will be tough but I speak from experience with a couple of nonagenerians (grandmother and great aunt) and a couple of septagenerians (aunts both) -- they will do things in Windows... things that will be difficult for you to figure out on the telephone. You need to be able to get to their desktop if you're going to have a chance at all (e.g. some flavor of VNC). The most important thing I learned during the many hours I've spent over the years supporting family members: mouse usage basically becomes a random variable with seniors as their motor control declines. So a) they have no idea where and what they clicked and b) they will frequently do things that produce inexplicable results. An example: a family member called one day to describe a gray screen covering about 90% of the display. Turned out that my grandmother had (somehow) unlocked the toolbar in Windows and dragged it all the way to the top of the screen, rendering the machine useless. Try figuring that out on the telephone. I've never found a tool that would allow me to freeze the desktop and menu items so that they didn't get scrambled... just plan on periodically having a UI puzzle on your hands. Having remote desktop access will help but the only problem there is that you may not be trusted to take remote control, i.e. privacy is an issue. Sigh. Seniors really need only a couple of apps: web, email, and Solitare. Windows is overkill and will be the pebble in your shoe.