After so many stories of computer-illiterate users turning tech support attempts into a grueling task, I wanted to share a success story of tech support for my grandfather, who has very little knowledge of computers but still used his brain and was extremely helpful when asking for help. 

I’ve been the go-to tech support for my grandparents for years, by dint of being the most available and the best at software and settings problems (I pass hardware issues to my brother).  They live in a different state so tech support is always via phone call. 

Grandma has always been relatively on-top of technology, she can use a tablet and a smartphone, and can reliably log into her email, Facebook, and games.  Grandpa, on the other hand, only briefly got the hang of it.  He could manage his original laptop just fine, but as the internet got more complicated and the ads got sneakier, he didn’t want to put in the effort to learn all the new safety rules or re-learn how to do everything now that Windows changed all the buttons.  He also struggles with touchscreen phones and touchpads on his laptop, he has large hands and fingers which makes precision difficult. 

So Grandma got him a Chromebook, which we all agree in hindsight was the worst possible decision.  I’ve never used one, never even seen ChromeOS, and had no idea how to help when something went wrong. (He once got a malicious full-screen popup saying Windows was compromised and he needs to call Microsoft tech support and it took me 2 hours on the phone and googling to figure out how to clear the popup. There wasn’t even a virus.)  When the Chromebook got old, slow, and possibly infected with something, they called to ask me to pick his next laptop, purchase it with their card, have it shipped to me so I could set it up, and then ship it to them.  “Ok,” I thought, “here’s my chance to make all our lives easier.” 

I picked a “Shell Inspiration”  with the dreaded Windows 11.  I’ve never used it, my computer is old enough that it can’t update from 10, so I was a bit intimidated.  I set out to research what was different and how to “grandparent-proof” Win11.  Once I had a game plan, I got to work.  Step 1, find out exactly what he does on his computer.  Facebook, Gmail, and YouTube, check.  Step 2, install Windows without a full Microsoft account.  That required getting partway through setup, downloading the updates, then disabling the Wi-Fi router and force-shutdown the computer to make a “local-only” user account.  Check! 

Now came the tricky part, make it work as much like Windows 7 (the last one he knew well) as possible.  Rip out Cortana, disable web search in the start menu, disable a bunch of “smart” stuff in the settings, uninstall all the bloatware, set the desktop background to a nice neutral color, make programs open with Single Click, and make the system font and icon size much much bigger for ease of reading.  Whew!  Step 3, Check!  

Step 4  was software.  Malwarebytes for emergencies, and in a stroke of genius, TeamViewer for future tech support.  Goodbye Edge, hello Firefox!  Adblocker, tracker blocker, and bookmark his three sites.  Get his login information from grandma, and set up auto login.  Each site gets its own custom icon on the desktop, with the logos for Facebook, Youtube, and Gmail respectively (I’m very proud of that).  

Final step: instructions!  Screenshot the desktop, and put together a cheat sheet with each icon identified and explained.  Describe how to run Malwarebytes if something seems off.  Include username and password for the computer itself and for each site.  Save the cheat sheet to the desktop, and also print a copy to close inside the lid..  Pack the whole thing up and ship it off! 

A few days later, I got the call that grandma had set up the wifi and everything was working as intended.  Great!  Every few months during one of our calls I would ask how it was working, and the answer was always positive.  But nothing lasts forever; one day I got the dreaded call: something is Wrong with the laptop and now they need my help. 

The Problem: Youtube is playing somewhere and he can’t shut it off.  He can open a new window of Youtube using my shortcut, and it will play a second video simultaneously, and he can close that second window, but can’t find the one that’s still playing.  Ok, he’s probably got a window minimized and needs to maximize and close it.  I try to talk him through finding it but it doesn’t seem to be showing on the task bar.  He’s describing his screen very well, albeit with odd terminology (for example, a window is a “mask” and the desktop is the “start screen”), and he’s also sticking to the relevant information rather than just listing every single thing on the screen. 

A note here:  Grandpa is hard of hearing, so he often shouts when he talks, especially on phone calls, and his laptop volume is always turned to the maximum.  So for the duration of this call, he is SHOUTING over the video playing.  Luckily for me, I can’t actually hear the video through the phone, he hasn’t discovered speakerphone (much to Grandma’s relief). 

I decide with some trepidation to try to get him to bring up task manager.  He confides that he’s always afraid to touch anything on the computer because if it’s the wrong thing it’s “all messed up.”  I reassure him that he’s doing great so far, and I think he can get this.  It takes him a couple of tries to get Task Manager (I’m not sure he was clicking the Start button), but he manages ctrl+alt+del and clicks the correct option.  He describes the “mask” and sure enough, Firefox is at the top of the list.  I have him click it and tell him how to find the “end task” button, and that’s where we stall.  He can’t find it.  I make sure he’s looking at the lower right hand side of the Task Manager “mask,” not the screen itself, and that he’s looking below “the entire long list” rather than the last line on the list.  

After 5 minutes of this, he suddenly interrupts, “Wait! I’ve got this ‘Team Viewer’ thing, can that help?”  

The clouds part, an angelic chorus sounds.  Yes!  I have him open Team Viewer while I log in on my end.  30 seconds later I have his screen on mine (thankfully the sound didn’t come through, though he assures me he can still hear that video).  I finally discover our pitfall: Windows 11 moved the End Task button to be above the list of processes, between two other buttons I didn’t know about (Run new task and Efficiency mode).  I triumphantly kill Firefox, and Grandpa shouts “That did it!! What did you do?”  I explain that they moved the button and I was telling him to look in the wrong place.  For good measure, I have him open Youtube again to make sure the hidden window wasn’t stuck in cache, but all is well (thank goodness).   He thanks me and I congratulate him on being so helpful that we got within one button press of solving the issue, and thank him for remembering Team Viewer.  

And mentally pat myself on the back for having the foresight to install it in the first place.