Dealing With The Always-Breaking Family PC? 204
Corby Ziesman asks: "I am sure many on Slashdot are entrusted to maintain computers for their family members. I've built a few computers for my sister over the years; however she constantly complains to me that 'something's wrong' with the computer, and claims that it 'just stopped working' all by itself. She blames the computer I built, calling it 'a piece of crap', yet it works flawlessly once I start using her old computer after she has upgraded. I've considered revoking her access to Windows, and giving her Ubuntu Linux or something, however she has a lot of games and art applications like Corel Painter that require Windows. How do I get her up and running, so that I don't have to keep fixing the computer every month? I'm tired of digging in the registry, checking the processes for spyware, and all that. I have also tried to educate her about how to use a computer intelligently, but she seems to lack common sense when it comes to what software is suspicious and bloated, and what is trustworthy. So I ask the Slashdot community: how do you cope with your family members who have a talent for torturing computers?"
Don't give her admin rights... (Score:5, Insightful)
The schedule feature is your friend. (Score:2, Insightful)
And make her use Firefox if she isn't.
Family that refuses to learn. (Score:3, Insightful)
Appreciation (Score:2, Insightful)
No respect, no computer. (Score:5, Insightful)
That should change her tune quickly. The only reason she's not learning how to manage a PC is that there are no consequences when she breaks it. She'll just get you to fix it. If she has to PAY for it, however, she'll learn quickly enough.
don't give her admin access (Score:4, Insightful)
Test each of her apps to make sure they still work without admin access.
If an app breaks, you can troubleshoot with regmon and filemon, i.e. many apps need r/w perms in their own directory for some retarded reason.
If she has a fast internet connection, set things up so you can RDP or VNC into her machine for the few times she'll legitimately need to install new software.
Easy (Score:1, Insightful)
Second, if she uses your support - charge her appropriately. I've found that if a client has to pay because they clicked some spyware into the system, they learn and don't do it again. Or... I make a regular income from them...
Charge her. (Score:5, Insightful)
Once it starts hurting her pocketbook, maybe she'll realize it's easier to learn it herself.
That's what I do with my relatives, and it works quite nicely. The only ones who get free support are my parents, and my wife's parents. And they're both on dialup, so they don't get a lot of crap to begin with.
Next time she foobars it, fix it, but tell her you're going to start charging her $40/hr or so, starting with your next visit. Make it $10-15 less than the going rate for most techs in your area.
She'll probably get pissed, and call around to a few other places, only to find out they're all more expensive. But she'll learn something in the end.
For Such Pigs, I Will not Play. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm guessing your sister is a preteen or teenager, but this isn't a bad idea even if she's an adult.
Stop building her computers if that's her attitude, and explain to your her and your parents why. Chances are, she's doing something that's causing the problems or she just wants a newer computer. Let her spend some cash and wrestle with Dell tech support.
Remove the beam from your own eye (Score:3, Insightful)
Nothing about a computer is common sense. Nothing about a computer is intuitive. It is entirely learned, and much of it is complicated and esoteric.
I suggest at least part of the problem is your unrealistic expectation that everyone have complete knowledge of computers.
Answer's easy (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't give her admin rights... (Score:4, Insightful)
I've meant that as a punishment.
> Many (poorly-written) pieces of software claim that administrator
> privileges are necessary, but there are (almost) always F/OSS equivalents
> that don't have such a ridiculous requirement.
That is bullshit. In deed many of closed source software are poorly written and *tend* (go on with reading) to require admin rights. But stating that FOSS has all the equivalents is plain bullshit and a lie that in the end will make no good for FOSS.
FOSS is nice for some task but it *lacks* some of the apps and don't lie anybody that it doesn't. It is a bad advocacy and serves no purpose.
As for old Windows applications that conflict with LUA principle - that can be get over with. You just need to work around it. There are plenty of tools which help - compatibility mode, toolkits and so on. You can set access rights for apps and so on. So really some stupid app writing directly to C:\ can be tricked to work under LUA. It just requires some knowledge, but please don't state that it can't be done.
As a disclaimer - for my own computing needs I use Linux only and I love it.
Re:No respect, no computer. (Score:4, Insightful)
Try this (Score:5, Insightful)
"This is not working. I try to do my best helping you with your computer problems in any way I can; I even built your last computer to save you some money. I have been at your beck and call, day and night, for years. What I get from you is a constant stream of complaints."
"Clearly, what I can offer you in help is not good enough by far. I do not know the reason - it could be incompetence on my part, it could be you inadvertently doing things you should not, or it could be that Windows, and the programs you want to run on it, just aren't very good quality. Quite possibly it is a combination of these. It doesn't matter, though - you are miserable, and that makes me miserable too."
"So from now on I will not interfere. No longer will my bungled attempts at fixing things just make everythng worse. I suggest you buy your next computer from a real vendor, with a service contract, and contact their professionals if you ever experience a problem with your new machine. You will be a lot happier knowing you can rely on people who help users for a living, and I can be free of the guilt of trying to do things that are perhaps over my head."
"I am truly sorry I have inconvenienced you like this for years. I wanted to help but of course I whould have known better."
Re:Appreciation (Score:1, Insightful)
You speak the truth. I'd buy back that computer from her and tell her she is off the free support list.
Let the bitch deal with the people at circuit city/best buy/whatever, deal with expense and hassle of constant downtime their support people will put her through, then in a year or so when she has apologized sincerely and abjectly you might consider supporting her again.
Re:No respect, no computer. (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to be the support person in my family. Then I started running Linux, then I got a Mac. Over time my Windows skills greatly diminished because I just forgot the stuff. Then I realized that there are solutions that work, Linux and Macs. The fact that people could just keep tapping me for free Windows support was what made it possible for them to run Windows. It was my time and energy that allowed them to live in denial. So, I stopped supporting Windows. I made it a policy that if you wanted support from me you either had to run Linux, or get a Mac. My support outlay dropped precipitously. Slowly my friends switched. Started using their computers a lot more, and I get almost no calls. But when I do I know something is actually wrong, not some virus, or the latest malware BS. Most of the time I can trace it back to a hardware issue, which I do not consider a waste of my time. I'm happy to trouble shoot actual problems.
I don't have an issue with doing support for free. After all we are talking about family, but if they are simply going to use you so they can take the cheapest route, one we know will lead to problems, then I don't feel like I need to support that. It would be like some family member buying a used Yugo, a car that is known to be bad, and repeatedly asking for help fixing it, for free.
Mark