If you're unable to get out of being your family's on-call tech support this holiday season, there are some things worth doing on your family's household PC if you do get roped into the job that will make your life a little easier year-round. Here are a few of them.
Photo by Steve Jurvetson.
The Basics: Software Updates, Security Scans, and Speed Tests
OS updates. When I go home to visit my family for the holidays, I go upstairs to my room, put down my bags, and immediately go to my parents' PC and start downloading any updates available for their computer. I'm lucky—my family is pretty computer literate, and it's usually a quick process, but I have friends who have to go through a year's worth of patches and updates every time they visit for Thanksgiving. Get this out of the way first, since it'll probably take the longest.
Other software updates. Nothing's worse than going home to find that your family members are still using Firefox 3, or heaven forbid, IE 6. Spend a little time while you're waiting for the OS to patch downloading the most recent versions of the applications they use most frequently, like their web browser, security and anti-malware software, email client, music player, or anything else that may have vulnerabilities or that they rely on every day.
Run a system scan with an anti-malware application. Hopefully your family's PC has some antivirus and anti-malware application installed already, and it's set to update itself quietly in the background, so it's already up to date. If it's not, update it, and run a complete system scan. If you find anything, it's easier to deal with while you're there than over the phone after you've gone home.
Speed tests. If I had a dollar for every time my family called and complained that their internet speeds were slow, I'd be rich. Contrary to most times when someone complains about slow internet access, it's not their fault. Their local cable provider's upload and download speeds are abysmally slow, and while they've called to complain in the past, it wasn't until I started running a few speed tests when I was home to visit and passing along the results as proof that the problem wasn't with their computer that their cable company started listening. If you're in the same boat, your family may have a real problem that's not their fault either—stave off hours of pointless troubleshooting with a few quick tests at Speedtest.net while you're home for the holidays.
Photo by Mihael Mafy.
The Big Guns: Replace the Computer, Upgrade the OS, Switch Them to a Mac/Windows/Linux System
If you have some more time, or you're tired of dealing with your family's computer problems entirely, it may be time for more...drastic measures. If the system is really old or suffering from hardware problems that you don't have the tools or the budget to address, it might be time to go ahead and replace the system entirely. Keep an eye on our Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to see if you can snag a cheap replacement PC. Depending on where you get it, you can pick up a new PC running Windows 7 for a couple hundred bucks.
Speaking of Windows 7, if your family's computer is running Windows XP, it might be time to upgrade if your system meets the requirements for Windows 7. If it doesn't, maybe now is a good time to get your family familiar with Linux. They don't need to be command line masters, but a good linux distro like Ubuntu gives you as an administrator complete control over the system, and them as non-admin users big pretty icons they can double-click to surf the web, get their email, read the news, and most importantly, not get themselves into trouble.
Many of you have mentioned in the past that you got so fed up with being your family's on-call computer technician that you switched them from Windows to a Mac because it was easier to use and more foolproof, or from a Mac to Windows because it was easier for you to lock it down, or from Mac OS or Windows to non-admin Linux accounts with only the applications installed they need to do what they need to do. These steps are definitely not for the faint of heart, and will require a little retraining so your family is comfortable with the way things have changed, but once you're finished, their computer—and your sanity—will be better in the long run.
Photo by Beth Kanter.
Set up Remote Access So You Can Troubleshoot Anytime, Anywhere
Finally, once you've done everything you can do to make sure your family's PC is in proper working order, you want to make sure you can get access to it to troubleshoot it later when it eventually gets fouled up again. We've discussed some great remote-access options for every occasion in the past. Since you'll have physical access to the computer while you're visiting, you have the time to set up a two-way remote access solution like GoToMyPC from Citrix, LogMeIn, or Join.me, all of which you can get your parents signed up for and set up with before you go back home.
When they call with computer problems, you can sit down at your computer, connect to their PC over the internet, and have them show you what's wrong and fix it immediately without having to schedule a one-off visit.
We've already covered how you can get out of this job entirely, but assuming you aren't able to, your family is just too stubborn and demanding, or you actually take pleasure in helping them out with their technology problems, you can make your life easier over the long run by doing some regular maintenance and a few choice upgrades that will save you a few phone calls after the holidays are over and you've gone back to your normal life.
Is there any additional basic maintenance you plan on doing to your family's PC when you get home for the holidays? Share your tips and tools in the comments below.
You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at [email protected], or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.