Protecting a computer that is 2000 miles away

Stan Brown wrote on 2016/02/14:

VanguardLH wrote:

Use disk virtualizing software where all changes to the virtual disk are
wiped on a reboot.

She might be a little annoyed to find photos, emails, and the like
vanishing.

I already went through that in my reply. Either you put data files on a
different drive (which is a different partition) than the one being
protected or you define path exclusions in the VD software. Obviously
punching holes in the VD protection to keep [changed] data files on the
protected partition somewhat defeats the protection. If she has only
one drive and it is too small to reduce the OS partition (the protected
one) to make room for a data partition for either doing the virtual disk
snapshotting or even for where to save backups (which really should be
on a different physical disk than where is the OS partition) then get
granny a USB-attached drive (HDD or flash).

Drew wrote:

Hey all.. A question for the techies here, I currently attempt to take
care of my 85 yr old mother's computer from across the country using
teamviewer. She is getting kind of forgetful about NOT installing
everything with certain updates. example would be getting open office
with java and such. It seems I log into her computer every few days and
chrome or driver detective, bogus antivirus software or a new brozer of
some kind has been installed on this computer. she swears she is not
doing it. Is there a way to lock it down so unless she has some kind of
password or something then nothing can be installed? I simply cannot
come home from work every other night and spend half the night getting
rid of all the crap on her system only to find it there again 2 days
later. I am not totally dumb about these things but I cannot think of a
simple way right now to prevent this from happening. She is the
administrator on that box and I might need it to stay that way in order
to do what I do with teamviewer..

Her computer is a Dell
win7 home
Avast premier
malwarebytes free
super antispyware free

Also win update constantly changes its own settings and keeps trying to
install win 10. She firmly believes she will not outlive win 7 so does
not want win 10.

I hate to say this, but what you want to achieve will be a exercise in
futility. Even running the user without admin priviledge will be
problematical, and as you said this is not a option. And therein lies
your real problem: Even with all you can secure, all the anti-this or
anti-that or scans you run, all it takes is for the user with admin
rights -- full or limited -- to muck everything up with a single click.
The user is Windows (or any OS') biggest security risk.

So, I'm going to make a suggestion that no one in this group
will like: Linux may be a solution. By default it does everything
you're trying to get W7 to do. Users, by default, don't run with admin
priviledges, and that's by design, so everything works. Remote
administration is something it's designed to do, and there are many ways
to do it just pick the method that works best for you. AND the user
doesn't have to have admin rights for it to work, but you can. That's
the default. Plus, the system: won't change once installed, if you
don't want it to. That's the default, too. Also, Windows malware
won't run on Linux.

Anyway, investigate the option for yourself. It will be a pain to do,
I admit. FWIW, there are several Linux distros that look very Windowy
and are designed for Windows' users who want to use or transition to
Linux with a minimum of fuss. As long as your mother doesn't have
any Windows specific requirements like special software, etc, Linux
might be a viable option.

Stef

Stef wrote:
So, I'm going to make a suggestion that no one in this group
will like: Linux may be a solution.

Not a solution that would be easily implemented.

Someone would have to install the linux and in so doing make the
decision to dual boot with the existing Win7 or wipe the Win7. Granny
would surely be overwhelmed by that process even if the OP sent her a
DVD to boot it up, or the OP would have to travel 2000 mi to install.

Then there's the support issue. Is the OP going to remotely support
linux for her?

I like linux and I have some experience with TeamViewer admin supporting
Windows for someone else who has some user experience with Windows, but
I don't think I would like to try to somehow setup/install linux
remotely (phone conversation?) OR support a complete newbie to linux
remotely.

Why would you think the OP has any familiarity with linux or supporting
linux?


--
Mike Easter

Drew wrote:
Hey all.. A question for the techies here, I currently attempt to take
care of my 85 yr old mother's computer from across the country using
teamviewer. She is getting kind of forgetful about NOT installing
everything with certain updates. example would be getting open office
with java and such. It seems I log into her computer every few days and
chrome or driver detective, bogus antivirus software or a new brozer of
some kind has been installed on this computer. she swears she is not
doing it. Is there a way to lock it down so unless she has some kind of
password or something then nothing can be installed? I simply cannot
come home from work every other night and spend half the night getting
rid of all the crap on her system only to find it there again 2 days
later. I am not totally dumb about these things but I cannot think of a
simple way right now to prevent this from happening. She is the
administrator on that box and I might need it to stay that way in order
to do what I do with teamviewer..

Her computer is a Dell
win7 home
Avast premier
malwarebytes free
super antispyware free

Also win update constantly changes its own settings and keeps trying to
install win 10. She firmly believes she will not outlive win 7 so does
not want win 10.

You don't say what she uses the computer for, but would a Chromebook do
what she wants? AFAICS it should be a lot more resilient.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

Mike Barnes wrote:
would a Chromebook do what she wants?

A friend of mine who needed Windows support all the time got a
chromebook and now she is completely independent and happy as a clam for
what she does.

--
Mike Easter

Per Mike Easter:
would a Chromebook do what she wants?

A friend of mine who needed Windows support all the time got a
chromebook and now she is completely independent and happy as a clam for
what she does.

The more I support extended family members the more I realize that a
*lot* of people just don't care about anything except email and web
browsing.... and most people get all upset at the prospect of an email
client and so their email via web pages.... so their desktop PCs and/or
laptops really just boil down to the convenience of keyboard/mouse and
the right web browser.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Sun, 14 Feb 2016 17:33:07 -0500, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Mike Easter:
[quoted text muted]

A friend of mine who needed Windows support all the time got a
chromebook and now she is completely independent and happy as a clam for
what she does.

The more I support extended family members the more I realize that a
*lot* of people just don't care about anything except email and web
browsing.... and most people get all upset at the prospect of an email
client and so their email via web pages.... so their desktop PCs and/or
laptops really just boil down to the convenience of keyboard/mouse and
the right web browser.

You both raise a good point. The OP and we may have been spending a
lot of effort to solve the wrong problem. And where _is_ the OP,
anyway?

Perhaps the OP should have a conversation with Granny about what she
actually wants to do on the computer.

Then, the next question is whether she really needs a computer at
all. For email, Skype, Web surfing, and watching videos, a Kindle
Fire HDX would do her just fine. And (unlike other Android devices)
it's already locked down so that security shouldn't be an issue.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://BrownMath.com/
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
Shikata ga nai...

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Mike Easter:
would a Chromebook do what she wants?

A friend of mine who needed Windows support all the time got a
chromebook and now she is completely independent and happy as a clam for
what she does.

The more I support extended family members the more I realize that a
*lot* of people just don't care about anything except email and web
browsing.... and most people get all upset at the prospect of an email
client and so their email via web pages.... so their desktop PCs and/or
laptops really just boil down to the convenience of keyboard/mouse and
the right web browser.

Her primary problems were malware and spam not filtered by her email
provider in her email client. Her spam problem was solved by converting
her email provider to gmail webmail which was acceptable to her.
Gmail's excellent spam filter eliminated that problem.

Then when her Windows machine needed cleanup and the visiting geek squad
misdiagnosed her contaminated machine's hardware condition and told her
she needed a new hard drive and that she (nor they) didn't have an OS
disk to install (OS restore partition only) so she should get a new
machine, considering the repair and OS costs. I advised a Chromebook if
she was going purchase hardware instead of getting a proper/correct
solution to her perfectly good old hardware and restore availability.

So, she was already into the chromebook's handling of her mail and
browser and everything was jake.

--
Mike Easter

Mike Easter wrote:

Stef wrote:
So, I'm going to make a suggestion that no one in this group
will like: Linux may be a solution.

Not a solution that would be easily implemented.

Someone would have to install the linux and in so doing make the
decision to dual boot with the existing Win7 or wipe the Win7. Granny
would surely be overwhelmed by that process even if the OP sent her a
DVD to boot it up, or the OP would have to travel 2000 mi to install.

Actually, Linux can be installed remotely whether the other system is in
the next room or 2000 miles away.. They just have to networked.

Then there's the support issue. Is the OP going to remotely support
linux for her?

He's doing that now with W7, and every other night for half the night.
With Linux once installed, there'll be very little administration
needed. Things don't break like Windows.

With the system I'm using now -- hardware 5 to 9 years old, Debian
Wheezy install is 3+ years old, and runs 24/7 -- the only admin work
I do is checking for security updates and bug fixes. I also shut it
down every 3 or 4 months to vacuum out the dust bunnies. And in all
that time, the system has never crashed or been corrupted even by power
outages (I don't have it on a UPS).

I like linux and I have some experience with TeamViewer admin supporting
Windows for someone else who has some user experience with Windows, but
I don't think I would like to try to somehow setup/install linux
remotely (phone conversation?) OR support a complete newbie to linux
remotely.

A remote network install might be possible. Nothing required by the
other person except to boot the machine up.

Why would you think the OP has any familiarity with linux or supporting
linux?

Prior knowledge of Linux not required. My suggestion was offered as a
possible alternative. Up to the OP to decide and take the necessary
steps to implement.

15+ years ago when I decided it was time to leave the Amiga and move to
another OS for my personal use, I knew nothing about Linux either, or
BSD, or QNX, or BeOS, etc.

Stef

On 2/14/2016 4:33 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Mike Easter:
would a Chromebook do what she wants?

A friend of mine who needed Windows support all the time got a
chromebook and now she is completely independent and happy as a clam for
what she does.

The more I support extended family members the more I realize that a
*lot* of people just don't care about anything except email and web
browsing.... and most people get all upset at the prospect of an email
client and so their email via web pages.... so their desktop PCs and/or
laptops really just boil down to the convenience of keyboard/mouse and
the right web browser.

I too have noticed many of my older relatives do only email and
browsing, with an occasional letter writing or YouTube to fill in the
blanks.

With that in mind I have been playing around with the Umbutu variant
called Zorin which is the closest Windows 7 look-alite for Linux I have
run into.

It keeps the relatives happy since it looks and works like a W7 machine
as long as they are just doing the basics already mentioned. It comes
in both 32 or 64 bit. For those who need a little more I believe the
core version even comes with LibreOffice.

The good thing is that the home versions are free, Core or Lite, and for
a small fee they have business versions available.

Per Stan Brown:
Then, the next question is whether she really needs a computer at
all. For email, Skype, Web surfing, and watching videos, a Kindle
Fire HDX would do her just fine. And (unlike other Android devices)
it's already locked down so that security shouldn't be an issue.

My-wife-the-stone-technophobe absolutely *despised" the rather-nice VAIO
laptop I got for her so she could do email with our granddaughter.

Every time she used it there would be frustrated questions - many
showing a lack of understanding about windows hiding behind other
windows and what dropdown lists are.

She had rejected the idea of an iPad because it had no keyboard.

When it finally dawned on me that there were BlueTooth keyboards
available for iPads, I got her an iPad and gave the laptop to a
son-in-law.

She still dislikes doing *anything* connected with *any* kind of
computer.... but the questions have pretty much stopped and she does get
email done on a regular basis.

I'm not an Apple user myself, but the iPad's UI *is* slick....
--
Pete Cresswell

Per Mike Easter:
I advised a Chromebook if
she was going purchase hardware instead of getting a proper/correct
solution to her perfectly good old hardware and restore availability.

So, she was already into the chromebook's handling of her mail and
browser and everything was jake.

Are you able to TeamViewer into the ChromeBook?
--
Pete Cresswell

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Are you able to TeamViewer into the ChromeBook?

When I first checked, I learned that remote view OUT of a chromebook was
possible, but not remoting IN. Now I'm learning that one can go in.

^1 "Using the Chrome Remote Desktop app, you can tap into a Mac, Windows
or Linux computer that has Chrome installed, giving you full access to
files and apps. Now, one of the more often requested features is
available to Chrome Remote Desktop: Remotely accessing one Chrome OS
device from a computer that has Chrome installed."

I haven't had need to help her. I only recently acquired an economical
chromebook during the black Friday month of sales.


^1 https://gigaom.com/2015/01/15/remote...to-chromebook/
You can now access Chromebooks remotely from other computers

--
Mike Easter

On 2/14/2016 8:48 PM, G. Morgan wrote:
Drew wrote:

Hey all.. A question for the techies here, I currently attempt to take
care of my 85 yr old mother's computer from across the country using
teamviewer. She is getting kind of forgetful about NOT installing
everything with certain updates. example would be getting open office
with java and such. It seems I log into her computer every few days and
chrome or driver detective, bogus antivirus software or a new brozer of
some kind has been installed on this computer. she swears she is not
doing it. Is there a way to lock it down so unless she has some kind of
password or something then nothing can be installed? I simply cannot
come home from work every other night and spend half the night getting
rid of all the crap on her system only to find it there again 2 days
later. I am not totally dumb about these things but I cannot think of a
simple way right now to prevent this from happening. She is the
administrator on that box and I might need it to stay that way in order
to do what I do with teamviewer..

Her computer is a Dell
win7 home
Avast premier
malwarebytes free
super antispyware free

Also win update constantly changes its own settings and keeps trying to
install win 10. She firmly believes she will not outlive win 7 so does
not want win 10.


Set her account as a user, not administrator.


Some have asked where am I, I am in Nevada and she is located in
Wisconsin. She is a 85yr old woman and always was a geek so to speak but
has not totally grasped the newer windows. She was always led to believe
that she should (not by me) update her drivers whenever possible, Hence
Driver detective and such. She has been getting forgetful and
reinstalling a e-mail program she used years ago and uninstalling her
current program therefore losing all her emails.Not finding her Mcafee
which she used 20 yrs ago and reinstalling it only to mess up her
current Avast protection. I think the biggest problem has been she
thinks that she is just as sharp as she once was and messes it up by
accident. I know I need to change the account to stop what she is doing
but I feel bad for her and I am trying to figure a way to do this and
her not see any difference. She uses the computer for games, emails,
banking, Facebook and Skype to keep in touch with family and the ever
shrinking amounts of friends....

Drew wrote:
I am trying to figure a way to do this and her not see any difference.
She uses the computer for games, emails, banking, Facebook and Skype to
keep in touch with family and the ever shrinking amounts of friends....

I disagree with that 'dishonesty'/subterfuge strategy; it is far too
complicated to work. Chaos.

Imagine your cooperative agreement to be with a smart young person if
that helps the equation. Even if she is forgetful, it is not practical
to try to pull the wool over her eyes.

I think it would be better to get her to 'agree to' being a standard
user and not an admin. The justification for that condition would be
that YOU want to be the *only* admin. And that there can't be two
admins because one admin will 'mess up' what the other admin is doing.
There is no reason that any admin duties have to be done in the interval
between your admin visits.

--
Mike Easter