And if she has been getting her computer bogged down with spyware/adware/viruses, you should set it try to prevent that as much as possible.
use a good firewall (not the MS one). The free version of ZoneAlarm is pretty good.
install an anti-virus program (Norton or similar). Make sure that you have it set in the task schedular to automatically check for new virus definitions every day.
switch to some browser other than IE (Mozilla or Firefox seem to be the upcoming ones) for normal browsing.
install at least one, probably more of the anti-adware programs (ad-aware, Spybot, Spyware Search, SpyCatcher, …). They seem to catch different things, so us more than one. Note that many of them need to be regularly updated with the latest directory file – again, try to schedule this to happen automatically every few days via the task scheduler.
put regular maintenance tasks (disk defrag, scan disk, cleanup/temp file deletion, etc.) as scheduled events in the task scheduler, set to run automatically.
For a user like your mother, unsophisticated in computers, it will be hard to teach her all that she ought to do. So don’t; take advantage of the task scheduler and do these things automatically, at a time when he won’t be using her computer. This will prevent the worst problems, and keep her machine reasonably clean.
P.S. Ask your idiot brother why he switched her from Win98 to WinXp in the first place – many viruses won’t work on 98, they only target XP. If her computer was working fine for her under 98, why switch? Especially since her older machine will now run slower under XP than it did under 98.
And who paid for that copy of WinXP – did he make your mother buy it? Or is it a pirate copy he installed?
I agree with the assesments here that your brother John is a jerk and an a–hole.
And if all else fails, steal asshole brother’s car keys. Then, when he wants them back, bribe him for the admin password. Only after he’s given up the password and it proves to be correct, will he get his keys back (but not after you’ve made a copy so you can steal the car later and go joy riding).
Formatting is fun, but my idea has a touch of evil.
Did you try assuring your brother that if he gives up the password, he won’t be held responsible for fixing whatever you and your mother screw up?
Playing the devil’s advocate, I commiserate with anyone who has computer skills and a large family. If they paid me, I could easily make a 60-hour-per-week job from responding to all their endless trivial complaints at family gatherings. Not that they’ll ever pay! “Oh, can you take a look at my computer for 5 minutes?” turns into a never-ending “Ever since you looked at my computer, it hasn’t worked right.”
Why did your brother upgrade your mom from Win98 to WindowsXP? He probably got tired of getting hassled for trivial problems that have been fixed in the past 6 years. When everyone thinks you have valuable knowledge that is easy for you to dispense, you look like an asshole if you don’t give it. So you can’t reclaim your life without looking like an asshole, to some degree.
I ended up doing a policy of giving verbal solutions only, along with full risk disclosure. If the person is savvy enough to attempt the fix, they’re savvy enough to accept the consequences.
If you want to get a little farther with your brother, I’d suggest being a little more sensitive to his situation. He might see himself as the family’s tech-support whipping boy.
Let me try and condense some answers into one post:
t-bonham@scc.net: It’s HIS XP that he installed on his home PC. He brought the CD over to her house, and upgraded it without telling her he was going to do so. And took the disc back to his house with him. And she IS bogged down with spyware and the like. And I can’t download any spyware killers or virus scans (for anti-virus, I use AVG. I used to work for a company whose IT guy swore by it).
Flander, that would work, if he didn’t live 90 minutes away from here. As such, stealing his car keys isn’t really an option.
NattoGuy, I don’t claim to be a computer whiz, but his skills are just marginally better than mine. There’s generally not anything that he can do that I can’t get at least 3/4 of the way through. This one has got me thrown for a loop, though. He used his licenses for her computer. She’s pissed off about it, and has told him to tell her the password, or set her up as the admin. He won’t do it.
Regarding him being thought of as the family IT guy, I think that’s a little excessive. And egotistical on his part if it’s the truth. I’ve tried talking with him reasonably about it, and so has my mother. He refuses to budge.
OK, if you’re so smart, just do it yourself. You don’t need the administrative password at all. Create a boot disk as you’ve been advised, purchase a copy of the OS of your choice, and install it the way you and your mother like it. In fact, this is probably the best way for all concerned… then it becomes your baby, and your brother is completely out of the picture. Whatever beef he has just goes away, at least as far as the computing is concerned.
Yeah, the recipients always think it’s unreasonable and egotistical when free tech support goes on strike. Until you’ve been in his shoes, you don’t know how it feels to be exploited like that. It’s especially a slap in the face if you think you know 3/4 of what he knows… you could research the last bit and learn it on your own, but your time is too valuable… better to waste your brother’s time instead.
This is what I tell my family… If you want help on your terms, do it/hire it yourself. If you want me to do it for free, then I do it my way. None of it requires a college degree or even a high school education, just burn a little midnight oil and apply some mental elbow grease.
I’m sure you’re a nice guy and I don’t mean for this to be as harsh as it probably sounds. But this scenario sounds extremely familiar, and it might help you to be aware of how your behavior might look from the other side of the fence. Especially if your brother is a natural-born asshole, then that makes everything I said doubly true.
Technically, unless he’s purchased permission from M$ to install his copy of XP on other machines, he’s in violation of copyright law. You can always point this out to him and explain to him that if he doesn’t cough up the password, you’ll report him to M$. That might get him to do it, and even if he does, I say report him to M$ anyway just for being a jerk (not that they’ll do anything to him in all likelihood, but who knows, ya might get lucky).
If all else fails, you can download this program, copy it to a floppy and then it’ll wipe your mom’s hard drive completely. At which point you can do a clean install of whatever OS you chose.
First, I agree that your brother is a dick. I’m the default tech guy for my friends and family and while I understand the frustration that can result, there are a few things I would never do. I would never make drastic changes to their computers without their express permission and I would never install pirated software.
As for password recovery, the most recent LangaList edition just happens to have an entry on the subject. Maybe you’ll find the info you need in these links.
