Fixing Your Family’s Computers

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, this is the time of year we’re most likely to interact with the members of our family we see less often during the rest of the year. Even though you might not be a computer whiz, the fact remains that your regular interaction with college students puts you in the upper percentile of computer users in the country.

Lifehacker has put together a great post called How To Fix Your Relatives’ Terrible Computer. It’s really just a guide to helping Windows users combat three common problems: computer won’t boot, computer is laden with “crapware”, or computer could use a tune-up. To be honest, you might want to check these tips out for yourself before you even worry about trying them on your family.

Do you have family members who want to use a computer, but you’re not so sure they’d work so well with traditional computers? Netbooks have long been a great option for relatives who just want to check their email and visit a few web sites, but they still require learning a modern operating system. If you’re in the market for a simpler sort of computer, I suggest you head over to your local Best Buy to try an iPad (very few people need more than the $500 model) or start learning about Google’s upcoming Chrome OS.

(photo from flickr user gurneyh)

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