Tips for being the family holiday sysadmin | Hacker News Reader

Tips for being the family holiday sysadmin

redhat.com

27 pointskhess34 comments

> Many of the common complaints, such as "my computer is slow," have known solutions: registry cleaners for Windows

Registry cleaners are rarely, if ever, the solution for a slow PC.

One of the main use of every registry cleaner is to remove start up programs, especially otherwise hidden ones.

This process, even when undertaken by a non-expert removing things at random, will cause the computer to start less software when turning on and logging in, which will make it seem to be much faster.

If one of those programs was something with a large resident memory set or CPU usage then it really is objectively faster.

Hit Ctrl-Shift-Escape, click the Startup tab, disable things to your heart's content. This is not a good reason to install a registry cleaner.

Microsoft warns against them. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563254/microsoft-s...

“Registry cleaners” will offer to damage a brand-new installation of Windows just to make it look like they are useful. Imagine being told your brand-new car with 50 miles on it needs the “headlight fluid” replaced. It’s the same scam. https://decentsecurity.com/registry-cleaners/

Is it because they're not a Windows company that they would suggest this?

If anything registry cleaners are more likely to bork your PC.

Yeah, in my experience they are more likely Registry Hive destroyers. The Registry is intended to be read-heavy, and by vastly increasing the number of writes/deletions by regularly running a "Registry Cleaner" seems mostly to be a great way to corrupt Hive files.

I was surprised that this was included in the post. More often than not, it has broken installs for my relatives (which in turn I had to fix over the holiday).

For those who don't mind being a hero. And getting an extra slice of pie

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/in-which-i-fix-my-girlfr...

Yeah, i had that period in my life, then i got older and realized that peace and quite is golden...

Eh, for my girlfriend’s grandparents? Sure, I’ll fix their WiFi problems to be hailed as a hero and to get brownie points, but also just because I care about them.

Some random schmuck who happens to be at a holiday party and hears that I work with computers? Probably gonna say something along the lines of yeah that’s not my area of expertise so I’m not sure. I work on data conversions, I’m not going to help you load music off iTunes onto your Android that you bought because Trump told you Apple = Bad. And I’m not being hypothetical, this happened to me during Thanksgiving.

I've offered a trade, usually ending with no trade unfortunately. An distant acquaintance who was a car mechanic needed computer help, I offered if he would help me attach a fender (really not that difficult).

Too many people think "you like computers, so you must like fixing them". That might be true for some interesting or novel problem, but Joe Schmo's virus ridden computer is not an intriguing venture.

I agree. I mean, I’m fine fixing issues I run into when coding or other projects, or messing around with my setup and fixing pain points.

I’m not into solving problems that a middle schooler could solve. It’s not interesting, I’m not learning anything of use, I’m just spending my time on something worthless to me.

Did he help attaching the fender in the end?

The last time I helped someone I got paid for it which made all the difference. I'm happy to sort out your computer problems if you pay me at least my dayjob equivalent for my time. I did an excellent job as well and no bad feelings whatsoever.

Nope. I did it myself in a jiffy. I'll help out close friends or offer trades. I only really quote cash if I don't like/don't know the person, usually way beyond what someone could pay.

If I actually quoted my usually hourly rate it wouldn't matter because I have a senior position, so my rate is way higher than what someone would want to pay. People who aren't in tech have a weird view of IT, either undervaluing it or sometimes actually being angered by the rate.

I'm most empathetic to artists who are told they'll get "exposure", or that "it's just a drawing" or whatever. The average person has no idea what IT is like, but assume it's easy or fun. I'll never understand why some jobs get pigeonholed this way.

The biggest problem with that story is rural Iowa is almost exclusively Mediacom, who are even worse than Comcast.

This fictional story twas written in the year of 2012

Yeah, but it's always been like that. Comcast has never had a presence in Iowa that I'm aware of. It's been Mediacom since cable internet was available.

Internet Explorer 6 was minimized then maximized.

Got a good chuckle out of this.

The animated adaptation [0] of this story is even better!

[0]: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/the-ballad-of-a-wi-fi-hero

One word of advice that is missing from this article: if you provide the solution, you own the outcome.

Say you updated uncle joe to the latest version of outlook. Great! Now he will call you when he doesn’t understand the new interface. Or you told your aunt to buy this model of laptop. Great! She will call you when it doesn’t boot up one day.

My advice is to tell people where they can go for proper support. You want to buy a new laptop? Talk to the guys at Best Buy or Apple. You want to upgrade outlook? Talk to Microsoft customer support. Your computer is slow? Take it to the local tech shop.

I've often found myself as "Tier 2" support - someone who _thinks_ they know what they are doing comes in and make it objectively worse for everyone involved, so then I'm pulled in to fix the fix.

Unless it's broke, don't fix it, and if it is broke, make sure that whoever is going to use it cares for it to be fixed in the first place.

True enough, but on the other hand I am happy to keep my 88 year old grandmother's laptop going strong so she can talk to her friends in the online clubs she belongs too. I would feel bad sending her to some stores knowing they will possibly be taken advantage of. I guess just pick and choose wisely :)

Yeah, this -- the reason, why my answer to tech support outside of job is a firm "no". No to friends, no to family, no to anyone. I don't want to deal with panicked requests starting "you did something to fix my computer, now it ate my grant application, deadline is tomorrow, help!" And I don't deal with sudden stress particularly well.

Interesting approach. I don’t like to take the blame either, but I’d never tell my mom and dad to screw themselves. I usually fix whatever is up with their laptops, fortunately they don’t call me up too often. I usually try to go for long term solutions and explain everything carefully.

It’s a much better use of my time to just buy my parents iOS devices and point them to the Apple store if something goes wrong. Fighting malware and people’s propensity to click on sketchy links is too taxing.

One of the best investments I ever made was replacing my parents' ailing Windows machines with Mac Minis. I no longer come home to a laundry list of issues that I need to fix.

My Mum loves her Macbook Air. All I have to do occasionally is click the update button when she's a bit too scared. She manages everything else. It's the best thing ever.

Easy to do if your parents haven't had desk jobs most of their lives. While my parents don't love Windows, they know it well enough to get by. I can imagine the calls I'd get if they switched to Apple. "There's no right click on this mouse" "The icons won't stop bouncing around" "Ctrl + _ isn't working"

The real answer is to just get everyone an Apple device. Those physical Apple locations have free classes and year long in person support at the store. One on one in person support only costs approx $100 if the many free classes aren’t enough

I work as a support engineer. A while back, one of my managers suggested we should make a t-shirt that reads "Yes, I can fix your computer!"

I'm glad we didn't go forward with that idea. I'd never be able to go out in public.

6) Upgrade their Windows 7 before it comes back to you once its EOL in January 2020

Upgrading Windows7 to Windows 10 usually needs a hardware upgrade. And installing windows and office and decrappifying it takes ages.

Rather replace with your favourite Linux, no hardware upgrade necessary, LibreOffice is included, Spyware, Phone-Home-Functions and other crap missing by default. Saves lots of time.

To be honest as a sysadmin sometimes I just say to my friends and family that I am just a lousy sysadmin... And if they are sure they want to leave their pc on my hands... It works!

Strategic incompetency goes a long way when it comes to this kind of situation.

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