Dealing with your own family's nightmare pc

There’s no heading off it. If you’re home for the holidays, journeying with dad and mom or relatives, subsequently, they are going to mention five words to twist your belly into knots. You might’ve notion approximately them in the automobile or at the plane experience domestic and broken out into a cold sweat. But there is just no warding off it: each holiday go-to, a person’s going to mention “Can you fix the laptop?” and you are going to have no choice but to say yes. Like the Person Who Knows Computers, this is your present, and it’s miles your curse.

Before you hyperventilate over the idea of a laptop blanketed in 13 duplicated shortcuts to Google.Com or spyware that has reputedly been invited to make itself at domestic in the notifications tray, take a deep breath. Then examine our cheat sheet beneath for 5 sincere hints to, in all likelihood, assist you to clean up a hassle laptop and make it suit for human use all over again.

There’s no troubleshooting trauma worse than seeking tech help over the phone as someone describes what application or menu or blunders message they are searching at on their display. At that moment, you are genuinely powerless. Thankfully, that is the best troubleshooting situation to clear up, and if you resolve it, the odds of you having to do anything for the duration of the vacation decrease exceptionally. Because year-round, in preference to attempting to stroll someone via a solution, you can do it yourself. TeamViewer is a godsend.

Install the free model of TeamViewer on the stricken PC and explain what it’s far: a far-flung laptop software program on the way to assist you to login remotely and take control. Explain no person else may be able to try this (which includes the authorities!) so long as they do not pass sharing the ID code and password, which can be prominently displayed while you open the program. Next time trouble strikes, ask whoever wishes your assist to open TeamViewer, provide you with that code, and pass examine an ebook. You’ve got the conn.

Hopefully, that misbehaving PC isn’t full of really nasty stuff; however, you by no means know. That’s why it’s a terrific idea to play it safe and run Malwarebytes, a reliable loose program for identifying spyware and malware, as a way only to take a couple of minutes to run. Experiment and do away with something unseemly.

Annoyingly, greater current versions of Malwarebytes like up with Windows and begin nagging you to improve to top rate after some weeks, and you don’t need to saddle all of us with that. So you’ve got two alternatives: uninstall Malwarebytes altogether when you run it, or right-click on the icon inside the machine tray, and disable Start with Windows. That should preserve dad and mom secure from daily popups.

Every 12 months, I must (attempt to) train my mother and father approximately the idea of digital storage space because every single 12 months, they run out. Chances are, in case your mother and father are dealing with the equal hassle, they’re additionally green in preserving a tidy report machine. Exactly what is taking up space and where it’s at is its very own large venture. Save your self-problem and discover the five folders of high-res fish photographs your dad by accident reproduction-pasted 10 instances over in no time with WinDirStat. This top-notch tool scans drives and parses in which your records are allotted in an explorable folder structure with accompanying records allocation stats and exquisite blocks of color. If your dad and mom can parent among huge things and small matters, they can probably figure out WinDirStat with sufficient patience.

One ultimate tip: Be sure to hide the computer icon, so your mom doesn’t call you inside the midnight asking approximately the new ‘virus on the laptop.’ Cool it down by getting rid of all that dust Tool: Compressed air; fan; lungs

The chances are that whoever’s having PC problems in your circle of relatives isn’t always doing hardcore overclocking. If their PC is shutting down, walking especially loud or mainly hot, the primary aspect to do (apart from an endemic experiment) is open the case and find out when it changed into final cleaned, as there may be a good risk they may be simply overheating because the interior of the case seems like Las Vegas in Blade Runner 2049. If you really want to show off, arrive with a can of compressed air in hand. You’ll appearance especially cool in case you preserve it in a belt holster, equipped with the short draw and blast dirt out of its boots.

Internet. Remember now not to inhale! Or take the element outside and blow the dust out with a fan or your private windbags. Spotty wi-fi is a nightmare to diagnose. Your circle of relatives’ internet sort of works; however, huh, bizarre, Netflix offers out now and again, or the download speed is insanely low, but uploading seems normal whilst you check on speed test. It’s difficult to inform if you’re getting the shitty provider, your router sucks, or materials (mirrors, metallic) or home equipment (garage door opener, microwave, hi-fi speakers, or ghosts of useless spouse and children) are interfering with the sign.

Before you embark on the nightmare-odyssey of phoning your mother and father’s ISP, there may be one default putting you could tinker with as a first step: your router’s broadcast channel. The idea right here is that even as your devices are probably receiving a signal from your router, they can send statistics on a crowded channel. All wireless channels within the 2.4GHz band have a few quantities of overlap… besides channels 1, 6, and eleven. Those are the magic numbers about troubleshooting. Log into your router (typically “192.168.1.1” for your cope with bar—say that you’ve hacked into it, it’s going to galvanize your mother), and swap between any of those three wireless channels to look if it improves the sign. If you need to go seasoned, take a look at our How-To Geek’s guide to scanning wi-fi frequencies to discover the one it really is least occupied. You can do this without problems with a laptop or telephone. If, in the end, that your wireless still sucks, well, you’ve removed one possible purpose in only some minutes. Also, while you are on the router, considering converting its login from the default “admin” and “password,” just in case.