chrome remote desktop on it.
Now I can remotely access their computer for any fix and Chrome remote desktop works remarkably well (also used it to access work and let the work computer do the heavy work).
Remote Desktop is built into XP and later. It's free, secure, and has been around for more than a decade. Why not just use that?
I don't respond to AC's.
1. Install Linux
2. setup ssh
3. Install VMWare/Virtualbox
4. Install XP in vm
5. lock down XP vm as best you can
6. Setup system to auto-run vm full-screen
7. Take daily backups of vm
8. rsync XP vm backup to your machine
9. Troubleshoot her problem locally if you wish
10. or screw it, ssh in as needed
11. restore old vm
It is, for most intents and purposes, a laptop.
I believe that you could establish a similar situation with Android.
First, she needs to get off of XP, and off AOL.
Second, you MUST buy and install "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware". All by itself, it will stop most of the bad stuff from installing. Do this at the very least. I'd take away her administrator privileges, too.
Win 7 with the 'Classic' theme is pretty close to the XP interface...that should give her the look and feel she's comfortable with.
:)
As others have said, remote control software is your friend. TeamViewer is what I use and is rock solid, apparently LogMeIn.com is good too
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
Teamviewer or Logme in allow you to set up some level of admin remote login without user interaction. that should help alot. The only downside to teamviewer is keeping the versions on the same pace between all the machines.
I live about 1000 miles from my parents.
When they got a computer, I told them in no uncertain terms I couldn't be their tech support -- because I have no idea what happened on the machine, and I can't see the machine, and them saying "it is broken, make it go" won't help me figure out the problem.
I made it very clear to them that it isn't possible for me to tell them over the phone WTF is wrong with their computer and how to fix it.
So either set them up with something so locked down they can't do anything -- and risk them getting annoyed with you. Or tell them to go to Nerds on Site or one of those things. Or bring it into staples.
Trying to keep someone else's computer running from a long distance is a huge pain in the ass, and quite frustrating for all concerned.
Both my parents and I are happy with this arrangement -- me especially. ;-)
This has had the happy consequences that my father has had to things like identify that there is such a thing as a printer driver, that they're necessary to make printers work, and that they need to be installed. After years of being a technophobe, he's starting to have to understand a little more of the whys and wherefores.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
And programmed an oversized remote, which I turned sideways. She thinks QVC is "Amazon".
The very few support calls I can solve with Teamviewer from work or home.
Windows isn't a system for the casual home-user. It only works reliably when an army of competent sysadmins pamper it daily. There's no point in giving a relative a Windows PC or laptop if you have to maintain it yourself.
I don't get paid enough at work to use Windows - I certainly don't want to play Windows sysadmin for free.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
SuRun is a program that brings UAC to Windows XP, but with a lot more granular control. I still run XP at home, and SuRun allows me to run as a limited user. It works quite well, and you can customize rules to always run specified programs with admin privs. It can also automatically prompt for credentials when required. The only main problems I've encountered as a regular user account is with Adobe's Flash Updater failing and when installing certain software--I had to log in as a true admin to install Acronis True Image. If I re-run the Flash updater with SuRun, it works fine. Windows Update works fine if set to automatically install critical/security updates; but if I manually want to install optional updates, then I have to log in with an admin account. SuRun site translated into English
I understand peoples' inherent fear of all things new and different, but for the sake of children get off of XP.
install this https://secure.logmein.com/
then install this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Freeze_(software) or similar
have her install whatever wallpaper she wants everytime she reboots
Battlemaster--Game with friends in medival realms
What are your parents using on the PC? My Dad uses his computer for e-mail and mostly browser based activity. What else do they need if they are basic users?
After multiple infestations I told her to use the public library computer, she's retired and it is right around the block.
love is just extroverted narcissism
I don't have much new to add other than to chime in with several other people who suggested an iPad or Chromebook. My daughter now lives 1600 miles away and solving her computer problems remotely was becoming a pain. I got her a Chromebook for Christmas and haven't had to do "phone support" since. Tranquility restored for a mere $250.
Proverbs 21:19
I would be interested in how to manage a PC remotely including remote BIOS and booting remotely into a PBE or utility partition etc. Is there any reasonably priced hardware/device/software that works like HP iLO for servers? Even spiffier would be to boot off a remote USB flash drive or MinWin, etc. Just as OP said, removing viruses remotely when in-session AV fails to do the job is the #1 reason that forces me to do an in home visit. (FWIW, my mother runs as a standard user on her PC, and I use LogMeIn Free to manage it when necessary with my own login. Works reasonably well.)
You said Linux wasn't an option because she doesn't want to learn Linux. That's a confusion of concerns - the two aren't mutually exclusive.
1) setup linux. CentOS 6 probably because it will last forever.
1a) optionally setup VNC sharing of the root X.
2) setup VirtualBox.
3) virtualize her existing XP install and run it on VirtualBox.
4) snapshot it
5) Set it to auto-login, auto-start, auto-run the VM. Go with 'quiet' in grub if you want to.
Now, set her loose. If she gets hosed, ssh into the box (vpn, reverse tunnel, etc.) and revert to the snapshot. When you visit, or remotely if you've setup X forwarding or VNC, install the security updates and take a new snapshot.
This will provide her with a higher level of service than you're currently able to provide her (rapid restore to a good state) and it will make your life easier as well.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Get her a chromebook /chromebox set her homepage as aol.com set it to auto login to her acct. Make sure the launcher icon is the aol icon :) If you want to keep the same hardware just install a light linux distro with the same set-up
Amen to that. My mom used to have a Kubuntu PC I set up. It ran fine most of the time, but sometimes there were problems with Pulseaudio and Skype would not work properly. Getting my mom to install Team Viewer was not an option (she is almost completely computer illiterate, despite using a Linux machine for over 5 years now. Not the learning type), it was difficult enough to teach her to switch windows from the task bar.
For Christmas I gave her an Android tablet (Samsung GT2), and amazingly (after I configured it) I still haven't heard of any problems, even though it is a new machine, new environment, new paradigm and new control method. She even showed initiative at installing some apps to learn English.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
Teamviewer is a good remote desktop app that you can use. Honestly there are several apps a google search would have produced in seconds. This is a very common problem with many common solutions.
I have the same problem with my mother-in-law. I set up about 10 cloned XP virtual machines in virtualbox running on top of Mint linux. When she breaks one she moves to the next one. Every few months when I visit I delete the old ones and make a bunch of new ones. Since she doesn't seem to know about bookmarks and only uses the computer for facebook and shopping it doesn't seem to bother her when it gets reset to the clean state.
XP end of life is May 2014. You may want to nip that OS in the bud now rather than later.
Remote desktop or VNC solutions work fine, why don't you do just that?
Just make sure the software is enabled and the router is properly set up to allow incoming connections on the right port.
$199 and done.
Normally, even I put Windows on machines and hope for the best. But some recent experiences I have had with some Ubuntu loads (I'm a redhat guy... I would not likely use Ubuntu for myself) have really impressed me with how well new users can adapt to it.
I have a son, for example, who has not recently asked me for any help with hit Ubuntu netbook... not recently, not in the past year or more. Reliable as all get-out. Well I take that back... there was one thing where updates somehow resulted in the system not working. I figured it out in a few seconds and had him back on his way. But why is Ubuntu good for my son and for other users? It's all about purpose and approach.
Firstly, in his case, it is an internet device. For most people that's all computers are. And since the MSIE-only web is ALREADY a thing of the past, that old argument is already gone. And since all of his functions are seriously easy to find, there's no learning there either even if it's not behind a start button. And yes, I encountered resistance to it not being Windows. But then I just asked him questions which guided him to the realization that it's the INTERNET he wants, not Windows. It's the functions on the internet he wanted, not the OS. And it seriously didn't take him long to get past it.
It also didn't hurt that I had to clean his malware infested machine(s) numerous times over the years and he accepts his responsibility in all of that and would rather not have to deal with it in the future.
Is this for everyone? Hell no. There will be people who want to go the the store and buy a greeting card maker program and expect it to run. Can't do it with Linux. You can show them alternatives and stuff... heck, lots of web sites do that now. But they probably already bought the software before they asked you to help install it. So it's not for everyone and establishing eligibility and suitability is paramount.
And does my son use Windows? Yup!! It has his Ubuntu netbook but he also has a Windows 7 machine too... for games mostly. But that's the beauty. He now ONLY uses it for the games. Where do we get most of the malware? "The Web" "Email" Right? Well those things are under Ubuntu. I've never heard of anyong getting malware from the games themselves. (Not to say it doesn't happen, just that I never heard of it.) In any case under this usage configuration, he now has reference data on his Ubuntu and the action on his Windows. And NEITHER trouble me all that much at all!
I couldn't be happier.
Also, in the more distant past, I did something similar -- the purpose approach -- and set up Linux for my older step-father. He was running strong for a very long time on RedHat... before it became Fedora. It was good... though I seem to recall on one visit his desktop had a LOT of "setup.exe" "setup(1).exe" and the like. I smile when I saw them. Knew what they meant and was glad it didn't happen. That old machine has undoubtedly been replaced by other relatives and most likely Windows... and you know? That's THEIR problem now and I'm quite sure that step-dad was thinking "I never had that trouble with his [Linux geek step-son] set up..."
Linux is a tough fit because Windows is so pervasive. It's out there and it's very, very expected. But even online banking and the like work perfectly with Linux as the host OS while using a browser other than MSIE. It's still bad enough that you have to nearly make apologies for the state of the industry while you are explaining how things work. But the most important thing to me is that the things which work under Linux WORK. That's email, web, skype, chat, printing and all that. They work.
Seriously, if you cant figure out how to set up a pc for your parents then get out of computers alltogether. Buy her an ipad from an apple store and sign her up for the 1 year of unlimited personal classes and stop messing with computers. If you cant figure out how to set up a pc by you never will and youre just fooling yourself into thinking you know about them. The biggest tipoff is you actually had to ask for help on slashdot of all places.
Face it, youre an amateur that knows a couple phrases and can operate a pc. That doesnt mean you should be messing with them beyond looking at porn and playing games. Let someone who knows what they are doing do it.
Teamviewer works well!
Your mother is using and is familiar enough with running Windows XP, so why not just give her a machine that looks like XP? Install Ubuntu, then install XPGnome (video at http://blog.hostonnet.com/xpgnome-make-ubuntu-look-like-windows-xp, download from http://linux.softpedia.com/progDownload/XpGnome-Download-52808.html). If you really want to stick with M$ Windoze or you / your mother have a desire to buy a new machine, install Classic Shell (http://www.classicshell.net/) and set the interface to look like XP.
Whatever platform she ends up on, create a start page for Firefox or whatever. Mimic some of the same links within the AOL start screen and to wherever else she generally goes to.
Makes things much easier.
the solution that worked for me is, my sister and brother-in-law has convinced my mother to switch to mac. I know nothing about macs and therefore its become their problem :)
and put a virus scanner on it...
/Applications onto his desktop (not realizing he's just moved the App itself and not just created a short-cut). This is easy for them to fix and it's happened enough (still only a handful of times) that they don't even need my help to know what the problem is or how to fix it (just put it back in Applications).
My parents have had an iMac since 2007... I live 2000 miles away, so in-person support is limited to those fairly rare occasions that I'm in town (a handful of times throughout the year). They actually bought it without even a phone-call to me until they had already gotten it home and set it up. Most recently they ran into an issue with TurboTax not being compatible with OS X 10.5 and needed to upgrade to 10.6. This involved a trip to the Apple Store and $20 to get the 10.6 CD (since that was the last one to be physical media only). After doing all the software updates TurboTax was happy. They told me they wanted me to take a look (since I was back there this past weekend for other family stuff), and everything looked fine. It was up to 10.6.8 and according to the App Store they could skip Lion and go straight to Mountain Lion for another $20. Sure the computer cost them ~$2300 in 2007, but that's not too much more than they spent on their last couple computers, and this one has lasted twice as long. They hope to get another 1-2 years out of it before upgrading. Honestly, for what they do with it, it could probably go a bit longer.
The only real problem they have with it is that occasionally my Dad will drag an application out of
They've had this one computer for over 5 years. It still works as well as it did the day they bought it. The previous five year period they owned 3 different computers that all ran Windows and needed to be reinstalled pretty frequently (every 6 months or so, and this was when I was living within 100 miles, so it was less difficult to get back there to help out).
Remote/phone tech support is okay for little things, but if you're dealing with big problems (and it sounds like the OP has a lot of big problems on the go here), why not get a local tech to help her out? Unless the mother is living in BFNW there must be a local tech guy who can help her out with big problems and/or switching to a different platform.
This would be win-win all around. Mom would get a better system than running as admin on XP with AOL. The son gets fewer calls. Get someone local who will sit down with her, either show her how to properly use the computer or switch her to a better system.
Similar setup here. Exept I set up a shortcut in the gnome applications menu to initiate the connection and start the sshd on their machine.
I provide support for several family members and a few friends through the free version of Logmein. There's even an Android version which allows me to log in and do simple things from my phone.
I try to set rules up front. If you expect me to provide long distance support, you must practice some minimal amount of safe computing. Avoid clicking on popups, avoid online games, don't install certain apps, don't install stuff just because it's cute.
My mom's machine got so hammered I couldn't log in remotely. She shipped it to me and I found the thing took twenty minutes to boot and the tray was half the task bar. Spent a couple days identifying and uninstalling the Reader's Digest Daily Quote, the Daily Scripture, Weatherbug, a whole bunch of coupon apps and a bunch of other trash, plus a good antivirus scrubbing and a baseline run with Spybot. I sent it back to her and said if it ever gets in that condition again, she's on her own.
Mother-in-law practices safe computing, but she sometimes has a grandson living with her, and he fell for a fake antivirus trojan. That had to be dealt with in person (she's a couple hundred miles away) and took forever to scrub off. I told her that I'm still willing to be her support but she has to keep the grandkids away from the machine.
One thing I have been thinking of doing is run the family member's Windows instance virtually, and include a backup copy of the working instance on disk, which would allow easily recreating the instance if necessary. The complicated part is to figure out what media needs to be kept.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
"He who is resistant to change is destined to perish"
Personally, I thoroughly dislike Windows 8. Enough that I'm now a Mac user. But I'm seriously considering moving my mother over to it.
I would set up a start screen that shows just the most basic icons: mail, web browser, photo viewer, Word, and that's just about it. I could pin her favourite web sites to the start screen as well.
She really has no need to ever see a desktop. She never runs an application in any mode other than full screen - she has no idea how windows work despite my many, many attempts to teach her. And if you stick to the metro part of Windows 8, the risk of viruses are pretty low. (Although to my knowledge she's never had a virus.)
I'm actually thinking Windows 8 might be a good fit, for exactly the reasons that I hate it for my own use.
Good lord, in this day and age, she is still running XP?
While you are trying to save yourself time by not having to train her, you are making it worse on yourself, because you are going to have to enjoy support hell / frustration mode.
Get her a new PC, and teach her. There isn't that much to teach, especially if you automate most everything and hide IE.
I upgraded my dad from XP to Win 7 last year. Didn't take him long to keep doing what he normally does. Well worth the headaches I've had doing XP support for it
Teaching someone who "just wants it to work" a new OS is going to be more maddening than anything.
Preconfigure the laptop. Enable remote admin / support stuff, so that you can do it from wherever. It is amazing what you can do with remote teaching.
I had to remotely help troubleshoot something for my mom, I just used the webcam to show her what to push on the keyboard, problem solved. Video goes a long way for basic stuff.
Ad blocking software should solve most of the "virus" issues.
Don't install Java.
Deep freeze kicks ass. http://www.faronics.com/products/deep-freeze/standard/
Granted, I use it for my tween-aged nieces on their PC's. Tell Mom and Dad the thaw password so they can run updates and install software, set up some thawed space for My Documents, and forget about it.
They can install every piece of spyware known to man, one reboot and it's all fixed.
Quit treating your parents like they're retarded. Upgrade them, they'll figure it out.
Just stick with XP and make an image of the system in a good state. It's easy to do with Ghost. You can either partition the hard drive and create a recovery partition that contains the ghost image, and give her a mechanism to boot into ghost and effect a restore. You could do that with a batch file, or a bootable USB drive, CD-ROM, etc. You could even put the image on a USB drive if that's easier.
As far as data, just set her up with Dropbox so all her data is online and she won't have to worry about backing things up. Or better yet, just set her up with Gmail / Google Docs and all her stuff is in Google.
Ideally you would want to refresh the image with software updates every now and then, but this is probably the easiest way for you to handle the system being easily recoverable from a totally screwed state.
Windows has a feature called Windows Remote Assistance where they send you a token, and then you log into their machine and fix whatever the issue is (unless the issue is network connectivity). It works as long as there isn't an overzealous A/V that blocks it.
You need to get over windows.
Windows is THE main reason you are having trouble supporting your folks from 600 miles away.
I would install linux (Debian if you're pretty seasoned with linux, Ubuntu otherwise), give her a non-admin account, import her "My Documents" folder and "Pictures" folder from windows (and put desktop shortcuts in). Set up a browser, install the same plugins (flash, adblock, what have you), set the homepage and bookmarks up identically, and believe me, an AOL user will be just fine with this.
Explain that at her level of computer knowledge, it's dangerous to go any other route. It is worth giving up the ability to install any one of the thousands of "seasonal screensavers" (spyware with pretty pictures) for windows xp in exchange for peace of mind and reliability.
If you do this, and give them exactly what they need, which is probably a web browser and skype, everyone wins.
As a bonus, remote admin is a snap. Don't ever install any updates (your mom can't anyway without admin access). Keep it simple! Linux (especially Debian and by extension Ubuntu) has come a long way on the desktop and is very user-friendly. My five-year-old son uses it every day and has yet to complain about it.
"windows and mac are not an option": Well what are you really asking then? "How can I keep my mom using windows and aol without having any problems?" Good luck with that. Don't kid yourself.
Up to you.
My favorite is the "Get her a Mac." Advantage- you don't have to deal with it. Disadvantage- She'll end up with a minimally useful computer at best once it breaks and she doesn't HAVE support any more.
But if you actually WANT to help there have been good suggestions too.
My mother has used linux but for the stuff she does most it takes too much effort from me to keep some of the non-linux friendly stuff working. She's been on XP for years but recently moved to Win7.
Initial learning curve about a week, no new questions at all after 3 weeks, and everything runs fine.
I have an uncle how lives about 3 hours away- still take care of their machine too, using TeamViewer. Since I moved they HAVE had to get better about fixing things themselves, or at least speaking about the problems well. (No more "It broke" but instead "Firefox lost all my bookmarks.")
It's too bad XP is eoling soon, but at least Windows 7 has gotten almost as good now that Microsoft is planning to end it.
> Getting my mom to install Team Viewer was not an option
Why would that be a problem? The system should have been set up so that you could manage it remotely. It's Unix. That's kind of what it's for.
The GUI bits might have been hard to pull off but you can certainly manage a Unix box remotely.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Over the past 6 months I've done this 4 times for varying individual skills (a modest user upgraded from Vista to Win8, a somewhat amateur user from XP to Ubuntu, and two less intelligent users from nothing/XP to Win7).
In my experience, the best way to go about this is to:
1) get their current computer setup and learn how they use it (do they use the start menu, the quick launch, or the desktop, or all of them)
2) the start menu and quick launch should be identical; for the average user they will need 2-8 programs tops (including calculator)
3) remove everything... i mean everything... I'm talking from bloatware to shortcuts that the individual will have no idea what they do. Now that windows has a launcher by default you can verbally tell people what program to open but don't let them touch anything other than what they need (seriously, this is HUGE for the amateur user who sees "all programs" and then gets swamped with 100 files; the setups I do have about 10 things in all programs)
4) put their favorites back on
5) change the icons!!!! this is the best way to get anyone to stop bad habits without teaching them. If you tell people Internet Explorer is Chrome... they will believe you. I just uninstall the former and change the icon of the latter. Works like a charm.
Hope this helps! (and isn't hidding)
AC
Install Chrome. Make two copies of the shortcut. Change the icon on one, to use the MSIE icon. Rename that icon to Internet Explorer. Delete all icons, shortcuts, and menu references to MSIE. If the parent gets tired of the IE they can switch to Chrome and be surprised by how much it looks like IE. ;-)
This video should help- it covers many of the problems you may encounter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9R-2X9Bl5w
I personally just moved myself off windows. Then I would tell them "I don't know anything about windows, sorry". Then they would ask me to help and I would "try to help" and just make things worse. Eventually they got the hint and now they don't ask me for help.
This is almost my story, except my mom lives 11,000 miles away, on the other side of the planet. I moved her to Linux (Ubuntu 12.04). Problem solved: it boots every time; it doesn't need updates every week (once a year is enough); it doesn't slow down; all her favorite websites work; and she can't mess anything up. Now, if only network latency were less than 1 second round-trip, everything would be awesome.
My children call me (70) for tech support.
Official Pi Ambassador -- inquire for details!
I view this as an extension of the "my house, my rules" principle.
If they want me to run things, then I have to be free to run things. Otherwise they are free to fend for themselves in exactly the same way that they would expect me to if the roles were reversed.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
office runs in desktop mode in 8
You said that you can't install Linux for them -- and in a sense, you're right. And in another sense, you're woo wrong. In 2006, I was tasked with sending roughly 100 laptops to dealers around the world. They needed to run, and run well, despite the fact that, for stupid legacy reasons, they needed administrator-level access to the machines. That being said, they didn't need to *do* much with the machines... which meant that the install footprint was relatively small.
So I cheated. I installed Windows, re-sized the partition down to as small as I could reasonably get it, then installed Linux, also. I then set up grub to offer three (well, really, four) options:
1) Boot Windows (default)
2) Back up the current Windows partition (e.g., "dd if=/dev/sda1 of=winimage.img")
3) Restore the Windows partition from the most recent backup (e.g., "dd if=winimage.img of=/dev/sda1")
4) Linux (set up to OpenVPN to my company's domain if need be)
I can't quite remember how I kicked off 2 & 3 -- it involved booting Linux, and, perhaps, kicking off a script from /etc/rc.local. But the bottom line is it worked like a dream. Infected by virus? WHAM. New image. Installed new, important software? Make a new image. Etc.
Of course, it's not foolproof -- there's a chance you could take an image of an install you didn't know was already broken. And I never bothered with things like multiple on-disk images with datestamps, etc., as the worst-case scenario was "send it back."
But I gotta say -- it tended to work, and work well.
$.02
-- Slarty
Chrome remote desktop.. and done...
Or logmein free, not sure why a techie would need this advice though...
You could visit your parents more often!!!
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
After years of malware/spyware/virus issues with my parents XP machine, the computer was at the point of slowness that it was at the requisite reinstall Windows stage again. This time, I decided to install Ubuntu instead with the caveat of "we can always go back to the old system, but give this a try." Six months later and no real worries. They like the simpler interface, and the increased speed. Had a little issue with cups updating and screwing up the printer, but otherwise has been a rousing success. If you want to stay in Windows, free version of logmein works well, but I would highly suggest going the Ubuntu route.
Give soluto (https://www.soluto.com) a whirl, it helps you keep ahead of problems such as all those toolbars and addons that get installed. You can keep track of things and arrange to install and upgrade certain programs remotely. I'm often called in to provide assistance for family and colleagues kids' machines, and getting soluto on those machines has reduced the time getting called to fix the basics. They have recently added in remote assistance too, but I haven't had a chance to try it (normally use teamviewer)
1-Move WinXP to a VM.
2-Install Linux
3-Move important data in shared folder
4-Backup VM
5-WinXP crashes...
6-Re-install VM
Rinse, rewash and shine...
if your mom is willing, it sounds like getting her a mac and some lessons at the apple store could solve all problems for both her and you. or, i'm sure there are companies that provide similar teaching services for windows. honestly, this is the route i'd go. get her to actually learn how to diagnose basic problems; you shouldn't be doing that for her constantly.
I put my parents on Debian Linux and didn't give them the root password.
For web browsing, email, word-processing, it's great. And that's pretty much all they do anyway.
The only excuse for not running Linux is when someone needs to find a local teenager for support, but then it is not my problem.
1. I would strongly recommend an upgrade to Windows 7. If that's not possible (and I know the submitter didn't want anything but XP) then XP it is.
2. Install a router that has the ability to VPN in. Might require dyndns and knowledge of openvpn (dd-wrt user here.) There are other ways around this - port forwarding to the host machine and the like, but nothing short of being on the actual PC beats getting onto the same network as the affected PC.
3. Use some software to take a snapshot of the PC running in good condition. This might require running the PC for a few weeks so Mom gets everything right, then snapshot it. This would be the easy "remote fix" for a PC that is totally screwed and you have no other option.
4. Get a few backup drives and have Mom cycle them out. Once a week should be fine. Bonus points for getting them into either a safe or a safety deposit box. This fixes most lost file issues if #3 needs to be used to bring the PC back to life.
5. Run through a disaster program and have a document handy to cover #3 above. If all else fails, KNOW that Mom can walk through the document when you can't get to the machine at all without any bit of prodding.
6. Invest in good antivirus and anti-malware. I typically use Security Essentials, but I also know that they're probably the top target for malware - seeing as free guarantees a wide user base. MAB would help snare some things that good AV just doesn't catch.
If you truly don't have the time to invest, creating an alternative option to what you have now is going to be all the more difficult. I typically play clean-up on my parent's PC and network over the holidays when I visit, and can remote in when away - and they're fairly savvy. My most recent fix was a router that wouldn't maintain any user-side connections for more than 2 minutes - new router, problem solved; but I had to be there to see it. My parents just thought the internet was slow....
Karnal
An iPad is a poor PC replacement for most old folks. They don't need to be doing tasks like email on a small screen with a touch "keyboard".
paintball
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094142/?ref_=sr_1
KVM over IP. Bios access, Safe mode, etc, no problem. Re-education? good luck. But do keep trying to get them to keep AV/Adobe/Java/Windows Updates up to date.
I answered a similar question in August:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3058711&cid=41049379
I've been helping my now 83-year-old dad since the Win2K days using this solution:
- On dad's machine, install VNC server and PuTTY SSH client
- Set the VNC server NOT to run in service mode.
- Set the VNC server to accept connections from localhost (That used to be a registry setting, but it might be the default now)
- Set up a user called "sonarman" on my Linux machine. sonarman's shell is a script that loops forever, printing the date and hostname, then sleep 60.
- Set up a public/private keypair so sonarman can log into my linux machine without a password
- Set up a PuTTY session for sonarman that uses the private key to connect, and that forwards some port on my linux machine to the VNC server port on my dad's computer (5901)
- If necessary, tell Windows to allow PuTTY.exe to go OUT through the Windows firewall.
- Created a folder on dad's desktop called "Get help from Mike" - inside are two windows shortcuts, one to start sonarman's ssh connection to form the encrypted tunnel, and one to start the VNC server.
So when dad has a problem, he calls me, he opens the "Get help from Mike" folder, and double-clicks the PuTTY shortcut. When he says "OK, it's showing me today's date", I tell him to double click the other shortcut, and he tells me when the VNC icon shows up in the notifications area.
Once that's done, I connect a vncviewer to localhost:, and I have a view of and control of Dad's desktop.
He can't do any harm to my system, because sonarman's shell doesn't accept any input.
Because his computer is initiating the connection, he doesn't need a fixed IP, nor any holes through the firewall besides the *outgoing* ssh connection.
My linux machine has an entry in DynDNS, and dad's PuTTY connects to my machine by hostname, so as long as my dyndnsd keeps the name up-to-date with Comcast's periodic re-assignments of my IP address, dad's computer can always find mine.
My firewall must be configured to allow incoming ssh connections (but I want that anyway).
I dont live 400 miles from my mom I live about ten minutes away but I installed log me in on hee laptop so I can do stuff for her remotely or teach her remotely it is a great tool and free
Windows 7.. Make her a User account with a seperate Admin account for yourself. Install Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes and top it off with Free TeamViewer installed so you can remote in and fix stuff. Been workin like a dream for my mid 70's father for 3 years now. 400 miles away too!
It looks like AOL anyway...
http://obamapacman.com/2012/05/microsoft-windows-8-copies-aol-1996-design/
Plus, 8 is kinda built for people who use their computers like little old ladies browsing AOL and LOLcats.
First, YOU build the PC. You choose what hardware it's got, based on your knowledge of their present and future needs. Don't let someone else decide this for you, build it yourself, then you'll know it intimately.
Next, YOU decide what OS and other software is loaded on it. This way you rule out almost all of the stupid temptations so often presented to compooter-illiterate users. You can install a paid AV prog if you like that sort of thing, but I find the free ones just as good, and free. Install three different freeware AV progs, and things like Ad-Aware and Spybot too. You KNOW they're likely to blunder into the 'wrong' places sooner or later.
Then, you setup the machine and use it for a while, work out the inevitable bugs. Make it dummy-proof.
After you've done this, and you're confident that it's the PC you'd give your Mom and Dad, you setup a User-level account for them. I recommend one account for both, but you know them a little better than I do, use your judgment. YOU are the one and only Administrator. You limit severely the things they can do to/on/with the PC, based on your hopefully conservative estimate of their competence. You make it as virtually impossible as possible for them to install crapware or make changes to things they shouldn't or otherwise fuck it up.
Only then do you give it to them. You sit them down, both together, when you all have 2 hours or more and a little extra patience. You can walk them through things, as slowly and patiently as you need to, and show them that you've made it especially for them. Leave them no doubt of your competence. Leave them no doubt that you spent hours building and configuring it for them. Leave no doubt that they can trust you, earn it, and they'll probably trust you.
Yes, they'll ask for help, but you KNOW this machine intimately. You've set it up and run it enough yourself that it's reasonably simple for you to login and do things for them, install something new, fix a problem, maintenance, etc. You'll periodically run one or more of the freeware AV progs and/or Ad-Aware/Spybot, maybe on a schedule at a time when they're unlikely to be using it, or just on YOUR schedule, when you can. You'll have Windows Update set to run automatically too. Eventually you may decide that Mom or Dad is ready to do some of these things themselves.
Just let them know that there's help a phone call away, but you've set it up so they're not gonna have to do that very often.
I've done this for both Mom and Dad, since they live some distance apart. Both were initially NOT at all compyter-literate, and Mom's refusing steadfastly to learn or apply anything new beyond the very simplest things. Dad does a lot better, but he's still likely to surf to the wrong places, like when he's surfing for porn. The good news is, I spent two weeks with their new PC's when I built 'em, and I must have done something right. We've had few problems, and what there was I fixed eaasily enough by connecting from my home PC.
I'm sure there's other ways that make good sense too, but my plan was this: I could plan on spending hours, days, dealing with innumerable problems and problems caused by other problems, one at a time, or I could spend much less time doing the things listed above, avoiding the whole mess.
Your mileage may vary, but it's worked for us. They're happy, I'm happy, and so are their compooters.
If not, how can you let her on AOL?
Flash is largely a non-issue at this point. I'm all for it passing into the great beyond. Good riddance. So far I haven't heard any serious complaints. Moreover, my time and her time are actually worth something. Lack of hassles has actual monetary value. Flash games and the like have been a major source of headaches and repair sessions.
"Don't"
My grandparents are still on AOL and 56K (it's bad but there is a benefit: they live in two places and pay for 1 internet dialing two different numbers). When my grandfather caves they'll probably go through Verizon so they can have access everywhere and actually see online moving pictures. My plan of attack (and advice) is to set up Chrome/FF to use aol.com for the homepage which, last time i checked, mimics the browser and that will cover email. For the rest (facebook, weather, "online newspaper" :p, etc) just throw them on the bookmark bar. If possible, itd be nice to lock the bookmark bar and force any additional bookmarks to the other bookmark folder. If they use IM, AIM (is it still around?) or some other client always on will do.
AOL for the homepage should eliminate most of the curve - and the browsers gui can probably be rearranged to match that of AOLs.
Only problem I forsee is how it'll handle my grandmas 1000+ unread msgs... o.0
My Girl Friend (62 years old) had XP on her old clunher and her son was in the routine of stopping over every couple of weeks to fix what broke and keep her running.
Enough of that madness!
I installed Mint 13 Mate in a dual boot mode for her, and stuck a few icons on the tool bar to fire up what she likes to use. (web browser, Skype, image viewer, etc...) Then I setup Firefox bookmark toolbar with links to Facebook, Hotmail, Google, Google Images, Google Translate, and a couple others. I also copied her old photos and documents over to the Mint directories.
After spending an hour or two on the above, I showed her the basics of what looked different (very little) and left her on her own.
Many months have gone by and she has ZERO problems. She has no idea that she is no longer using Windows, she just thinks I do magic.
PS: The Downside... her favorite son feels unwanted ;-)
Is virtualization a possibility?
Have the OS virtualized and running on a different base system (ie: Virtual Windows XP running on OS X or Linux). Then have the home folder be linked out to the underlying OS.
Everytime the system is booted up, restore the virtual OS from a backup.
This prevents her from installing anything except to her home folder (or whatever other folders you link out to the underlying OS).
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
That's all: Just download and use the free version; it's as if you're sitting at the keyboard with mom. You'll find it easy, and she'll feel nurtured. What's bad about that?
I'm amazed at the animosity and hostility in the forum: Do many of you hate your parents as much as it appears?
1. Get PC in the state you want it to be in
2. Install remote Management software (any listed on this thread would work)
3. Give your mom a regular user account, and save the admin for yourself
4. Install Deep Freeze - basically records the state the computer was in the last time the admin touched it, and returns to that state on reboot (MS used to have a free product called steady state, but it has been eol)
5. Explain to your mom that you will install applications for her by thawing the computer, installing, and then refreezing it
If she has a problem with trojan, virus, bad setting, etc. just have her reboot the PC and it goes back to the state it was in when you last touched it.
Get them a Mac mini.
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
Give Deep Freeze a try. It may not be a 100% match for your issue but it does wonders on public computers.
Set up the PC, install apps and customize it. Once the PC is ready to go, install Deep Freeze.
Use whatever browser you want. Install whatever you want. Get a virus or really mess things up. Reboot and it's back to square one.
It also has the ability to set folders aside that are not frozen. You can store pictures and other documents in that as the changes to those folders are immune to the freeze.
I'm just a satisfied user: I have nothing to do with the developers. I only have to check on the public workstations if there are hardware issues or major updates to browsers or other apps. It sure beats reinstalling those public workstations every few months because of caked on spyware and viruses.
Here are my tips, many of them have been repeated above:
PERMISSIONS
1. Force parents to run as a regular user, not admin mode. This will solve a huge % of your infection problems
2. Give them an admin account, but make sure they know only to use it when they absolutely have eto
SOFTWARE SETUP AND UPDATES .exe once a week to help keep software up to date
3. Remove their software, and reinstall everything using Ninite. This will let you run bulk software updates with a single click later.
4. Setup a windows scheduled task to run this Ninite
ANTIVIRUS/PROTECTION
5. Install Microsoft Security Essentials
6. Install Secunia PSI - run a scan and make sure all critical software is up to date
BACKUP
7. Install dropbox. Setup a windows scheduled task to copy their \my documents folder to this on a regular basis (daily or weekly, up to you)
8. For any really critical data, make sure to not only overwrite backups, but also keep older versions (customer databases, taxes, etc)
9. A good alternative is also crashplan's friend sharing, which is free. You can use their computer to keep a remote backup of your files, and the other way around as well
ADMINISTRATION
10. I use logmein free, which works fairly well. My biggest gripe is no easy way to share files, so I just use dropbox for that purpose now
My Mom is about 600 miles from me. I got an old IBM Thinkpad, removed the dead HDD, and put a Linux Live CD in the drive. I made a second CD for backup. Yeah - it's slow. But all she does is boot it, and launch FireFox. gMail, Google Docs, and Facebook lets her keep in touch with all the kids and grandkids. When the machine dies, I'll send her the next piece-of-crap laptop I have and she's back in business. I might give her a Chromebook.
My life is so much easier. No virus problems. No hard drive crashes. No backup required. When she does need help, it is usually with gMail, gDocs or FB. I log onto those sites and fix her problems.
She's used the the slow boot times. She turns it on and goes to the kitchen to make coffee, make a cake or .... whatever. She love that she can just turn it off. And the battery-that-lasts-15-minutes is fine for her. She treats it like a portable desktop (requiring AC), so It is like a built-in UPS. She loves that she can unplug it, move it to the kitchen, plug it back in - and it keeps going! Amazing stuff!
Place nail here >+
1. Get a machine that takes a remote access card or has Intel vPro. Most manufacturers will have their own marketing name for this (Dell: DRAC=Dell Remote Access Card, HP: ILO=Integrated Lights Out, IBM: RSA=Remote Supervisor Adapter, Intel: AMT=Active Management Technology). This doesn't necessarily have to be a 19" rack server, at least Dell has workstations with this option and newer versions of Intel's AMT have KVM capability, so a business laptop will suffice. Another option would be a dedicated IP based KVM with local splitters for mom's IO.
2. Configure the remote access for secure communications, such as SSL/TLS, and punch it through the router's firewall. You can also tunnel this through SSH on another local machine and have it connect outward to your own local server so her router doesn't need to forward ports, or in case you don't trust the manufacturer's security layer (or if they don't have a usable one).
This is hardware based, so:
a) it's platform agnostic. She can use any OS she likes that runs on the machine.
b) it continues working when the application/OS is frozen solid, you can remotely switch on/off the PSU if necessary
c) you can flash a new BIOS, reinstall the OS from a remotely mounted Windows XP CD image, do backups from a Linux live image, etc.
d) it does away with reliance on the continued goodwill, existence and security of a third party such as LogMeIn
e) you can access her machine from anywhere with a browser and/or a Java client
f) you can add your own security on top
A RAC works by sampling and packetizing video on the bus and injecting physical input events for mouse, keyboard, PSU and remote storage, so you cannot retrofit a card into a machine that doesn't have this designed in. A dedicated IP KVM can be added to pretty much anything though, at some added expense. As with all VNC type implementations, the more bandwidth you have the better, and manufacturer implementations may have varying degrees of optimization (I've seen smooth low res video on a busy 100 mbit network), desktop stuff is fine on any resident DSL type connection. Some implementations have settings for lowering bit depth and refresh rate on the client.
One caveat: expect only IGPs or designed-in discrete GPUs to work, so if you have a beefy Radeon next to the vPro Intel chip, it will only show the desktop and not 3D games and maybe full screen video that needs acceleration. This may also depend on power profiles (you can probably force the IGP to be used for everything if necessary). Again, a dedicated IP KVM will do everything, at the added cost, but depend on implementation for quality of video.
Another possibility is buying some sort of IP KVM. It might be a little bit overkill, but it will get you access if the computer was infected by some nasty trojan.
Something like this perhaps:
http://www.amazon.com/1PORT-USB-Remote-KVM-Spider/dp/B000OH5MDO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362532512&sr=8-1&keywords=ip+kvm
First go out and get a reasonably low-end PC. Then toss it out of the window and buy an iPad instead. Voilla. You're welcome.
Sigh. If you need your Mom's machine to be capable of sufficiently powerful operation, it cannot be 'defended' remotely. To create a system that you can maintain remotely REQUIRES compromises.
What happens if the machine fully 'breaks' (software-wise)? It is farcical for anyone with experience of MS Windows to suggest a remote operation can put this right. Windows is just too crap, and just too vulnerable (by design- MS builds in back-doors at the request of the NSA and others that always compromise functionality).
So, with Windows, the best solution is to force naive users to work in sand-boxes that can easily be wiped, with the required apps then reinstalled. The user will have to be responsible for saving wanted data out of the sand-box to somewhere permanent.
With Windows, the forced updates to the OS and applications are the biggest problem for naive users, as these endless 'hacks' frequently threaten the stability of the machine. It would be best to disable ALL updates, and allow the naive user to suffer the inconveniences this may cause. Again, if everything is 'sand-boxed', rogue un-patched code is contained somewhat.
But whom am I kidding. We all know the article is astro-turfing the Google Chromebook. Let's face it, Google would run the campaign slogan "Chromebook, the only computer safe enough for your parents to use (and think about all that time you will save NOT having to fix their problems)" if the world were not so politically correct.
It sounds like it would be far easier to replace the parent...
Just buy her a Mac. All of those tech-support type of questions will just go away,
Expecially if she buys a new Mac with the "3-years of on-hands support" from the Mac store. They will take care of the minor hiccups. And, she'll be in a computational environment that does not change dramatically from year-to-year (as MS7-8 did).
Anyone over 50 just wants stability of interaction in their computer, above all else. Mac delivers this.
My 80+ grandparents switched to Mac about ten years ago. Since then, I have not recieved a single tech support call. Not one.
The only time I ever had to intervene was about 5 years ago, when I cleaned the disk permissions on my grandmother's computer.
After that, I showed her how to use Onyx, and there haven't been any further issues.
While, theoretically, I would like to get them hooked on Linux, they are having zero problems with OS X.
I don't know what your exact situation is, but do reconsider OS X.
Linux as the underlying OS, Win whatever running in a virtual machine. Put an icon on the desktop to start it. Configure the Win machine how you want it then back it up. Make sure you can get to the Linux box remotely ( SSH or VPN ) and you're set.
Parents have been running for years this way.
You don't list why this is a requirement. I've got my mom on Mint+MATE and it works fine for her. She even run Quicken under WINE.
i use 10zig thin clients running windows embedded for all the instructors at the cosmetology school i administer. you can load basic software onto them and then lock the flash. a simple reboot sends it back to the way you set it up. http://www.10zig.com/product/hyper-v_microsoft_remotefx/ you can also use SteadyState, http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24373 this sets the computer into a kiosk mode where a simple reboot puts it back to the snapshot.
A tried and true method for migrating parents from IE to a safer browser is to just install firefox or chrome, then change it's desktop icon and name to "Internet Explorer". They then go on to seemlessly use it, thinking it's just a slight interface change that happened in an upgrade... Too bad AOL's interface is probably a bit too different to pull that trick off. As for tying up permissions: unfortunately, WinXP guest account was never fully implemented. Last year, I tried setting up my parents to using the guest account for most activities and logging in as admin when they needed more permissions. They understood, but it caused a lot of problems with certain things not functioning between the accounts. The printer alone turned out to be an intractable pain in the ass. Win7 with "classic shell" is probably a better option.
My wife has an iPad and iPhone. Every time she has problems with one of them (fairly frequently, in my experience), I say "Lucky it's an Apple product, and it just works."
She gets pretty pissed off about it.
Leave her be on XP , get LogMeIn or some such remote control software, and keep supporting her. Keep her on the AOL software - let her remain comfortable . Older people don't need to stay current - that is a young person;s desire. COmfort and familiarity trump new and modern.
HB - Enterprise Computing Systems, LLC
Why not set up a Linux, or Windows 7 Host machine that only you have an admin account on, and then your mom's Windows XP configuration in a Virtual Machine? WMware supports taking OS snapshots, supports remote desktop viewing, supports automatic USB device redirection from Host to Guest OS, and many other features that will make your role much easier, and more time efficient, while simultaneously not requiring any major re-training for your parent. And I am certain that other VM software has a very similar feature set and appeal.
- James
on Windows Vista and 7. My mother uses it just fine on her Windows 7 desktop.
you can stick with xp and still keep control of the pc. Set her up as a user (no admin rights) and lock down the system. PArtition the drive so you can copy all the installation files for everything you install to the d drive. also keep notes and backup files out there for later use. USe teamviewer but also set up a logmein hamachi account so your can have another way to remote control the desktop. It should even work through firewalls. If that doesnt work in her configuration, setup a vpn and use VNC to connect and control. TO transfer or backup files offsite, use dropbox and setup an automatic backup app to archive files to the dropbox folder then copy them to your computer and archive them at your location. get a cheap usb chat camera so mom can take pictures of real items and you can see them on the screen while you remote in. Open the case of the pc and take complete pics of everything so you can have a common reference at your location. this will make it easier to talk someone through a procedure on her end. make an image of her hard drive when you get it built and burn a bootable dvd that will restore the image to the drive. you could even do it on a flash drive. use an inventory app to record all the hardware and software config data so you know exactly what you are dealing with a year later. Trust me, you will forget. LAbel the ports like vga, usb, lan, power and audio with unmistakable unique labels. when you say plug something into the FRONT USB1 port, there should be no question which one that is. Get a Firefox config backup app and a bookmarks backup app set up to run automatically. Script ccleaner to clear out the caches automatically. Run antivirus and malware scans while she is asleep. Check the system and app logs regularly to get ahead of problems that she may not be able to convey to you. If you do all this stuff you will learn how to administer her pc effortlessly and transparently to her.
I empathize; I have an uncle who's about 100 miles away. So this is an old XP machine? Buy a removable hard drive tray system with two trays and a 2nd hard drive. Ghost or CloneZilla her current hard drive to the new one. Give her a short tutorial on turning the key in the lock and swapping the hard drive. Provide her with a padded box to put the hard drive tray into. When she mucks it up again, have her swap hard drives and then ship you the mucked up one. Fix at your leisure, send back. Repeat the process for the rest of her life...
Really, for cheap you can just freeze the hard disk... with RollBackRx can set automatic disk snapshot at regular intervals, say once a month. On boot offers a menu of past snapshots to restore in case of infection or misconfiguration
Or the freeware alternative with Microsoft Steady State, can undo hard disk changes on every boot but keep windows update set up to keep the os patched
The best option to me was ShadowUser with partial freeze of partitions but isnt sold anymore, the ugly option should be the dead brain Deep Freeze probably
Mixin default unprivileged user account and the freeware elevation service SuRun for the programs / activities not coded for restricted use... and maybe the freeware Trust-No-Exe with proper rights configuration of the system and application paths
For remote support, just install the freeware FreeSSHd service ( with some puttygen generated private key autentication and port redirection ) for secure remote desktop
Better yet, if the hardware its big enought boot to mint lxde and set up some VirtualBox WinXP machine launcher as desktop shortcut
Gave a Mac to my father, setup a linux Debian 7 in the infected computer of girlfriend. Problem solved. People use mostly the browser and skype. The browser works quite the same, except it got no virus.
As previous poster said: TeamViewer is a really good solution in case of emergency, works on Windows, Linux...
The process started a few years ago when I forced switched my parents from Office to Open Office.
After 2-3 weeks no more complains and even praises \o/ At this point you've done 80% of the job.
Then I installed an Ubuntu, switched the window buttons on the right side, installed a DNLA server so their connected TV can display all their photos/videos ("we can do that ?") and even the photos I send them directly using Dropbox.
Finally setup unattended auto update and write admin password somewhere it can be found.
Ultimately you could use CrashPlan to backup everything, I am still to convince them that it's not the same thing as posting photos on Facebook...
In 3 years I never had to use TeamViewer to fix anything.
Cheers and good luck.
I took my 20" first gen duo core intel imac and popped in a UWC 30GB SSD drive, put fresh 10.6.8 on it with current firefox. it is all she needs. Boots in 22 seconds :) Entire project cost me $68.. that includes drive, bracket, new keyboard and new mouse. This was a fun project.
Flash is largely a non-issue at this point. I'm all for it passing into the great beyond. Good riddance. So far I haven't heard any serious complaints. Moreover, my time and her time are actually worth something. Lack of hassles has actual monetary value. Flash games and the like have been a major source of headaches and repair sessions.
Bollocks. If you want to look at most online pron, for instance, you need Flash. If you want to play a lot of online games, you need Flash. It's just wishful thinking that because there is now an option, Flash has suddenly become irrelevant for many users. I know everyone here can get round these limitations, or simply isn't interested in a site that requires Flash on principle, but that's not how most of the world thinks.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
google does all the fixes and updates. It is the original Samsung from 2 or 3 years ago.
Sits in her easy chair with her original kindel and original chromebook and wonder why all her friends are so computer illiterate. So she interacts with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are more "on-line" then her friends.
Offered to buy a newer faster one for her - but she is quite comfortable with the old chromebook. Uses google docs, shares documents with great-granddaughters, does her finances on the google docs spread sheet - emails pictures back and forth with nieces and nephews and uses picasa/google+ for family albums.
In all honesty, don't setup the account to not run as administrator. It's a great theory, and it would be nice to implement, but if you aren't tech savvy as a user, it will cause you more headaches than it will save. XP was not designed to be run as a non-administrator account. You will be illicit far more calls from your mom by setting it up as a non-privileged account than if you set it up as one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Freeze_(software)
Make two partitions, one for system, other for My Documents. Install everything, set it up, update it, make a backup, freeze the system and tell them. I do not like antivirus, but you do as you please, just remember to install them to unfrozen partition.
"You can do everything you want, but the computer will reset everything as it was after restart."
Hope it helps...
Doing a good job is like spilling coffee on a dark suit, you feel warm all over, but nobody notices.
I bought a Mac and used remote access to manage it. Windows was impossible. XP, 7 or 8.
Most recently, I tried a Chromebook which is great except when it comes to printing. You can print but need to set up a printer on the Internet also.
Well its not like the Citigroup hacker is looking for Mom & Pop, that hacker can get whatever they need from Citi directly. Except for things like phishing and spoofing the only real threat a home network has is from email and the immediate local cable net. Virus Scanner, Firewall and Common Sense will protect the PC at home, but how to explain those three to the folks is another matter. My Father spent over 25 years with Burroughs and troubleshot Unix and Cobalt, but trying to explain how You Tube and Real Player work was too much. Mom is crippled and can't use her hands, so I tried Naturally Speaking with her but she keeps ordering grilled Ham & Cheese with it!
So I just set up the PC to automatically scan and update, got a router for the firewall and said "God Bless". I know its not a solution, but what else can you do, except pay a local guy hundreds to make make housecalls. Can't Win7 remotely administer an XP-PC? I thought it could. Sounds like the OP will become a nomad afterall.
Linux is your option. Probably Mint or Zorin. End of problem. Ten minutes instruction time, then see you at Thanksgiving, mom.
Put Team Viewer on it, just in case.
> Moving to Mac or Linux is not an option
Why? My 70-year-old dad uses Ubuntu, loves it, and after I got it set-up for him, I've very rarely had to do any serious maintenance. Your mum is just as likely to have catastrophic problems with windows (more likely, actually) than Linux.
... If the system is hosed so much they can't run an application, remote software isn't going to help much.
Not quite true any more if you got Intel vPro (i5 & i7) based system, those provide remote access to BIOS level.
get her a Mac. A PC is a sadistic abuse of a non-technically literal parent. It proves you actually hate your mother.
A Mac will reduce your technical support load and reduce her stress. Guarantee it.
Install the latest Adobe Reader X, Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft EMET, and Google Chrome Frame. Make sure the OS and those four programs are always updated to the latest via spot checks. Occasionally defrag with defrag and PageDefrag.
There's a lot more you can do, but that's really all that's necessary when it comes down to the minimums.
If you must use an older version of Windows (2000, XP, 2003), then install WehnTrust instead of EMET.
Buy a Chromebox (http://goo.gl/oRYSM), plug in the keyboard and the monitor and kiss your problems away.
You can get a hardware "solution" to the problem, and while i'm not sure just how effective they are, they'd probably do what you need to prevent unwanted stuff going on - it basically creates a sandbox, and when the machine boots, it uses a static image - any changes that happen after that will be removed upon the next boot. You can disable it temporarily while you update software etc. but once you re-enable it, you're on a static image again.
Hi all,
This is my first Slashdot post. Be gentle.
My business is in-home technology consulting with seniors. I have worked with seniors hundreds of times with almost every technology you could imagine from the last 25+ years. Here are a few things my experience has taught me. These are generalizations and each person is an individual. Your mileage may differ.
Seniors just want a computer that works. They don't often care about the OS or form factor. They don't care and are confused by technical specs.
The biggest hurdle seniors face is the fear that if they don't do everything just right, the computer will figuratively explode.
They want to read their articles, email, skype, gamble, date, etc. in the simplest manner possible. I.E. A bookmark on the desktop, etc.
If anything whatsoever goes wrong, it probably is a virus in their opinion.
They don't have the skepticism/cynicism that most experienced users do and often fall for hostageware, etc.
They want to do what their friends do, especially games.
Updating software scares them. Thus, finding a way to autoupdate things such as Java and Flash greatly reduces support issues.
They often need larger fonts and at least on Windows xp and up and that can mess with menus and dialog boxes.
They prefer mice to trackpads.
Honestly, they surf porn a lot or go to the dodgy gambling sites. It is essential to keep virus and spyware software up to date.
Ditto the above statement for downloading screensavers, emoticons, etc.
Whatever OS they have, find a way to create a stable OS save point just in case.
If possible, set up an online backup service that works automatically for photos and important docs. This is incredibly important for photos.
Although Ubuntu and other linux alternatives are fantastic for many seniors, be very prepared to do all the tech support for any machine you set up yourself. Their other friends can't help them to do even simple things such as update Flash. (Seniors LOVE the music they can find on Youtube.)
Choose your favorite program that allows you remote screen control and be sure you can use it to auto logon to their machine.
Optional: Explain that sending 6 jokes/cat pics/rants a day is frowned upon and if they have the capacity, teach them how to use snopes.
Most seniors I've worked with are excited but very nervous about using computers. It is a huuuuge unknown world for them with negative computer issues plastered all over the news. For the uninitiated, there are a gazillion distractions even on a web page. Be patient and when possible, write down the steps to do something or send them a quick screen recording of the steps. Teaching seniors how to use Skype, see pictures on FB, read news from their old hometowns and generally being able to participate in a world larger than just their homes can be incredibly rewarding. Seniors often frustrate easily because they're used to learning things quickly. Just remember, often that frustration is at the computer and themselves, not you. The gratitude is there whether you see it or not.
Thanks all. Good luck!
Gentoo.
Linux could actually do the work even taking into account the "no Linux because too addicted to AOL and XP stuff".
Just have linux run in Kiosk mode and stack a virtual machine above it.
(We actually exactly used "Gentoo + bare X with only a minimalist window manager and nothing else + VMware" for a computer lab in one uni where I worked in).
- You get all the niceties of Linux: rock solid environment, multiple options for remote management, backups and the like.
(For example, using a CoW file system with versionning like btrfs to store the virtual disk, store her data on a directory shared between linux host and windows guest, and thus backup said directory using rsync or dropbox or whatever).
- She gets the windows interface she's used to. (Just remember to correctly configure pass-through for USB) (and in fact, in her use case, she won't even be needing 3D VM acceleration that much)
- Windows will still be contained in an isolated environment which help limiting the damage in case of hacking (In my "shared directories" example above, all the credentials used to backup [ssh keys for rsync, or dropbox credential] are stored BEYOND windows's reach outside of the virtual box). Even the network access can be NATed to limit what Windows can see and reach from the environing device.
- The mother is really an interesting user for this use case, because (as a person addicted to her old ways), she's not the kind of user who'll need complex interaction between say her Windows and a Bluetooth-enabled gadget that could push the limits of the virtual machine.
- Last but not least, lots of VM environment offer built-in remoting possibilities. For example opensource VirtualBox has built-in VNC support, commercial Sun/Oracle VirtualBox features RDP. Even if Windows is fucked up beyond any recognition, it's still possible to remote to the Linux host over SSH, and open port forwarding to the VNC or RDP service of the VM to see what's happening. You get basically KVMoIP possibilities.
- You can also build lots of hardening and checking in the Linux host (like periodic check of the "smart" status and scans to check the health of hard drives, scanning the windows host for viruses from outside even in case of rook-kitting of windows, etc).
It requires a little bit of hacking to get it working. But once it works, such a configuration is simply a wonder.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Why would you need a CoW file system and a Linux host machine when they could just install Windows and a good antivirus scanner?
There's nothing such as a perfect virus scanner. The machine will get infected, eventually. Specially with a clueless user who likes to install every single cute kitten screen save she finds as in today's ask-slashdot.
COW:
Copy-on-Write solves a completely different question:
- local backups
With CoW file systems (like BTRFS) snapshotting come almost for free.
Want to keep the current state of a tree for backup purpose (so you can go back in case of catastrophe) ?
Just make a snapshot (and in BTRFS, that's just flagging the directory as a snapshot. No data being copied around. Data will be copied if files get written on and the current state diverges from the snapshot. The whole snapshoting process is barely noticeable)
The catastrophe did happen and some data got corrupted (like a 'ransom' type virus encrypted random file asks for money to give decryption key) and you want to roll back to prior the infection ?
Just use the last good snapshot as the 'current' (instant use).
The same can also be obtained at the disk level by using a CoW partitioning scheme, like Linux Volume Manager (LVM).
Just tell the virtual machine to use a real block device for its virtual disk instead of a file, and then use LVM's snapshoting facility.
Without CoW, the same kind of speed and easy to use could be achieved using rsync and hardlinks and some scripting (as done on *nix before the advent of CoW systems) but that requires hardlinks, and requires one to write some script.
The same backup/restore routine on Windows would require using a backup software, which needs to copy data around and store files into an archive or extract file from it. Backup procedures are slow and use resources.
Linux host machine :
As long as everything works okay, a pure Windows XP machine and a configuration running Windows inside a VM are indistinguishable from ma's point of view, and thus indeed, there's no difference.
It's once things start to break apart that suddenly the virtual solution show its advantages.
- No matter how much the Windows guest gets broken, you can still remotely access to the Linux host and work from here. On the pure machine, you're stuck on trying to get an explanation from ma over the phone.
- Your administrative access comes from 'outside' the guest. If the guest can't be trusted any more (because it's infected with a virus which uses root-kits to hide it self) you can still trust your host (the virus will try to hide its presence from programs running within Windows. Linux will still see everything as-is). You could even run some periodic checks using an antivirus executed from within the host.
- Everything is virtualisable. On a windows machine, advanced administration might require installing special software or jumping through some complex hoops. Ma's favourite crappy screen saver might not have been written to accomodate them and may crash because the data it uses (the gallery of cute kitten pics it makes a slideshow of) aren't stored locally but are pulled from a network share on the nice NAS box your bought her to save her precious data on. In a virtual machine, Windows can be persuaded to think that it runs from a simple disk, no matter what the actual complexity is on the linux side everything is abstracted and the crappy software runs too.
- Remote access is built in directly in the virtual machine. No matter how much un-bootable Windows becomes (i just wanted my cute kitten picture, but now all a get is a blue screen filled with white text! what's happening? i want my kittens back!) you can still SSH to the Linux box and (tunnel to) see remotely what's happening over VNC or RDP (depending on what your virtual machine does).
Don't think about it like the equivalent of sharing screen in skype (which still requires a Windows working well enough for skype to be still usable.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]