Installed, updated and activated - now what. Problems faced by an 8.1 user

I have an elderly friend (mid-80s) who has a need to use a computer for emails and her contribution to village monthly newsletter. Also uses internet. Her problem is that she is basically not computer literate and has never moved from Windows 8.1. Having heard support for 8.1 no longer available she got herself a new PC with Windows 11. She was totally confused and I think frightened by the new interface. As she says, she is getting too old to learn new things. She lives on her own so has no live in IT help. So her solution to her problem is to continue using her old 8.1 PC and the new machine gathers dust in the corner.

I am going to try to set her PC up in the simplest way I can that provides for her needs - internet, mail and Word. I don;t know if she needs anything else. But my problem is that as some of you know, I am not a teacher and also mid 80s. I see the issues with that when I try to teach my wife something about her PC. She, like the lady in question, is an intelligent woman, ex- teacher but not in the least bit technically minded.

This probably not the place to be asking these questions but from experience I know what a helpful group you are. So how would you help this lady? How would you setup her PC? Can you point to a good YouTube or other tutorial? The "basic" ones I found either were effectively advertising how clever Windows 11 was (Microsoft ones) or not that basic. The other issue is that the Windows 11 of today is not quite the same as the one from 2 years ago so a lot of tutorials and help sites point to or illustrate things that have moved or changed slightly.

I hope you can help me her her.

If she is just going to use the new system for browsing,email and word maybe set it up and create a desktop short cut for each program? Another idea is depending on location and how mobile she is,near to me is a community centre,each wednesday afternoon they run a free course for older people who want to use a desktop pc,maybe try and see if there is something similar in her area?

I will need to check but I think she just wants to look things up on the internet, use email (Outlook), Word and Excel. I'll know better when I go down to see her. For health reasons that has been a bit difficult recently.
As for courses, unfortunately none available locally at present. Her difficulty I think is that whatever shop sold her the computer didn't help her with initial setup. If it was setup then I could probably help her remotely but I assume if she hasn't gone through the basic setup required by Windows I wouldn't be able to get remote access to it. I really can't see why she should have any issues with the Office apps as she is using them on her old PC.

Sigurd said:

I have an elderly friend (mid-80s) who has a need to use a computer for emails and her contribution to village monthly newsletter. Also uses internet. Her problem is that she is basically not computer literate and has never moved from Windows 8.1. Having heard support for 8.1 no longer available she got herself a new PC with Windows 11. She was totally confused and I think frightened by the new interface. As she says, she is getting too old to learn new things. She lives on her own so has no live in IT help. So her solution to her problem is to continue using her old 8.1 PC and the new machine gathers dust in the corner.

I am going to try to set her PC up in the simplest way I can that provides for her needs - internet, mail and Word. I don;t know if she needs anything else. But my problem is that as some of you know, I am not a teacher and also mid 80s. I see the issues with that when I try to teach my wife something about her PC. She, like the lady in question, is an intelligent woman, ex- teacher but not in the least bit technically minded.

This probably not the place to be asking these questions but from experience I know what a helpful group you are. So how would you help this lady? How would you setup her PC? Can you point to a good YouTube or other tutorial? The "basic" ones I found either were effectively advertising how clever Windows 11 was (Microsoft ones) or not that basic. The other issue is that the Windows 11 of today is not quite the same as the one from 2 years ago so a lot of tutorials and help sites point to or illustrate things that have moved or changed slightly.

I hope you can help me her her.

Click to expand...

Hi there
If that's all she wants to do I think you can set Windows up in "KIOSK mode" -- just start an application with a few choices on it - such as Internet, Email etc depending on what she wants and when she presses the relevant key just branch to the application.

This should be able to get you started -- experiment on a VM first though. I think it might not be possible in Windows Home but there are enough hackers on this Forum to probably enable this - @Edwin --any ideas on this - you seem to have ways of using and modifying Windows that Ms hasn't even thought of.


At one client I'm currently doing a free lance gig for where loads of truck drivers arrive at "Goods Inwards" daily - they login in with time in, time out, reg nr, waybill nr/load in goods on board etc. On exit same procedure - Time out etc plus if they are carrying anything out of the warehouse. all this stuff feeds into bespoke or specialized software systems in the warehouse and initiates all sorts of processes --haven't a clue what !!- but "That's well beyond my pay grade" !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks Jimbo. That's a new option to me. Now I have to learn something new! That does seem a good way forward. I'll try that if the problem is more than just being panicked by a new Windows setup routine.

As for Outlook and Word, check her version, mine is Office 2013 and works fine on Win11. What I see written on the 'net makes me wonder about Office 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365.

My guess, as it came with a new machine, is that it is 365, but thanks for the prompt. I'll check.

Sigurd said:

My guess, as it came with a new machine, is that it is 365, but thanks for the prompt. I'll check.

Click to expand...

From what I've seen the included Office is a Trial version, will need subscribing later. Saw it on my Oct. '21 Notebook and Apr. '22 Desktop, removed it.

Unless you live nearby, it's worth setting up remote access with something like TeamViewer so you can quickly look at what she sees. You can set it up so that you get remote access immediately with no action needed by her. I do this for my family and an elderly neighbour.

Hi Kelper. I was thinking of setting up a Team Viewer account for her once I found out if her Windows 11 had been through the initial setup routine so that that was an option.
I did use it with a few people I used to help with their PCs. The standing joke among us when I retired was that I stopped being on call for their bodies and started being on call for their computers!

kelper said:

Unless you live nearby, it's worth setting up remote access with something like TeamViewer so you can quickly look at what she sees. You can set it up so that you get remote access immediately with no action needed by her. I do this for my family and an elderly neighbour.

Click to expand...

@Sigurd
Never use things like teamviewer for this type of stuff -- this doesn't in any way seem to address the OP's problem which is basically how to help a person who hasn't much of a clue about the Windows GUI from finding and running applications on it.

The problem here is AFAIK certainly is in not in fixing windows problems e.g help desk type stuff or accessing a computer from a remote location but in just wanting to run 3 or 4 regular apps. Once she gets used to this one can easily add other selections or even exit KIOSK mode into the normal windows GUI.

In years as a professional Engineer (with a doctorate from Imperial College London) I've found 99% of problems are made worse by people trying to derive hideously complex and convoluted solutions to what is an intrinsically easily solvable problem.

I did the Kiosk mode for my great grandma --well into her 90's -- she loves it.

What's wrong when the computer is booted up a single screen is shown with say like 4 options -- press the one wanted and link / call the windows executable. On leaving the application navigates back to the entry selection screen.

Any person even on coding 101 should be able to create the entry screen, link / call the application and navigate back to the initial screen again. Probably shouldn't take more than 30 mins once the KIOSK mode has been configured. Probably a few lines of Python (also runnable on Windows) would do it easily. Send screen ->accept input-><call procedure etc).

The only fly in the ointment here is that if you are on HOME edition - I don't know if Kiosk mode can be enabled - but I'm sure there are work arounds or it might be worth upgrading to Win 11 Pro.

What on earth does teamviewer have to do with this stuff.

I doubt whether most replies to this thread have either heard of or even looked at Windows in Kiosk mode.

Cheers
jimbo

Wouldn't something like Remote Desktop or LogMeIn work along with the telephone in giving help without being on-site?

Teamviewer would help Sigurd diagnose any problems she had. It could also be used to set her computer up with any solution. Why do you have to be so negative and dismissive?

I like the way TV can reconnect automatically after the other person's computer reboots. You can work on it while they are away.

Thanks Kelper - you replied to Jimbo on my behalf.
Having looked at Jimbo's suggestion re using Kiosk is frankly too complicated for me. I am not trying to lock her out of her PC, just trying to make it a matter of switching on a clicking on the relevant icon on the screen that appears. If she subsequently has a problem or needs something else, she picks up the phone, I logon and show her what to do as if I was sitting next to her. Best and easiest way to help friends and family as I (and Kelper) have done in the past.
A 2-3 minute phone call will usually solve the problem; better that a 2 - 3 mile drive.

I upgraded to Pro purely to test Kiosk mode and I agree it won't be a good solution. I think the free version of TeamViewer may be no more. I have three family members I can try and connect to as I can still access the management console. I will see what are good alternatives to TV that are free or very cheap!

TeamViewer is stll free for personal use! But the downloads are hard to find.


I have just remoted into one of my spare laptops.

I agree that Teamviewer is a great way to do a remote assistance. And you and her can interact with the computer. You see what she does and vice versa.
I don't see big differences between Win 8.x and Win 11. Basically only the Start button is on the middle of the screen and other stupid things Microsoft does to make sure you identify as Win 11 instead of Win 10.
With some tools (like Explorer Pacher and OpenShell) you can make Win 11 look like Win 10 or even Win 7.


Instead of paying an Office 365 subscription forever you can buy a full Office package for very low price.

I just use skype screen share to instruct my family on any PC problems... simples

Screen sharing is not remote control!

No but you can point them in the right direction...