Making PC a Totally Teenager-Free Zone
Most often the source for these articles is what we have seen happen during the week at the shop. This is the case again today as we have recently had a number of work / business computers brought in with problems which only stem from their use. The term PC or ‘personal computer’ was well thought of at the time of implementation because there is nothing much more personal than a computer.
Most of our customers whether it be home or business users have customised their PC to their own liking and normally only use it for a couple of important tasks. They are familiar with these programs and how they work and as such are efficient at getting their work done and getting on to more important tasks. Enter the teenage daughter/son!
The latest programming in teenagers seems to have them hell bent on modifying everything from the look of the screen to what programs are installed and how the PC responds to commands (normally slow). The other teenage trend is to download multiple ‘what I call junk’ programs from the Internet and almost take on a ‘terrorist’ role when it comes to PC health.
This is great when it is their PC. They fill them with viruses and Greyware so they run slower than time itself, to then start screaming out to mum and dad for a new model – again a good thing when you own a computer shop!
Besides half the world’s music, teenagers rarely have anything important on their PC’s that needs saving. Their use of a PC is very different in so far as it mostly revolves around the Internet and in particular cloud based apps such as Facebook, Web based emails and YouTube. They rarely need their PC to be networked, backed up or properly maintained (teenage PC maintenance is kind of like stemming the flow of the Nile).
What you need to be taking from this article so far is – do not let a teenager near your work PC and this week the number of exceptions to this has been overwhelming. We have had numerous work computers bought in with everything from Windows corruptions, driver corruptions to viruses and even wiped data because of the actions of a teenager. The fix for some of these PC’s has been as little as half an hour’s work but in some cases it has required a full reformat and reinstall of the PC with costs climbing above the $400 mark and in all cases the disruption to the business or the inconvenience to the user has been another cost factor.
The lesson here is that once again prevention is better than cure. With good new laptops costing well under the $1000 mark and netbooks and tablets even half of that amount it is a far better alternative to give a teenager one of these devices to use for themselves than to put an important PC at risk.
Future Byte Me topics can be emailed to [email protected] and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions, 205 Musgrave Street or on 49 222 400.
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