Are You The Go To Tech Support For Friends & Family?

Marp · ‎03-09-2010

Then there must have been times when you were near or in tears of frustration trying to walk someone through a solution.

With Windows 10 Anniversary update there is now a built in tool that should/could make helping easier.

If you’re the unofficial “tech support” for your family, a new feature hidden deep within Windows 10’s Anniversary Update should be welcome news. It’s called Quick Assist.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3109524/windows/windows-10s-quick-assist-lets-you-fix-dads-computer-f...

The eyes through which you see others may be the same as how they see you.

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

That Anniversary update was a doozy! It corrupted a couple of my programs, uninstalled one, and made my Win7 games install dead. I got everything cleaned up and somebody who is way more adept at me at these things got a new install for the games.

But I didn't know about this. So far, I only have one friend who has a Win10 computer and she got hers before I got mine.

It's really difficult to help somebody when you can't just go there and see everything. I've tried to help people by email or on the phone and it's just not the same. That could be at least partly because I'm NOT an expert, however.

I have to help my husband out a lot. He knows little and has little time to learn (or maybe more likely little desire to learn) and everybody else in his office is the same. They actually pay a computer guy to install the simplest of programs. Money to burn I guess!

GCR18 · ‎07-03-2013

I am my mother's technical support. She calls frantic when something goes wrong with her kindle. I'll get mine and do what I'm telling her, but she always ends up somewhere different than I. I am thankful she gave up her computer and only uses the kindle. It's not as painful for me. 😀

Toppers · ‎01-01-2015

@GCR18 wrote:
I am my mother's technical support. She calls frantic when something goes wrong with her kindle. I'll get mine and do what I'm telling her, but she always ends up somewhere different than I. I am thankful she gave up her computer and only uses the kindle. It's not as painful for me. 😀

I bolded the last part of your post, because I couldn't help but laugh at it! LOL!!

It reminds me of helping my dear MIL. The dear soul would try so hard, and she would just mess things up even worse.

When she would visit here and use our computer, I would have to go and clean up after her.

Sometimes, I wouldn't even know what she ended up doing...

She would completely change things up on the computer's desktop screen somehow.

glb613 · ‎03-09-2010

@Toppers wrote:
@GCR18 wrote:
I am my mother's technical support. She calls frantic when something goes wrong with her kindle. I'll get mine and do what I'm telling her, but she always ends up somewhere different than I. I am thankful she gave up her computer and only uses the kindle. It's not as painful for me. 😀
I bolded the last part of your post, because I couldn't help but laugh at it! LOL!!

It reminds me of helping my dear MIL. The dear soul would try so hard, and she would just mess things up even worse.

When she would visit here and use our computer, I would have to go and clean up after her.

Sometimes, I wouldn't even know what she ended up doing...

She would completely change things up on the computer's desktop screen somehow.

My parents and some of my friends are that way. You can't imagine what they were doing or how they did what they did! Of course, no one can give an explaination of what happened. I gave up doing help over the phone. It's too frustrating. I'd ask what you see on the screen and always got "nothing" as an answer. One thing I do when helping, I make the person do the work. I stand behind or sit next to them so I can see the screen but they do the work. People never learn if others do it for them.

Mz iMac · ‎07-26-2014

YUP!

And the first thing out of my mouth is, "did you.....

RTFM (Read The Fing Manual)?"

"Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

PamelaSue72 · ‎09-22-2011

I am....and it can be frustrating beyond belief sometimes. I'm fine working on our own computers, laptops, etc in the house. It's when I get a frantic phone call from one of my GFs that I want to smack my head into the wall.

I got one of those phone calls the other day. First she was upset that I couldn't drop everything I was doing, just to come running to her rescue. We were finally able to set up a date and I went in the other day after work. Only to find her in the middle of her card club. She waved her hand in the air when I walked in and told me to go back to the room and try to find what the problem was. Let her know when I was finished. I was not amused. She didn't even bother to come with me to try to find the problem.

Went back, turned the computer on, fixed what was wrong (in about ten minutes or so), came out, and asked her why she didn't do what I had asked her to do the day she called me in a panic. "Oh, I was so tired! And that's what I have you for!" It did not go well from there. (She is retired and doesn't do much, no reason for her to be that "tired".....meaning she didn't want to do what I told her to do.)

The next time she calls, I'm going to say that I have no idea what could be causing her computer problems and she needs to call a Tech Support person (which will NOT be me). I'm tired of running to her rescue because she doesn't want to take any responsibility.