3 years worth of work on the computer - never backed it up. THOUSANDS of viruses, spyware... "It really just needs to be reformatted." "No, you can't do that... I can't lose all that work." Many hours spent fixing it.
I installed virus protection (AVG) for them. I had it do everything as automatically as possible. I gave them a cd-burner. I installed Nero so they could back up to CD.
Fast forward several months:
"I don't know what that crap is that you call virus protection. My son gave me better software and it found 3 viruses that your garbage didn't find."
Me: "Wow, that's pretty weird. Can I check out what it found? <looks through computer> Okay, first of all... you shouldn't have multiple anti-virus programs running at the same time (3, counting AVG). Second of all, the crap and garbage software that *I* installed found 12 viruses and put them all into a directory where they couldn't do any damage. The anti-virus software that you think is so much better than mine found 3 of those viruses IN THAT DIRECTORY! If it's so good, it should have found all 12 that mine kept from infecting your computer. "
I figure at this point, I've ticked off the m-in-law enough (and embarrassed her) that she won't bother me again for tech support.
Fast forward nearly a year of not having to deal with this any more... My wife and I bought a new computer for her from Dell. Happy Birthday.
Ahhh, you're thinking that I'm doing tech support for the new computer... wrong.
Remember the cd-burner I mentioned that I installed... as well as Nero, which I showed her how to use... Well, "I need all my files transferred to my new computer." "Okay, all you need to do is open Nero, and drag and drop the files you need into there and then click the burn icon. You should still have some of those blank CD's left, I think it was a 100 pack that I gave you." "Drag what where?" "It's simple.. Open nero, your directory will show up... drag all the files you want to transfer over to the big box with nothing in it. I'd stay and show you how, but I've got to go home and get my grad work done."
Soooo, a few days later, my wife has to drive over there to help them use Nero. "They can't figure out how to use it." But, they're sure my wife can help them, because she knows how to back up files to CD's.
Well, my wife can't.
Why?! THEY F'IN DELETED NERO BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT TO USE THE "GARBAGE" SOFTWARE I GAVE THEM!!!!
They've still *never* backed up one of these critical files... years of effort.
And, now, they want a new copy of Nero. I'm on dial-up. We moved - all my old software is in a box someplace that'll take me days to find. Quite frankly, I don't have any easy to use burning software for the burner they have, and I'm not downloading it.
My solution: "It'll take less time to email all of your important files to a gmail account from your old computer, then download them from your email account into your new computer than it'll take to download new software."
Their solution: My wife is at their house, downloading Nero.
Yes, I know there are other programs besides Nero.
What's must amusing: there's probably a 99% chance they they're going to insist on my wife installing comet cursor and smiley faces for their email. I wasn't successful the last time I cleaned their computer to convince them that comet cursor and those smiley faces were the reason their computer stopped working. (and the dozens of other adware that those programs automatically downloaded and installed.)
cliffs:
In-laws don't back up their stuff...
They think I'm an idiot and only install "garbage" programs that are no good when I clean their computer.
They undo all the fixes I make...
They reinstall comet cursor, smiley faces, etc. because they like them and don't care how much it slows down their computer.
Deleted the cd-burning software, etc. that I installed for them.
I gave them a CD burner and 100 CD's, but they still won't back their stuff up.
Now have a new computer, need me to transfer the files for them. "Where'd the burning software go?" Deleted - it was "garbage" that I put on there.
I installed virus protection (AVG) for them. I had it do everything as automatically as possible. I gave them a cd-burner. I installed Nero so they could back up to CD.
Fast forward several months:
"I don't know what that crap is that you call virus protection. My son gave me better software and it found 3 viruses that your garbage didn't find."
Me: "Wow, that's pretty weird. Can I check out what it found? <looks through computer> Okay, first of all... you shouldn't have multiple anti-virus programs running at the same time (3, counting AVG). Second of all, the crap and garbage software that *I* installed found 12 viruses and put them all into a directory where they couldn't do any damage. The anti-virus software that you think is so much better than mine found 3 of those viruses IN THAT DIRECTORY! If it's so good, it should have found all 12 that mine kept from infecting your computer. "
I figure at this point, I've ticked off the m-in-law enough (and embarrassed her) that she won't bother me again for tech support.
Fast forward nearly a year of not having to deal with this any more... My wife and I bought a new computer for her from Dell. Happy Birthday.
Ahhh, you're thinking that I'm doing tech support for the new computer... wrong.
Remember the cd-burner I mentioned that I installed... as well as Nero, which I showed her how to use... Well, "I need all my files transferred to my new computer." "Okay, all you need to do is open Nero, and drag and drop the files you need into there and then click the burn icon. You should still have some of those blank CD's left, I think it was a 100 pack that I gave you." "Drag what where?" "It's simple.. Open nero, your directory will show up... drag all the files you want to transfer over to the big box with nothing in it. I'd stay and show you how, but I've got to go home and get my grad work done."
Soooo, a few days later, my wife has to drive over there to help them use Nero. "They can't figure out how to use it." But, they're sure my wife can help them, because she knows how to back up files to CD's.
Well, my wife can't.
Why?! THEY F'IN DELETED NERO BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT TO USE THE "GARBAGE" SOFTWARE I GAVE THEM!!!!
They've still *never* backed up one of these critical files... years of effort.
And, now, they want a new copy of Nero. I'm on dial-up. We moved - all my old software is in a box someplace that'll take me days to find. Quite frankly, I don't have any easy to use burning software for the burner they have, and I'm not downloading it.
My solution: "It'll take less time to email all of your important files to a gmail account from your old computer, then download them from your email account into your new computer than it'll take to download new software."
Their solution: My wife is at their house, downloading Nero.
Yes, I know there are other programs besides Nero.
What's must amusing: there's probably a 99% chance they they're going to insist on my wife installing comet cursor and smiley faces for their email. I wasn't successful the last time I cleaned their computer to convince them that comet cursor and those smiley faces were the reason their computer stopped working. (and the dozens of other adware that those programs automatically downloaded and installed.)
cliffs:
In-laws don't back up their stuff...
They think I'm an idiot and only install "garbage" programs that are no good when I clean their computer.
They undo all the fixes I make...
They reinstall comet cursor, smiley faces, etc. because they like them and don't care how much it slows down their computer.
Deleted the cd-burning software, etc. that I installed for them.
I gave them a CD burner and 100 CD's, but they still won't back their stuff up.
Now have a new computer, need me to transfer the files for them. "Where'd the burning software go?" Deleted - it was "garbage" that I put on there.
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