Is there a good computer for grandmas?

In My Humble Opinion
1

TL;DR version: what’s the best setup for elderly people who are really bad with computers, but still want to use one?

My mom (in her eighties) still wants to use her computer, but it’s becoming too difficult to do just about anything she wants to do, which is check her email, pay bills, shop, and browse the internet. She says the computer is always changing on her, in ways she can’t fix – most recently, it seems the text size of everything has gotten smaller, and she can’t make it bigger. She’s holding up a magnifying glass to the screen at this point.

I’m thousands of miles away. It’s hard to help her with stuff like that over the phone, firstly because she never understands what she’s looking at. For example, she doesn’t know that you use a web browser (which might be Firefox or Chrome or Internet Explorer or what-have-you) to browse the internet. When she’s looking at a webpage, she doesn’t know it’s a webpage; it’s just stuff on the screen to her, whether it’s a PDF or a JPG on her hard drive, or an error message from Windows, or a file folder, or a webpage. All she knows is that stuff keeps breaking on her.

Not too long ago, she called in a panic because “My Amazon is gone.” Several difficult minutes of questioning later, I finally realized someone had set up a Start Menu button labeled “Amazon,” and that’s what she pressed when she wanted to go to Amazon.com. The button disappeared, and she had no idea that you could launch the web browser of your choice and type in Amazon.com in the browser’s address bar – these terms mean nothing to her. She doesn’t know that she has an Amazon account with a password, and the only reason she’s not required to log in and use the password is that the browser remembers it. Her personal method was to press a certain button, and when that failed, she was completely lost.

Same thing with bank billpay recently – and yes, it fills me with terror that she’s attempting any form of online banking – she had a button for Billpay, and when the bank changed the link, it broke, and she didn’t know to use a web browser and type in [bankname.com]. It’s a miracle she was eventually able to do this, and what’s more, successfully log in.

Some of you may be thinking at this point, with hearts full of pity, she’s getting too old to use a computer, and you wouldn’t be far wrong. She knows it, but asks plaintively, “isn’t there a computer for grandmas?” It seems to me that (as they do with cellphones) they ought to market super-easy-to-use computers to folks who need that, but I’m not sure they do. Computers are by their nature very complex machines. But so are phones, and there’s definitely Grandma Phones.

Of course what she really needs is somebody by her side to help her. I’ll happily buy her a machine and fly out there to set it up, but after I go home, the new machine will break again. Phone support doesn’t ever work because she’ll never phone me from the computer while she’s having the problems; it’s always an afterthought, after she’s become frustrated and stepped away from the screen. She’s never been willing to problem-solve together in the moment – she just wants it to work, that’s all.

For all these reasons I’m pretty sure there is no machine that could solve her problems. She really is too old to use a computer effectively. But is there a machine, a setup, an idea, a concept that could possibly help any? Do they still have AOL – is there a modern-day walled garden solution? Would a Mac be better than a PC? All ideas welcome.

2

I’ll tell you one that’s not: GrandPad. We got one for my mother a few years ago and it wasn’t as good as an ipad and to make matters worse, it does not work unless you use their cellular service to connect to the web. Massive ripoff.

3

I’ll be curious to see suggestions, as my father (who turns 90 in a couple of weeks) is increasingly frustrated by the lack of actual, timely content in the dead-tree newspaper he gets delivered. He used to use a computer, years ago, but hasn’t done so in years; he’s told me that he’d like to get a computer again so that he can read the online version of the newspaper. He doesn’t even need to be able to do email – he just needs a simple, very straightforward, reasonably foolproof solution that’ll let him read an online newspaper on a browser.

4

Definitely an iPad. It’ll streamline everything. They’re great.

5

I have a couple of iPads that I use for various purposes but if all they are doing is steaming and browsing news, pretty much any inexpensive tablet will work. An 11 inch Lenovo or Amazon Fire table is probably the cheapest decent option for a full-sized tablet.

Stranger

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My MIL is facing many of the same problems and confusion as the OP using her desktop computer. It seems every other day she is in need of some tech support for a problem that is easily addressed, but she just does not know what to do. We are getting more concerned with her falling for some scam that she loses a bunch of money. We are looking at getting access to her screen/screen share, so we can fix whatever issue she is seeing. As the drift of this thread is going, we are considering just getting her a tablet and be done with it.

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Glad to hear the tablet solution might work. But I’ll happily pay for quality if necessary. I had a low-end Amazon Fire that was just crap; I’d spend time configuring the desktop how I like it, and after a day or two it would revert to its ugly default with four hundred blinking icons on the screen. That’s exactly the kind of thing that will make my mom hurl it across the room.

Other than that, I’ve never used a tablet. I’m none too young myself, and rely on acres of screen real estate, a nice big standard keyboard and mouse, and an upright operating position. Would a very old person really fare well hunched over something, using their fingers on a touchscreen?

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I’ve tried and tried. Time to try again.

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There are remote access programs like TeamViewer which allow you to log in and take over her screen. She can see and interact with the screen at the same time you are on it. I think you can pay a monthly fee and be able to log into it yourself on your own. If you don’t pay, she may have to start it up first on her end and tell you some login numbers that you use to connect to her system. That might be challenging for her. But if you can get that working, it would allow you to manage her computer.

A tablet is good, but there would be a lot to learn. If she already knows how to use her computer, then it might be best for her to stay on it. If you can remotely log in and fix stuff, that may be best option.

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You know, I think you may have hit upon it. I’m aware of TeamViewer and the rest, we’ve just never been able to successfully connect. Part of the problem could be that she lives in BF Egypt and has a substandard internet connection – I think it’s satellite with a dish, for real – but it’s worth continuing to try.

11

My 83-year-old mother now uses an Android tablet as her primary device, and is (mostly) happy with it (to the extent that she’ll ever be happy with any piece of technology, that is).

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My suggestion is as follows:

  1. Search Amazon or another online retailer for a Windows 10 refurbished computer (I am using a “renewed” Lenovo ThinkCentre M93P Tiny Desktop, Intel Core i5-4570T, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit that I’ve had for 3 years now with no problems). Separately buy a 21" - 25" desktop monitor;
  2. You or someone knowledgeable will need to set it up but the key thing is Do Not Connect to a modem when you first turn on the computer or you will be forced to create a Microsoft Windows account before you can run the setup program;
  3. Once you’ve run and completed the setup, connect to a modem, download a browser (I prefer Firefox esr or Firefox Quantum) and under Windows Apps, make that browser the computer’s default browser (note: Do Not Use the Microsoft Edge browser as your default browser because it will update in ways that can confuse your mom!), and download a program called “StopUpdates10.” Once installed this program can prevent Windows 10 from updating forever. This is important because Windows updates - along with updates to any Chrome-based browser like Edge or Google Chrome - are likely at the root of the visual changes that occur that confuse your mom. If she is only going to be accessing a limited number of websites, Windows updates really aren’t needed - she only will be accessing a handfull of legitimate websites;
  4. Bookmark the sites she uses in the browser you download and place them on the bookmarks toolbar. Delete any other links or bookmark that may be there. In Firefox esr (and Firefox Quantum), you can set the zoom default for all websites to a value greater than 100% so if she has trouble seeing, I would suggest setting the default value to 120 or 125%;
  5. Finally create a Firefox browser account with a username and password you both can remember. This will save her bookmarks and other settings for cookies, logins, security, etc. and allow you access to the same account on your personal computer device provided you both have access to the same email account for security purposes. That way you can see whatever she is seeing and if necessary, make updates or changes to the bookmarks, settings, etc. And yes, you can both be logged into the browser account at the same time.

Good luck!

13

Welcome to the Straight Dope!

These are all great suggestions. You’ve reminded me, I think an incompetent tech person decided to install Windows 11 on her ancient machine, and that’s part of the recent trouble, and can’t be undone to my knowledge. I’m also in favor of sticking to Win10, but instead of buying refurbished, I might just have a local shop build one to spec, with Win10 and without crapware, and ship it to coincide with my own arrival. Love the idea of stopping the updates; I’ll look into that. Thank you!

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Welcome, @2outta3! I like your username.

15

Please get the iPad over disabling security updates. That’s not a good idea.

Though if you really wanted to go that way, get a Dell refurb workstation PC. They come in very small form factors and Windows 10 Pro (which allows you to actually disable updates without needing third-party applications.) They’re like $200.

16

Many Windows updates are security updates. I would be very nervous about stopping all updates.

I was thinking tablet or maybe better, a Chromebook. Then it would be a more familiar set up. I don’t know that everything I’m about to write translates to a Chromebook because I don’t have one, but I’m assuming you can do these things.

With a launcher like Nova Launcher, you can set up the “desktop” the way you want it and then lock the screen layout. This can prevent accidental deletions of icons, accidental moving of icons or other screen elements, etc.

Having specific apps already downloaded seems like it would fit her concept of just clicking the thing that says “Amazon” or whatever. You can even lock down the Play store with a password so she can’t easily download a bunch of crap or get duped into installing something.

I would definitely not get a Fire. We have a couple of Lenovo tablets that have been good.

I think a computer is always going to be too complicated for someone who is that at sea. And it will only get worse as things change and she becomes less able to adapt.

My mom is 81, and luckily her work involved using a computer, so she’s got some basic knowledge, but not only has she not kept up with the changes, she has lost her willingness to try to figure things out. She rarely uses her computer anymore, and happily sits and browses or plays on her tablet.

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iPad with a keyboard case. Both my 85 yo mother and 76 yo mother in law are using iPads and it makes my life so much easier.

My MIL was taken in by the scammers that used pop ups to get to call “Microsoft” where she paid them to install “anti-virus” on her old Windows laptop because she didn’t want to bother me. After a hard drive wipe and replacement credit cards I eventually got her on the iPad.

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Speaking anecdotally, the same things were happening to my late Mother. We tried the iPad route (granted this was about 7 years ago), but she never could catch on to tapping the icons and pinching the screen. Plus, it was hard for her to hold the tablet close enough to her face to read the screen. The best solution we found was TeamViewer, which, after properly installed and configured, allowed either my brother or me to remotely access her computer as long as it was powered up. (She didn’t have to grant permission each time, as we both knew the password that I had chosen for the remote users.) Then, when she had a problem, one of us would access her PC while talking to her on the phone. Worked pretty good when dealing with a 98 year old woman who was losing her hearing and sight.

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Unless they need a piece of software installed, i strongly recommend a chrome book. Because you can’t install most software on it, it is much less susceptible to hacking. And that’s a major problem for people with limited computer literacy.

Also, if they want to type (email, for instance) having a keyboard is nice. It’s also nice that you can prop it open, and don’t have to hold it upright. My mom found the iPad my brother gave her too heavy.

20

Like the teamviewer program mentioned abovè, there is a program called Anydesk.
Very easy to use.
You sit at home and have full control over her computer, as if you were sitting at her house and seeing her screen