Whether you’re an actual grandmother or anyone else a little hesitant to do your own computer maintenance, you’ll find the following simple instructions will help keep your computer working well for years to come.
Computer Maintenance Tips #1—Befriend A Geek
Despite the media’s portrayal of computer geeks as nerdy young men, computer geeks come in all shapes. My grandmother’s best friend, another grandmother, is a computer geek.
Befriending a computer geek is by far the best computer maintenance you can do. Your geek friend will teach you how to use your computer the right way, will fix problems when they’re still easy to fix, and can explain to you the many things about computers that require specialized knowledge. As a nice bonus, most computer geeks often give away their old technology to their friends, meaning free goodies for you.
Computer Maintenance Tips #2—Run Anti-Virus
Many grandmothers I know live on a tight budget, either because they have to or because they’re used to it from years of practice (raising a family has never been cheap). So a lot of you probably wonder whether it’s necessary to renew your pricy anti-virus subscription.
Many modern computer viruses are designed by criminals to carry out their illegal businesses. They infect your computer and use it to send spam or attack other computers or spread child pornography. But the government can’t tell that your computer is infected, and more than once, the police have arrested somebody for crimes committed by viruses on their computer.
But even if you’re not afraid of being arrested for child pornography or other crimes, viruses use up the computing resources of your PC, ruining the value of your $500 or $1,000 computer. Compared to that, a $30 or $50 a year anti-virus subscription costs nothing. Protecting your computer from viruses is very important.
Computer Tips #3—Make Backups
Some grandmothers use their computers all the time; some only spend an hour a week online. But no grandmother wants to lose the result of the effort they’ve put into their computer.
Yet few grandmothers backup their files. Unfortunately, every computer hard drive will eventually fail, taking with it to the grave any unpreserved data. An easy way is to simply backup files to an external hard drive.
Talk to your computer geek friend about how to make backups. You want a simple regular system that doesn’t require much maintenance. Windows comes with a backup wizard that you can use with an external hard disk, or you can use a online service like Mozy. Just make sure you get your backup system setup soon.
Computer Tips #4—Examine Error Messages
I bet I know what you do when an error message appears—you click “Ok” and hope things keep working. If they do, you quickly forget you ever saw the error message.
But little error messages like those indicate that there’s something wrong with your computer—something that could become a big problem later.
Whenever you see an error message, write down its keywords before you click Ok. Then show those keywords to your computer geek friend. He or she will either recognize the error or know how to search for it online. Then you can take care of any required computer maintenance once and for all.
My name is Mitz Pantic and I’ve been working with computers for over 25 years and love to teach people how to use their computers. Be sure to visit me at my computer tips website and say hello in the comments section. Also do not forget to sign-up for my free computer tips newsletter and receive a free 59 page Computer Terms Dictionary!
If you have any tips for computer maintenance please share them with us by leaving your comment below.
Hi guys! I am a computer freak who is obsessed with computer tips, building websites, money making. Finger in every pie, love working, addicted to caffeine. Multi multi tasker, likes juggling ten jobs, should have joined the circus. Ha Ha!
I find this post very motivational. You’re absolutely right about massive amounts of information bogging us down and too much time being wasted. Reading your description of what it takes to actually make progress is get things done is a good reminder of what I really should be doing with my time.
Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Glad you liked it !!
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Befriending a geek might be the best suggestion of all. That friend can also offer their services for a small price.
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
I know a lot of people like being my friend…??
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I think one of the best programs I usually put on my parents computer is malaware bytes.
Its pretty simple to run and its free. I doesn’t bog down your computer and keeps you semi safe.
Deff. is easy enough for a parent or grandma for sure!
Thanks
Twitter: tips4pc
says:
I put Avast on my parents computers and they do not know its there either. Before that they just kept getting viruses as they would click on anything they were asked to.. : )
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Oh, this is a problem for many people) My mother still doesn’t know how exactly to use computer and she always opens spam messages, and I need to update my antivirus software very often))
Twitter: tips4pc
says:
I guess it is our duty to make sure our parents are not getting a virus or pressing on the wrong links.
Mitz’s recent post ..7 Computer Tips You Won’t Learn From Your Mom
This is very nice to give some useful tips to your grandma for the computer maintenance.
I will suggest my grandma to go through your post.It will help her a lot to chat with me and family from the distance.
Tanks for the post.
Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Glad you like the article..
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The blog is useful to me for help my father
. He is always using my PC after retiring, and the result is that my computer becomes more and more slow, haha.
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Yes my parents do the same thing…Open and click everything!
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It’s kinda annoying when my parents use the PC and when something pops out, they will click “OK” button without knowing the consequences. It was last week that they didn’t notice they just stumbled on a dating site LOL.
Great tips.. Luckily for me my mom doesn’t know or has no interest in the internet.. She would just play Plants VS zombies all day..
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Sounds ok.. What is Plants vs Zombies?
Twitter: katiepecbvda
says:
I don’t know much about computers or know anyone who does. How do you create a backup of your stuff? Can anyone help me?
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Hi Katie
Maybe you could read this article..
http://www.windowstalk.org/2011/11/syncing-backup-files-to-external-hard-drives/
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Some very good tips, indeed. However I also think it’s a good idea to let people know about the dangers of going to certain websites that can harbor viruses or trojans. This probably excludes your grandma, but grandson? Stay off the download sites, the warez sites, and the po!n sites. This is how viruses are spread…
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Oh no.. That is another whole article! I agree. Tell people to keep away from all that bad stuff!
Mitz’s recent post ..Best WordPress Themes Package – Elegant Themes
Keeping backups and running anti Virus in the system is the most important parts of computer maintenance from my point of view. Parents and Grandparents are generally not that much used to with Computers so their PC’s need some extra care.
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Yes they do need our help.. Once they start using the computer they realize how great it is though.. I can’t get my parents off all the news websites…
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Hi
My parents are really carefully with the pc. If they get a error message they call me every time and i have to say it is nothing or so. I think it is good that they are carefully with the pc because to cklick ok is faster than reinstall or repair
. I also install they a good antivirus and zonealarm and i think that is enough for old people because they do not visit dangerous websites 
.
Twitter: tips4pc
says:
I know my parents do not visit dangerous websites but they do visit all the latest news websites..They always got a virus until I installed Avast.. The free ones did not work for them..
Now I am happy because I am not getting those phone calls saying they have a problem.
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#1 on your list has been a curse to me! It seems like I can’t go anywhere without a friend or family member asking for IT help!
Twitter: tips4pc
says:
I know that happened to me…But I put my hands up and say “no don’t ask me” and point to my nieces husband… Ha ha ha.. He is the new IT sucker in the family..
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Twitter: computerguide18
says:
No mention the basic computer maintenance of cleanliness/hygiene? Wipe the monitor, keyboard, and computer case periodically with a soft cloth. I think grandmas would find this pretty easy to do without any help
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Yes thats a great tip to add! Thanks very much.
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This all a good tips.. Fortunately for me my mom has no interest on the net.. She always just play mystery games.
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
Sounds like she does not need your help!
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Hey Mitz,
I could hardly relate from this post since I have my grandparents making a joyful times in the computer world. I gifted them a personal computer for a week now, and tutored them before working on. They got good on the computer basics now, but my problem is on how I could give them the ways to keep the computer on it’s maintenance. Thanks for this informative post.
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Twitter: tips4pc
says:
I installed an all in one maintenance program on my parents computers and often ask them if they have “pressed the button” for a cleanup..
Mitz’s recent post ..7 Computer Tips You Won’t Learn From Your Mom
Great tips, one thing to try is to copy the error messages into google and see if their is any plain english advice on how to deal with it.
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The tips that you have provided are the basics of keeping your computer in good condition. But these are the ones that are often taken for granted. I’s nice to be reminded every once in a while of how easy it is to take care of our computers and how ugly it could get when we don’t.
Error messages, for example, are often ignored. You’re right, when something pops up in our screen, we just immediately click on “OK” without reading or understanding the message that comes with the box. It is important that we are mindful of what we see in our computers especially if they are updates, error messages and even those simple pop-up boxes. Thanks for the very informative post.
Twitter: tips4pc
says:
My parents have always pressed any button that was in front of them… Then I told them not to and now they ring me to see if it is alright to press.
Mitz’s recent post ..7 Computer Tips You Won’t Learn From Your Mom
My mom and dad id fond of reading news from web, they always do that and sometimes, they can open dangerous websites that brings virus to the computer. I changed my anti-virus with avast… Now its not the virus being the problem. Sometimes, i have software installed that avast would erase it.
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This is very nice to give some useful tips to your grandma for the computer maintenance.
this are really cool tips and advice
mom and dad is recently getting interested on the net specially networking sites because they wanted to keep in touch with family and friends. hehe they are so cute to watch facing the computer. thanks though for this helpful post.
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I just recently started to teach my mother to send receive emails to her sister outside the country. Many times I would explain the same thing 3-5 times before she would remember. Talk about growing with only the typewriter. I really have to be extra patient and understanding.
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I swear by using the following applications which does my Computer maintenance. I use “Diskeeper 2011 Prof” to do my defragmantation in the background.
I use everytime before I turnoff my Computer ” CCleaner”
Once a month I use “PC Matic”. To clean the rubbish of Internet, I use ” PC Magnum”
To keep an eye out what is permitted on my Computer, I use ” WinPatrol. To top it off I use AVG Internet Security 2012 for complete protection.
And they all work perfectly together.
Grandpas will be jealous if Grandmas befirend a Geek especially more intelligent than Grandpas. But if Grandpas are Computer Geeks then everything is fine.