I’ll let guests use it, but I panic a little inside. I fear Crisco Hands™ being on my keyboard and mouse.
I would quickly set up a guest account if someone needed to use my computer, with limited access to applications, based on what they said that they needed. If someone were coming to stay for a few days I’d probably just set up my iMac (being sturdier and stationary) for their use and limit myself to my MacBook.
That said, I have no problem if friends who are over for any length of time bring out their own wifi enabled devices and ask to use my network. I gladly offer the password with a smile.
I don’t mind it at all, as long as it’s someone I like and trust, and if it isn’t, they probably aren’t in my house anyway. It’s just a computer, after all. I don’t even have a guest account, I just let them use mine. Never had problems.
Well, if your “close friends and family” are the sort of people who would abuse your trust by stealing music or downloading child porn at your house, you probably have bigger problems to deal with than who is using your computer.
I don’t like other people using my computer. The reason being, I am very careful about what I download and install on my comp, and I know certain other people just click “yes” on any damn box that pops up when they’re trying to do something. I’ve had to clean my dad’s computer 4 times, including 2 complete reinstalls, and now it won’t work at all.
My sisters are allowed to use mine on a limited basis, since all they do is check internet stuff. They must use Firefox with full privacy options and cookies turned off though.
I’m thinking how this would happen. Most of my friends, if they’re visiting from out of town and staying overnight, have their own laptops. I’m happy to give them my network password and let 'em go to town.
You’ve got to be careful, though. I was at a buddy’s house, staying overnight, and asked to use his computer to check e-mail - I did exactly that. But I goofed when I clicked on a link and wanted to get back, so I went to the history… and saw what he’d been viewing before. Nothing too weird, but I got to know my buddy’s exact porn fetish…
If someone forgot theirs, I suppose it would be okay. Usually it’s “can I check my e-mail?” and I’m okay with that, definitely. I agree if you need more than that and you’re not a long-term guest, it’s kind of rude. Like, coming over for dinner and deciding you want to surf the web for an hour or so is extremely gauche.
I don’t mind as long as I know the person well. My boyfriend of 2 years on the other will literally check my email for me before he will let me touch his precious computer.
The weirdest situation with someone borrowing my computer was when a girl I had known for two days kicked me out of my residence room to read Harry Potter fanfiction on my own computer.
Yeah, that sounds even weirder today than it did back then.
I had a get-together a couple months ago and my friend and SIL decided to sit there looking at all the pretty horsie Youtubes for a couple hours. I was pissed. I was even more pissed that they had no idea they were being rude.
I don’t even really like it when my SO wants to use my computer. It hasn’t come up before, but I imagine I would be a bit wierded out by a guest wanting to.
Laptop here. Ubuntu Intrepid, which comes with a guest account activated, so it’s a simple two clicks and they’re ready to go.
With Windows’ Fast User Switching and Secondary Logon, I can’t see why the Windows Guest account would be any slower or time-consuming to open up.
Plus, Guest accounts can’t access my private folders 
Just solved this problem recently with a computer desk that closes up and hides everything.
If they’re staying here - it’s okay I guess. We have a guest account set up, and try to log off our IDs when we get up from the computer. Otherwise, if you’re just here for an afternoon or something please don’t use my computer to show me the Trans Siberian Railroad Christmas house and all sorts of other weird vids and Warcraft stuff. I’m not really a fan of cleaning up bookmarks n such so people don’t run across or misinterpret something (ie the dope!).
Oh yea, and don’t complain the sound isn’t loud enough or the speakers aren’t plugged in. There’s a nice lil switch if external sound devices are happened to be hooked up.
Computers and internet are so ubiquitous now and such a necessary convenience that it’s somewhat akin to asking to use the phone. It’s nice to agree, but it’s not mandatory. I generally wouldn’t mind if someone just wants to check their email or something, but if they wanted to spend any time on it I’d want to set up a guest account first.
I have no problem with guests using the desktop or the spare laptop without asking, or if they want logging on to my wireless, but please don’t use my laptop. There is no reasons they couldn’t but it just annoys me.
I don’t mind, but I do like to be asked.
My boss just hijacks my computer basically because she’s useless and can’t do anything without me being involved, but that’s a pit thread. Inevitably she closes something without saving and I have to redo it. Yes, it’s a work computer and it’s company property. I never abuse it (other than things like reading the Dope at lunchtime :P), but I don’t like people just jumping on it. It’s like my handbag - I’d prefer people not to rifle through my handbag without asking and my computer is the same thing.
I have no issues at all letting others use my computer… Though when they want to use it for an extended period of time I kinda get annoyed… I spend almost all my idle time there, and really have no other items used for entertainment in the house.
Oh, and regarding browser history and porn, I had to teach dad how to clear the history… A guy should really not know what kind of porn his dad likes.
I mind. It will offend some people’s sensibilities, but with guests, my home is not their home. Some things are and always will be off-limits. My computer is one of those things.
My computer is a Mac and most people don’t know how to use them. Many will bitch about having to use a Mac and whine about PCs being better and try to get me to switch. And some people think nothing of changing settings or moving things around. Which is annoying in itself, but often these same people aren’t computer/Mac literate enough to know what shouldn’t be moved or changed, or how to explain or undo what they moved or changed. It’s just easier to have a rule to not let anyone else near my machine.
I rarely let others borrow my computers. Especially friends that I consider rather nosy and the girl friend. She can be nosy as well and gets upset when she comes across the most innocent of things she shouldn’t even be finding.
Case in point: When I got my new MacBook I set up I set up Mail to get all my accounts. One of them is rather old and I’ve pretty much migrated all the important stuff off of it. The rest is spam or stuff that isn’t relative but also not worth unsubscribing to. Well what does she see when Mail pops up? Yahoo Personal Matches. Keep in mind I never fully signed up for the service, as was evident by the fact that matches located near my previous address and if you clicked on them from the email it would ask you to continue setting up the account. All of these emails were marked unread and I never bothered to figure out why Yahoo kept sending me mail. Nevertheless, she got angry and jumped to the conclusion I was cheating on her.
Even prior to finding those emails she’d get angry and was suspicious when I would log her into the guest account before letting her use the computer. There’s really nothing on this machine my grandma couldn’t browse through but I just hate it when people are nosy.
I’m also the same with my car. I’ve had 3 cars, and besides my parents, only 1 person has ever driven each car. And in those instances I was either too tired to drive or the car absolutely needed to be moved and I wasn’t able to take care of it. As it stands the current girlfriend has never driven my new car and it drives her nuts!
I never ask to drive others cars or use their computers as I wouldn’t let them use mine.
It doesn’t bother me at all.
My comp is in my room and my room is off limits. NO ONE gets to use my computer. But I do have another computer available for others to use.