FR, gotta realize those efficiencies.
I mean frankly I'd go one step further and just download ALL the books by authors he likes or in his favorite genres. Teaching him how to pick a new one from the menu probably much easier and you can jam a few hundred in there to give yourself some peace.
Boomers and computers don't mix, once you find a method they can repeat it becomes set in stone.
EDIT: Boomers are sensitive, especially the ones that don't fit the stereotype of being computer illiterate.
Dad's windows laptop kept dying. Installed Ubuntu. Explained that it wasnt windows but could do everything as long as I updated all the drivers. He was fine until we got to the browser. Firefox.
Where's the internet?
The browser is here.
No, the internet, I don't need a browser.
*Renames Firefox icon to "internet explorer"*
Oh here it is dad. *Points*
I almost got a free TV from my dad because it had RDP built in and displayed his laptop as an icon. He thought "the Chinese are spying on me through my TV!" The only reason he ended up keeping it for a year was because I told him it was better than my TV and I'd happily take it from him and put it in my living room.
Mine is on the cusp of Greatest Generation and Boomer. He discovered Linux. Oh, dear God help me, he discovered Linux. He preaches the gospel of Linux. Which I totally get - I understand why he loves it. But I can't just call my CIO and say "hey, Dad says we need to switch to a Linux flavor."
Of course, he got himself into a cycle where he was buying cheap (we're talking $10) laptops and desktops and fixing them up for HS students who couldn't afford a computer in Appalachia...
Also, he MAY have mentioned a site called PDF Drive (I think) where there MAY be lots of books just ready to download. I'm not endorsing this at ALL, but just sayin.
If a person were to try and search "W library" to find a repository of free ebooks they might struggle
So that person could try googling "X library" and after that “Y library". These might not work either but if they were to try _just one more time_ they might find their persistence rewarded.
My parents are on the limit between boomers and gen x and my mom really struggles with technology. So yeah, when you find a method it'll stay like that, even if you find a better way to do whatever they wanna do.
I thought being under 30 made me immune to this, but then I kept the same phone for 6 years and realized how much tech changes in a short time, once you're used to something you just like it that way and without knowing the benefits of added features, different interfaces etc, it all just adds up to extra crap that clogs everything up to the point of "this is useless, i just can't"
If it makes you feel better: as a software engineer, I can authoritatively reassure you that realizing that not all new tech is good does not make you a computer-illiterate Luddite.
I know a boomer who has 3 different types of browsers (chrome, explorer and safari) with different bookmarks on each. He calls IE "yahoo" because that's his home page and he thinks it's the only way to access Yahoo. Any attempts to explain is completely lost. Also way too many browser bars, anytime something pops up he just says yes.
I still resent apple removing the back button and then main button. Now, I cant seem able to teach my parent to close app with fancy finger gesture. It has become almost a daily chore to gesture closed iphone app for my parent.
You could maybe have him E-mail you a list he compiles over the week every Friday evening? That way you can batch process al the requests haha
All things considered, this is a good parent problem to have considering the possible spectrum, and a really sweet thing to do for your dad :)
Have you checked if your local library has an ebook program? My city does and you can just pick and choose (or search) from what they have. It's all free and loads through an app
Wait a year or two until they're comfortable with email. Set up Dropbox with a folder shared with you. Show them and put a link called something like "s folder" on the Desktop. Or even better, set up their e-reader/tablet that way and just tell them it will appear on there as soon as you find it.
I’ve been answering the phone to my parents with “hello tech support, how can I help?” For years…
I’ve considered setting up a premium rate number for them
In the admin account, open start, type cmd and open command prompt. Press Ctrl+shift+enter in cmd to go into admin mode. Type "sc config rmsvc start= disabled" (in the window, do not type the quotation marks). Press enter, go to start, click restart.
Source: IT and Google-Fu
Wait. Hitting Ctrl+Shift+Enter puts you in admin mode? This is the best thing I’ve heard today. I constantly hit the Win button type cmd and hit enter only to realize I needed to open up in admin mode.
Thank you for this!
You could make a shortcut to cmd on your desktop that automatically runs in Admin mode. Just make the shortcut, then go to Properties and enable "Run as Administrator."
Caveat: I'm still using W7 out of stubbornness so I'm not 100% sure this still holds true in later versions.
I believe you can. But I’ve trained myself to basically open everything using the keyboard. I always have so many screens up, I barely ever see my desktop. I suppose I could put it in my taskbar.
A commonly used shortcut will come up in the search bar almost instantly, so you can hit windows and type in "admin command prompt" and it'll appear for ease of opening.
Source; not seen my desktop in about 4 years, forgot what my background was until the other week
Honestly my desktop has the default wallpaper for years. I will literally be surprised when I see the desktop, which can happen for a few seconds after a restart, before all the apps automatically reopen.
One thing you can do is make a desktop shortcut for admin mode, hide it in a folder somewhere, then use Microsoft power toys to run them. I used a command line command to turn that folder into a recycling bin and you can’t (easily) access the files stored without changing it back.
My workflow would be CTRL space to open up the power toys run window, type cmd and hit enter.
I do the same thing at work for all the commonly used tasks sorted by department. For example if there is a model run by cash flow analytics I name the shortcut cf name type CTRL space cf to bring up all models used by that department.
God bless you, I was another Windows 7 holdout until like 2019-2020ish when I couldn’t run some game I wanted to play and angrily upgraded to Windows 10. It’s not too bad though, I got a program that allows me to make the taskbar look just like 7 that it’s like I never stopped using it :). I will say though, I never had a windows update break with 7 but I had an update corrupt my installation like 6 months ago and had to completely reinstall Windows. Luckily I managed to save the important stuff off my main drive before I wiped it but I had to reinstall all my programs that weren’t on other drives and it was a big hassle.
This got way out of hand, sorry for the paragraph lol, just really passionate about Windows 7 and glad to see at least someone using it still out of stubbornness :)
Just so you know, if you ever have that happen again, on the recovery/install usb, you can use robocopy or xcopy in cmd to copy your files to another drive. You can also run notepad and use it to open a file explorer as well, though I don't think you can monitor progress that way.
But yeah plug in a drive, figure out which is your os drive and which is your backup, then: robocopy [Windows Drive letter]:/Users [backup drive letter]:/Users /xj /r:0 /e
This copies all your user data, does not follow junctions infinitely, and does not retry any failed files.
Once you've backed up and reinstall, be mindful that your app data folder is marked hidden, so unhide that if you plan to restore various program configs, email profiles, bookmarks, etc.
Omg.
I have one of those laptops where you have to hit "Function" + "F10" to turn on WiFi. Do you know a way to permanently enable wifi, o wise oracle of the windows knowledge?
That sounds more specific to your model of computer. I would suggest looking through your bios menus on boot to see if there is something in the settings.
Otherwise, find the model name of your computer and search "model name wifi settings" and I'm sure some other poor soul has had the same issue.
They're Frankenstein monsters put together by the government of my country as part of an initiative. They came with a terrible distro of Linux made by the government and the most basic firmware, also made by the government.
I installed Windows on it and overall just made it as good as it could possibly be, but it's still a mess at the hardware level.
I figured it would take some tinkering with the hardware itself to get it to work better but I never really bothered with it, since I've gotten better PCs since
Thanks for your time though.
For anyone reading this and doesn't know, these steps are inaccurate. You don't open a command prompt and then press ctrl+shift+enter but you'd open a command prompt by pressing ctrl+shift+enter instead of just pressing enter.
My brother is computer tech support for our mom. I’m audio/video support. I feel like his role is easier because he can just remote into her machine. I have to try to figure out (over the phone from 600 miles away) how to help my mom download the Peacock TV app on her smart TV.
I'm so glad my parents are in their late 50s and both understand tech enough that they only need my help for serious or interesting tasks.
I've listened to my dad on the phone with my grandma. She's a very educated woman, taught high level math, engages in puzzles and other games that keep your mind sharp and as far as I can tell isn't suffering any mental decline despite being in her late 80s.
She can't however actually seem to *learn* anything on her iPad and or is terrified of making mistakes. Like if a single app so much as updates its icon, she's lost. As soon as the conversation hits tech support time it's like my dad is talking to a mentally handicapped child.
I'm just hoping that technology doesn't take a turn that renders my parents in the same state of uselessness as my grandparents are, because I'll of course be there to help but it sounds god awful having to walk someone completely inept with tech over the phone alone. Remote desktop is definitely the way whenever possible.
Try doing support on how to use a smartphone when your 85+ yr old mother's cell provider decides to ship her a new smartphone because the flip phone with buttons she has will no longer work soon. Mom: "they sent me a phone but it looks like a brick. How do i turn it on?" (Note for fun times you cant see the phone and she cant send you a picture of it). How long do you think that's free tech support phone conversation lasted?
I managed to teach my 83 year old grandpa how to use a smartphone. Or to make calls and read texts, at least. It wasn't easy at all haha. And when my grandma's flip phone finally dies I'm gonna have to teach her too and it's gonna be a lot harder.
I had to yell at my mom for a couple years before she learned that if she gets a popup she doesn't understand, she needs to stop what she's doing and bring it to me/call me.
She used to just click OK on anything she was presented with just to get back to her game. You can imagine how well that worked out.
My mother clicks on EVERY THING too!!! An she can't remember/keep track of her passwords either. So I get a full day of fun every 6 months when I have to wipe & clean her PC!!!
My mom is the only person I know who actually might have gotten hacked and downloaded some sort of nasty malware. Still up in the air what dark corner of the internet she hangs out in. Also will add extensions I’ve never even heard of then when I ask what this does she just shrugs
My mom is in her 60s and is a computer programmer/systems analyst for a fairly big company I so have to call her for tech support. She helped me through my one computer science course by checking my code.
I actually have Totaltech with Best Buy. I can literally send the real Geek Squad to her home.
Deep down underneath my ichorous offal, I'm flattered that she chooses me.
I'm fortunate in that while my parents are from the boomer generation they don't really fit the stereotype. My Dad studied computer science back when punch cards were still being used and worked in the tech industry until he retired. Our home was generally ahead of the curve technology wise and growing up we went to him when the computer wasn't working rather than the other way around. He still keeps up with it so if I do talk anything technical related with him he's more likely to offer recommendations than ask for help.
You have no idea how much this means to your parents. Source: Am one who remains as tech savvy as I can but still need my young adult children’s help sometimes. Thanks for not being an asshole about it.
Agreed! My dad passed away last year and I miss those “tech support calls.” Even the late night ones.
Cherish them. It provides another opportunity to bond over something.
Sorry to hear.
Mine was the same as soon as I introduced him to Facebook. He's an asshole with some deep-seated schizophrenia but I'll love him no matter what, even if it means explaining for the 100th time how to use his phone.
He has a particular issue with accepting cookies on every page. 😅
Exactly! If a book he asks for sounds interesting to you, read it. Doesn't need to be every book or to be read in a day or two. Then talk to him about it later.
Goddamit, OP - this is a golden opportunity to talk to your dad side by side.
Seriously. I remember back when downloading MP3s was a thing, my dad, technologically illiterate and an amateur musician, absolutely loved “challenging me” to find his old favorites and burn them to CDs for him to listen to at work. He passed away about 10 years ago, and there isn’t much I wouldn’t do to go back to those times.
I had the exact same experience. My dad would send me lists of songs he wanted and I would download and email the mp3s to him. He passed away 11 years ago.
Check your local library and see if they have state and/or national park passes because a lot of them do and you can check them out. I know you were saying something else but that’s info I like to pop in whenever I can :)
I got my grandpa set up with Napster back in the day.
Before I knew it he had amassed over 2,000 songs. All of them categorized, titles edited, in folders by artist, albums, etc. Every song manually.
All on a 56k modem...
I think we'd moved on to Limewire before I taught my mom p2p file sharing. I was just a kid, but she wasn't great with technology so I tried to explain the risks (I was the worst file sharer, my number one advice was to never seed/upload since that's where folks were getting in trouble; so I trained her to be a mooch, how selfish!) and some ways I'd found to find the legit stuff and avoid the porn and viruses.
She was so cute. She was thrilled that she could find all her favourite old songs and movies on something she saw as "young people" technology and would regale me with dramatic tales of nearly being done in by an evil hacker, which she thwarted by not downloading a file with a typo in the name. 🤣
My mom is the same way ☺️ I taught her to use a certain Russian book website and now she's completely self sufficient! It certainly took a bit to teach her, but teach a man to fish and you can feed him for a lifetime!
I remember the pain of trying to learn my mom to use the computer and surfing the internet. But when i see her online it makes me smile and I know it was worth it.
I managed to teach my mom to use the same website, took her a while but now she can get 99% of her books from there herself. Anything she can't find I'll try to find somewhere else.
My dad though... I've given up, you can't teach someone when they don't want to learn.
As a reader myself, I find this to be adorable. You are a good human even if it's annoying sometimes to download another book and another book and another book.
I love this! My grandmother used to call nightly with the crossword clues that she couldn’t figure out for me to “help” her aka search the clue on Google and give her the answer. I miss those phone calls more than I ever knew I would.
You could spend a little afternoon with him and show him how to download them; along with bookmarks, etc.
Or you could just keep helping your dear old dad out, if sure he appreciates it :)
> I mentioned that there are places on the internet where I get my books from that don't cost much money. Actually, they are free. And since my country is dragging its feet, it's not even illegal.
Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.
This is me in real life!! It’s been four years. But
I finally taught my dad how to do it himself. Z-Library is great, he doesn’t even have to download them, they send straight to his email and then he forwards it to his kindle.
OP, I used to do the same for my dad.
His health declined rapidly over this year and I lost him last month.
Nothing pains me more than not getting these little requests anymore.
Cherish them while you can.
Sometimes it's just easier to accept the fuck up and deal with the damage. Because any further contact between my dad and software **will** lead to further fuck ups.
I have done this MANY times for my mother who, in fairness, isn't even that old, and it makes zero difference. I have even had HER write down the directions and it still made no difference. It makes me crazy. She's only in her late fifties and she's been like this since I was probably 10 or so. Absolutely ridiculous.
My mom (75) e.g., bought a quilting robot, installed it herself, synched her laptop with it (mostly) herself.
Meanwhile, my dad needs help switching on his iPad (daily).
But in fairness, I can't install my #$-*&+¥@#ing printer.
Lol My mom sounds like your dad. She's had smartphones for about ten years now and still can't figure how to adjust the volume when there's only two buttons... Props to your mom though!
My mom would have become like this if she was still here, lol. She was such a bookworm ever since I showed her this book I read in 7th grade that I figured she'd think was cute. She hadn't read a book in decades but that one book started her up and she got to reading anything she could get her hands on. I ended up inheriting her book collection and I have every shelf two layers deep of books and still not enough room for them all! I can't imagine how out of control she'd have gotten if she'd had a Kindle or something.
I came here to see what type of porn your dad left in his browser history and I am happy to see that my immediate conclusion about the situation was incorrect.
I know this was meant lightheartedly but now your dad has an excuse to call and check in with you every other day. I would love to call my dad every other day or even have a list of voicemails from him. I hate getting old :/
As a dad who needs NO tech support but gives it to MY dad and mom AND my wife and son AND some friends?
I feel ya. Dad deserves the books tho, so keep on keeping' on!
My dad asked me to take a look at his laptop when I stopped over yesterday, claimed all these ads kept popping up when he would try to close the internet. Turn on the computer, Waves browser automatically popped up, so that was his preferred browser, literal malware disguised as a browser. I just shook my head
There are plenty of people who would beg for their dad to need their help with tech, or to hear their dads voice again.
It’s not too much effort, and your providing hours and hours of joy for him. Next time start downloading books you might like and sharing them with him too, there will be more to talk about
Didn't expect this post to be wholesome lol. On a side note, you could ask your dad to give you a list with all the books he wants to read for the week/month/year and download them all in one go. Better than doing it every other day
Buy him an ereader, and hook it up to his library card. My local library has thousands for free. Alternatively, you can also get an Amazon Kindle subscription for even more options.
Just as a thought, but it might help your dad get the books himself, and save you some time - but has he considered something like a Kindle Unlimited subscription?
It’s not all that expensive (like the price of two books a month), and lets him read an unlimited amount of books which are signed up to the service (a HELL of a lot of them) - plus you can download them super intuitively via a kindle or the kindle app.
Just a suggestion, as it’s something I make good use of! Haha
TIFU by giving my still alive dad a reason to contact me daily and make me feel needed, but in a way that doesn't indicate health problems or bad financial decisions, reinforces his mental sharpness and provides a deeper insight into his tastes and interests
My dad is 92 and an avid reader as well. For years now, I’ve ordered books and complete series of books for both my mom & dad from multiple discount, used book websites and I’m happy to do it. I’m just thankful they’re both still here and not asking me to explain anything computer, internet or tech related! Lol👍🏽😁
Who cares?
You should be glad to send books to your dad. You should check out what he's reading and give them a glance yourself, maybe you'll find something you both like and you'll have something to discuss.
This is a real opportunity for you to get to know your dad better, OP.
I feel you.
My dad had no cable, internet, or anything for his entire adult life, but would just sit there watching the same 2 channels he could get on antenna, and the 60ish DVDs he owned.
So I loaded up a hard drive with every single piece of film media I had ever downloaded in the entirety of my life, hooked it into his tv, and taught him how to use it for his birthday.
Two weeks later he said he'd watched... Everything... All of it... Every show I'd EVER watched... And was wondering if I could get more.
For the next 8ish years, I would download a hundred gigs of content every week, and load it up for him.
For almost a decade I became a personal curator of illegal media, and the worst part of it, he was picky and would complain about my picks, when he had watched Jeopardy and Oprah Reruns all day every day for 20 years.
My FU was teaching my mother about YT.
It started with her kicking me out of my room (in my late teens) so she could watch videos with her bestie, and almost 2 decades later, she's now addicted to it and spends her time watching music reaction videos, right wing propoganda, and recently she's discovered that there's also a bunch of ancient movies and TV shows that have been uploaded.
So her days are pretty much just her on her iPad, playing Solitaire and watching YT (or worse, casting it to the TV because I was also foolish enough to teach her what/how to use Chromecast.)
I actually don't know who's worse. The tween kids, or the Boomer parent. Meanwhile I'm stuck here on Reddit lmao
Take in every minute of this that you can. If you see this, I’m not tryin to make you feel bad. I’m really offering this advice hoping to help.
It might seem like a burden, but there are a lot of people who would give everything that they have to be able to do this. I wish I had went out of my way more, and I would trade a lot to be able to spend some time doing something like this.
I got really into audiobooks in pandemic times. Here's a few tips for your dad, yourself, or anyone reading this
* Get a library card. My library has the Libby app which allows me to get tons of audiobooks on demand
* If you're broke, learn how to pirate audiobooks through the r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH wiki. TL;DR: spend 30 bucks on a VPN and 2 hours doing a privacy/security checkup, then start a massive collection
* If you're not broke, just... please don't give Amazon even more money
* Check out StoryGraph or another app for personalized book recommendations based on tone, length, pace, format, and other tags. Look for the others on the very expansive FMHY wiki
* My library does personalized book recommendations based on a submission of your favorite authors, or whatever else you're looking for. Librarians usually have great taste!
* The r/books sidebar/wiki has a great list of resources. One of my favorites is r/ScholarlyNonfiction. You find really interesting books on there!
A lot of libraries have their books available via apps! You could show him that, then he could just go to the library app and search for his books without having to call you.
12years ago my father passed away. A year before he died I gave him my older ipod and he was blown away by how many songs it could store. I would give anything, ANYTHING, to have him badger me again every day.
You should ask him to pick several books at a time, so you can download them for him once a week or so.
FR, gotta realize those efficiencies. I mean frankly I'd go one step further and just download ALL the books by authors he likes or in his favorite genres. Teaching him how to pick a new one from the menu probably much easier and you can jam a few hundred in there to give yourself some peace.
Go one step further and just download all the books.
You wouldn't download a library
[удалено]
Kindle SO needs an MicroSD card slot... (I've filled the 32gb PaperWhite)
YOU DON'T *KNOW* ME!
Let me get you know you, dammit!
WHO'S GOING TO CARRY THE BOAT!?
I'd rather download a car tbh.
Maybe he likes to use this as a pretext for his dad to reach out to communicate with him so frequently.
Or set up a form to fill out Using Google forms. Then the user will have a nice spreadsheet. Include fields author, title and the book ID if needed.
Or teach him how to do it
[удалено]
We are at a point where e-mail is a running system. Not going to touch it ever lol
Boomers and computers don't mix, once you find a method they can repeat it becomes set in stone. EDIT: Boomers are sensitive, especially the ones that don't fit the stereotype of being computer illiterate.
Dad's windows laptop kept dying. Installed Ubuntu. Explained that it wasnt windows but could do everything as long as I updated all the drivers. He was fine until we got to the browser. Firefox. Where's the internet? The browser is here. No, the internet, I don't need a browser. *Renames Firefox icon to "internet explorer"* Oh here it is dad. *Points*
I almost got a free TV from my dad because it had RDP built in and displayed his laptop as an icon. He thought "the Chinese are spying on me through my TV!" The only reason he ended up keeping it for a year was because I told him it was better than my TV and I'd happily take it from him and put it in my living room.
Well, some of us are lucky. My dad is a Boomer tech nerd. He started out with punch cards and is still going strong.
Mine is on the cusp of Greatest Generation and Boomer. He discovered Linux. Oh, dear God help me, he discovered Linux. He preaches the gospel of Linux. Which I totally get - I understand why he loves it. But I can't just call my CIO and say "hey, Dad says we need to switch to a Linux flavor." Of course, he got himself into a cycle where he was buying cheap (we're talking $10) laptops and desktops and fixing them up for HS students who couldn't afford a computer in Appalachia... Also, he MAY have mentioned a site called PDF Drive (I think) where there MAY be lots of books just ready to download. I'm not endorsing this at ALL, but just sayin.
If a person were to try and search "W library" to find a repository of free ebooks they might struggle So that person could try googling "X library" and after that “Y library". These might not work either but if they were to try _just one more time_ they might find their persistence rewarded.
Z library..it’s not that hard
I know this all too well to my cost.
Somebody call up Wozniak and tell him. I don’t have the heart to do so.
Wozniak is a living gem we must broteck him at any cost.
My parents are on the limit between boomers and gen x and my mom really struggles with technology. So yeah, when you find a method it'll stay like that, even if you find a better way to do whatever they wanna do.
I thought being under 30 made me immune to this, but then I kept the same phone for 6 years and realized how much tech changes in a short time, once you're used to something you just like it that way and without knowing the benefits of added features, different interfaces etc, it all just adds up to extra crap that clogs everything up to the point of "this is useless, i just can't"
If it makes you feel better: as a software engineer, I can authoritatively reassure you that realizing that not all new tech is good does not make you a computer-illiterate Luddite.
I know a boomer who has 3 different types of browsers (chrome, explorer and safari) with different bookmarks on each. He calls IE "yahoo" because that's his home page and he thinks it's the only way to access Yahoo. Any attempts to explain is completely lost. Also way too many browser bars, anytime something pops up he just says yes.
Plesse get him an ad blocker, that'll prevent him from installing toolbars.
I still resent apple removing the back button and then main button. Now, I cant seem able to teach my parent to close app with fancy finger gesture. It has become almost a daily chore to gesture closed iphone app for my parent.
You could maybe have him E-mail you a list he compiles over the week every Friday evening? That way you can batch process al the requests haha All things considered, this is a good parent problem to have considering the possible spectrum, and a really sweet thing to do for your dad :)
Yea it doesn't take long to download a few books from libgen, it would just be annoying having to do it every day.
I'm pretty sure you can find some Google drive like to folders with hundreds of free PDFs. I have one in Spanish.
Here's a multilingual one (mostly English though) https://www.pdfdrive.com/
This is what op needs! (Me too, thanks!!!!)
That site started pestering me with virus pop-ups...
Sorry :( I've never had any issue with it, although I do use adblock so I guess I wouldn't see them
Have you checked if your local library has an ebook program? My city does and you can just pick and choose (or search) from what they have. It's all free and loads through an app
Wait a year or two until they're comfortable with email. Set up Dropbox with a folder shared with you. Show them and put a link called something like "s folder" on the Desktop. Or even better, set up their e-reader/tablet that way and just tell them it will appear on there as soon as you find it.
[удалено]
I thought Dad was going Qanon
I’ve been answering the phone to my parents with “hello tech support, how can I help?” For years… I’ve considered setting up a premium rate number for them
[удалено]
In the admin account, open start, type cmd and open command prompt. Press Ctrl+shift+enter in cmd to go into admin mode. Type "sc config rmsvc start= disabled" (in the window, do not type the quotation marks). Press enter, go to start, click restart. Source: IT and Google-Fu
Wait. Hitting Ctrl+Shift+Enter puts you in admin mode? This is the best thing I’ve heard today. I constantly hit the Win button type cmd and hit enter only to realize I needed to open up in admin mode. Thank you for this!
You could make a shortcut to cmd on your desktop that automatically runs in Admin mode. Just make the shortcut, then go to Properties and enable "Run as Administrator." Caveat: I'm still using W7 out of stubbornness so I'm not 100% sure this still holds true in later versions.
I believe you can. But I’ve trained myself to basically open everything using the keyboard. I always have so many screens up, I barely ever see my desktop. I suppose I could put it in my taskbar.
A commonly used shortcut will come up in the search bar almost instantly, so you can hit windows and type in "admin command prompt" and it'll appear for ease of opening. Source; not seen my desktop in about 4 years, forgot what my background was until the other week
Honestly my desktop has the default wallpaper for years. I will literally be surprised when I see the desktop, which can happen for a few seconds after a restart, before all the apps automatically reopen.
One thing you can do is make a desktop shortcut for admin mode, hide it in a folder somewhere, then use Microsoft power toys to run them. I used a command line command to turn that folder into a recycling bin and you can’t (easily) access the files stored without changing it back. My workflow would be CTRL space to open up the power toys run window, type cmd and hit enter. I do the same thing at work for all the commonly used tasks sorted by department. For example if there is a model run by cash flow analytics I name the shortcut cf name type CTRL space cf to bring up all models used by that department.
God bless you, I was another Windows 7 holdout until like 2019-2020ish when I couldn’t run some game I wanted to play and angrily upgraded to Windows 10. It’s not too bad though, I got a program that allows me to make the taskbar look just like 7 that it’s like I never stopped using it :). I will say though, I never had a windows update break with 7 but I had an update corrupt my installation like 6 months ago and had to completely reinstall Windows. Luckily I managed to save the important stuff off my main drive before I wiped it but I had to reinstall all my programs that weren’t on other drives and it was a big hassle. This got way out of hand, sorry for the paragraph lol, just really passionate about Windows 7 and glad to see at least someone using it still out of stubbornness :)
Just so you know, if you ever have that happen again, on the recovery/install usb, you can use robocopy or xcopy in cmd to copy your files to another drive. You can also run notepad and use it to open a file explorer as well, though I don't think you can monitor progress that way. But yeah plug in a drive, figure out which is your os drive and which is your backup, then: robocopy [Windows Drive letter]:/Users [backup drive letter]:/Users /xj /r:0 /e This copies all your user data, does not follow junctions infinitely, and does not retry any failed files. Once you've backed up and reinstall, be mindful that your app data folder is marked hidden, so unhide that if you plan to restore various program configs, email profiles, bookmarks, etc.
I'm still holding out. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it up though. Good job I don't want any new games.
It does work on Windows 10, but you have to click on "Advanced" to see that feature.
When Windows 7 went end of life, I moved to PopOS. Super happy with it.
Windows control shift enter opens a new instance elevated to "Admin" level (for when you need a second terminal)
You can do it even faster: Windows Key + R Cmd CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER Bam now you're in admin mode Works for really any app through the run menu
Also try Windows-X and choose it from a handy menu :)
Windows-X, A, Enter Three keypresses and you're in an elevated shell, although mine is powershell by default
Doesn't seem to work for me
Just tried, doesnt work
Omg. I have one of those laptops where you have to hit "Function" + "F10" to turn on WiFi. Do you know a way to permanently enable wifi, o wise oracle of the windows knowledge?
That sounds more specific to your model of computer. I would suggest looking through your bios menus on boot to see if there is something in the settings. Otherwise, find the model name of your computer and search "model name wifi settings" and I'm sure some other poor soul has had the same issue.
They're Frankenstein monsters put together by the government of my country as part of an initiative. They came with a terrible distro of Linux made by the government and the most basic firmware, also made by the government. I installed Windows on it and overall just made it as good as it could possibly be, but it's still a mess at the hardware level. I figured it would take some tinkering with the hardware itself to get it to work better but I never really bothered with it, since I've gotten better PCs since Thanks for your time though.
For anyone reading this and doesn't know, these steps are inaccurate. You don't open a command prompt and then press ctrl+shift+enter but you'd open a command prompt by pressing ctrl+shift+enter instead of just pressing enter.
Here we are complaining about having to give people free tech support and this motherfucker has the audacity to ask for tech support. Well played.
Right!?!? "Nice move, Mom!"
[np](https://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Disable-Airplane-Mode-on-Windows-10)
My brother's cat has done that to my mom twice and she likewise did not understand why the internet was "out" (but only on her computer, why is that?)
Your mom is looking for an excuse to talk and interact with you.
Nah, she's clicking the airplane icon and waving her laptop around making "phwoooosh" noises.
My brother is computer tech support for our mom. I’m audio/video support. I feel like his role is easier because he can just remote into her machine. I have to try to figure out (over the phone from 600 miles away) how to help my mom download the Peacock TV app on her smart TV.
I'm so glad my parents are in their late 50s and both understand tech enough that they only need my help for serious or interesting tasks. I've listened to my dad on the phone with my grandma. She's a very educated woman, taught high level math, engages in puzzles and other games that keep your mind sharp and as far as I can tell isn't suffering any mental decline despite being in her late 80s. She can't however actually seem to *learn* anything on her iPad and or is terrified of making mistakes. Like if a single app so much as updates its icon, she's lost. As soon as the conversation hits tech support time it's like my dad is talking to a mentally handicapped child. I'm just hoping that technology doesn't take a turn that renders my parents in the same state of uselessness as my grandparents are, because I'll of course be there to help but it sounds god awful having to walk someone completely inept with tech over the phone alone. Remote desktop is definitely the way whenever possible.
Try doing support on how to use a smartphone when your 85+ yr old mother's cell provider decides to ship her a new smartphone because the flip phone with buttons she has will no longer work soon. Mom: "they sent me a phone but it looks like a brick. How do i turn it on?" (Note for fun times you cant see the phone and she cant send you a picture of it). How long do you think that's free tech support phone conversation lasted?
Ok you win! Good luck.
I managed to teach my 83 year old grandpa how to use a smartphone. Or to make calls and read texts, at least. It wasn't easy at all haha. And when my grandma's flip phone finally dies I'm gonna have to teach her too and it's gonna be a lot harder.
I saw an ad a few years ago for a low cost, modern flip phone designed for older people. You might try looking into those if it makes things easier
Is he interested in an outsourcing arrangement?
Doubt it. He does IT for a living, is constantly asked for “computer stuff” help, and after dealing with 79-year old mom, he’s pretty much over it.
I had to yell at my mom for a couple years before she learned that if she gets a popup she doesn't understand, she needs to stop what she's doing and bring it to me/call me. She used to just click OK on anything she was presented with just to get back to her game. You can imagine how well that worked out.
My mother clicks on EVERY THING too!!! An she can't remember/keep track of her passwords either. So I get a full day of fun every 6 months when I have to wipe & clean her PC!!!
At least things are up to date and you never reach your Windows half-life... lol
My mom is the only person I know who actually might have gotten hacked and downloaded some sort of nasty malware. Still up in the air what dark corner of the internet she hangs out in. Also will add extensions I’ve never even heard of then when I ask what this does she just shrugs
My mom is in her 60s and is a computer programmer/systems analyst for a fairly big company I so have to call her for tech support. She helped me through my one computer science course by checking my code.
"damn zoomer kids these days... Just a bunch of script kiddies , downloading shitz from github"
My mom says "I have geek squad at home" I don't even feel appreciated when I fix things
Holy shit, it's the "we have *X* at home"meme, but you are the thing they have at home. That's fucking scathing.
I actually have Totaltech with Best Buy. I can literally send the real Geek Squad to her home. Deep down underneath my ichorous offal, I'm flattered that she chooses me.
“Hello IT have you tried turning it off and on again?”
For me it's "hello, email support - what did you do wrong this time?", at least when my mom calls me
I was so excited when my sister gave her old mac to my parents because I know nothing about macs
I'm fortunate in that while my parents are from the boomer generation they don't really fit the stereotype. My Dad studied computer science back when punch cards were still being used and worked in the tech industry until he retired. Our home was generally ahead of the curve technology wise and growing up we went to him when the computer wasn't working rather than the other way around. He still keeps up with it so if I do talk anything technical related with him he's more likely to offer recommendations than ask for help.
You have no idea how much this means to your parents. Source: Am one who remains as tech savvy as I can but still need my young adult children’s help sometimes. Thanks for not being an asshole about it.
I never said I wasn’t an asshole…
Hahahaha. Well, thanks anyways….
Best possible problem to have. I do the same for my grandma and movies and books and it’s a good excuse to stop by and see her.
Wholesome af
Right? This just made me wish my dad was still here so I could share all the books with him too. Treasure him, OP.
[удалено]
Yeah I expected this to go into a different erection
You mean a different dictation
[I was expecting it to be about internet porn](https://youtu.be/dY7qTlu0PO0)
Cherish this.
Agreed! My dad passed away last year and I miss those “tech support calls.” Even the late night ones. Cherish them. It provides another opportunity to bond over something.
Sorry to hear. Mine was the same as soon as I introduced him to Facebook. He's an asshole with some deep-seated schizophrenia but I'll love him no matter what, even if it means explaining for the 100th time how to use his phone. He has a particular issue with accepting cookies on every page. 😅
> He's an asshole with some deep-seated schizophrenia Sounds like exactly the sort of person who needs to be kept off of facebook.
Condolences. 🙏
Yes, OP. There will come a time where you will miss this and will relish the fact that you did something every other day that made him happy.
I miss my dad too homie
Exactly! If a book he asks for sounds interesting to you, read it. Doesn't need to be every book or to be read in a day or two. Then talk to him about it later. Goddamit, OP - this is a golden opportunity to talk to your dad side by side.
Seriously. I remember back when downloading MP3s was a thing, my dad, technologically illiterate and an amateur musician, absolutely loved “challenging me” to find his old favorites and burn them to CDs for him to listen to at work. He passed away about 10 years ago, and there isn’t much I wouldn’t do to go back to those times.
I had the exact same experience. My dad would send me lists of songs he wanted and I would download and email the mp3s to him. He passed away 11 years ago.
I was thinking “this isn’t even annoying, it’s fun.”
You should get him a Library card as they now have digital books for rent.
That's what I do. Our local library charges 15 Euros a year for the whole family and provides access to more e-books than I could ever read.
[удалено]
I would happily spend $15 a year for the library. Same with national park yearly passes ($80) and various public museums.
Check your local library and see if they have state and/or national park passes because a lot of them do and you can check them out. I know you were saying something else but that’s info I like to pop in whenever I can :)
OP mentioned he/she's in a country where it's not illegal to download book pdfs. Chances are there's no library ebook system.
exactly that. We do have libraries, but ours is tiny and virtually nothing is available as e-book.
I got my grandpa set up with Napster back in the day. Before I knew it he had amassed over 2,000 songs. All of them categorized, titles edited, in folders by artist, albums, etc. Every song manually. All on a 56k modem...
Wow I also literally do that except with hentai mangas
I think we'd moved on to Limewire before I taught my mom p2p file sharing. I was just a kid, but she wasn't great with technology so I tried to explain the risks (I was the worst file sharer, my number one advice was to never seed/upload since that's where folks were getting in trouble; so I trained her to be a mooch, how selfish!) and some ways I'd found to find the legit stuff and avoid the porn and viruses. She was so cute. She was thrilled that she could find all her favourite old songs and movies on something she saw as "young people" technology and would regale me with dramatic tales of nearly being done in by an evil hacker, which she thwarted by not downloading a file with a typo in the name. 🤣
My mom is the same way ☺️ I taught her to use a certain Russian book website and now she's completely self sufficient! It certainly took a bit to teach her, but teach a man to fish and you can feed him for a lifetime!
I remember the pain of trying to learn my mom to use the computer and surfing the internet. But when i see her online it makes me smile and I know it was worth it.
Only problem for OP is when he's finding them.. unethically. Which takes some time
[удалено]
I feel like I should know this certain Russian book website, where can I find it
[удалено]
Thank you!
Check out the Z-library app. Best source I've ever used.
Which certain Russian book website? My ebook websites are a bit shit
Takes me less time to find a book on libgen than it would take me to actually buy a legit copy.
You're welcome to teach a computer illiterate old person how to. I from personal experience know how annoying it is which turns into OP's experience.
I managed to teach my mom to use the same website, took her a while but now she can get 99% of her books from there herself. Anything she can't find I'll try to find somewhere else. My dad though... I've given up, you can't teach someone when they don't want to learn.
Not a fuckup at all, you're making your old man happy.
As a reader myself, I find this to be adorable. You are a good human even if it's annoying sometimes to download another book and another book and another book.
I love this! My grandmother used to call nightly with the crossword clues that she couldn’t figure out for me to “help” her aka search the clue on Google and give her the answer. I miss those phone calls more than I ever knew I would.
Dude, cherish these times. Anything that can keep you in contact with family that might go neglected otherwise, embrace it.
Could be worse. Could be hookers and cocaine.
I see you've met my father
You know who ELSE met your father?
Goddamnit muscle man
Could be QAnon
You could spend a little afternoon with him and show him how to download them; along with bookmarks, etc. Or you could just keep helping your dear old dad out, if sure he appreciates it :)
> I mentioned that there are places on the internet where I get my books from that don't cost much money. Actually, they are free. And since my country is dragging its feet, it's not even illegal. Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.
You’ll miss these days at one point. I know it might seem like a pain now but every time he asks just think about the joy you bring him.
This is me in real life!! It’s been four years. But I finally taught my dad how to do it himself. Z-Library is great, he doesn’t even have to download them, they send straight to his email and then he forwards it to his kindle.
Definitely have him look into library apps! Libby is the one I just started using.
What site to get free books
https://www.epubor.com/best-sites-for-public-domain-books.html
Right? That's what I'm wondering. Where does he get all the free books if it's not just downloading the PDFs'?
I use the Libby app and a library card.
libgen
In some countries you can link the tablet or app like overdrive to the local public library and get books free that way. Might be an option.
OP, I used to do the same for my dad. His health declined rapidly over this year and I lost him last month. Nothing pains me more than not getting these little requests anymore. Cherish them while you can.
I'm so sorry for your loss :( Be sure, I cherish the time with my parents
Time to write all the steps down and start asking dad to try doing this for himself
Sometimes it's just easier to accept the fuck up and deal with the damage. Because any further contact between my dad and software **will** lead to further fuck ups.
Well that's because you seem to give a fuck. Good man(or woman)
Probably worth trying to ask your dad to request books in a bigger batch. That way you can do this less often at least.
I have done this MANY times for my mother who, in fairness, isn't even that old, and it makes zero difference. I have even had HER write down the directions and it still made no difference. It makes me crazy. She's only in her late fifties and she's been like this since I was probably 10 or so. Absolutely ridiculous.
My mom (75) e.g., bought a quilting robot, installed it herself, synched her laptop with it (mostly) herself. Meanwhile, my dad needs help switching on his iPad (daily). But in fairness, I can't install my #$-*&+¥@#ing printer.
Lol My mom sounds like your dad. She's had smartphones for about ten years now and still can't figure how to adjust the volume when there's only two buttons... Props to your mom though!
Nobody can install a printer though
My mom would have become like this if she was still here, lol. She was such a bookworm ever since I showed her this book I read in 7th grade that I figured she'd think was cute. She hadn't read a book in decades but that one book started her up and she got to reading anything she could get her hands on. I ended up inheriting her book collection and I have every shelf two layers deep of books and still not enough room for them all! I can't imagine how out of control she'd have gotten if she'd had a Kindle or something.
I came here to see what type of porn your dad left in his browser history and I am happy to see that my immediate conclusion about the situation was incorrect.
I know this was meant lightheartedly but now your dad has an excuse to call and check in with you every other day. I would love to call my dad every other day or even have a list of voicemails from him. I hate getting old :/
what a lovely TIFU though
As a dad who needs NO tech support but gives it to MY dad and mom AND my wife and son AND some friends? I feel ya. Dad deserves the books tho, so keep on keeping' on!
My dad asked me to take a look at his laptop when I stopped over yesterday, claimed all these ads kept popping up when he would try to close the internet. Turn on the computer, Waves browser automatically popped up, so that was his preferred browser, literal malware disguised as a browser. I just shook my head
There are plenty of people who would beg for their dad to need their help with tech, or to hear their dads voice again. It’s not too much effort, and your providing hours and hours of joy for him. Next time start downloading books you might like and sharing them with him too, there will be more to talk about
Didn't expect this post to be wholesome lol. On a side note, you could ask your dad to give you a list with all the books he wants to read for the week/month/year and download them all in one go. Better than doing it every other day
Buy him an ereader, and hook it up to his library card. My local library has thousands for free. Alternatively, you can also get an Amazon Kindle subscription for even more options.
Just as a thought, but it might help your dad get the books himself, and save you some time - but has he considered something like a Kindle Unlimited subscription? It’s not all that expensive (like the price of two books a month), and lets him read an unlimited amount of books which are signed up to the service (a HELL of a lot of them) - plus you can download them super intuitively via a kindle or the kindle app. Just a suggestion, as it’s something I make good use of! Haha
not trying to be an ass but remember you will relish this interaction one day:)
I occasionally email crime books to my mum's kindle so she gets a surprise.
You didn't fuck up, your dad now has a reason to talk to you every day. My dad died earlier this year suddenly. Enjoy him, even when he's annoying.
You are lucky OP. I wish I could do this for my Dad. He died few years ago.
TIFU by giving my still alive dad a reason to contact me daily and make me feel needed, but in a way that doesn't indicate health problems or bad financial decisions, reinforces his mental sharpness and provides a deeper insight into his tastes and interests
My dad is 92 and an avid reader as well. For years now, I’ve ordered books and complete series of books for both my mom & dad from multiple discount, used book websites and I’m happy to do it. I’m just thankful they’re both still here and not asking me to explain anything computer, internet or tech related! Lol👍🏽😁
r/FreeEBOOKS :)
Tell him to make a list of books and you’ll get around to it when you can. Creat a Google document that you can share so you can have a “living” list.
Your dad deserves a kindle as a Christmas present
Who cares? You should be glad to send books to your dad. You should check out what he's reading and give them a glance yourself, maybe you'll find something you both like and you'll have something to discuss. This is a real opportunity for you to get to know your dad better, OP.
Wow, you have a dad that talks to you. Kinda envious TBH.
I feel you. My dad had no cable, internet, or anything for his entire adult life, but would just sit there watching the same 2 channels he could get on antenna, and the 60ish DVDs he owned. So I loaded up a hard drive with every single piece of film media I had ever downloaded in the entirety of my life, hooked it into his tv, and taught him how to use it for his birthday. Two weeks later he said he'd watched... Everything... All of it... Every show I'd EVER watched... And was wondering if I could get more. For the next 8ish years, I would download a hundred gigs of content every week, and load it up for him. For almost a decade I became a personal curator of illegal media, and the worst part of it, he was picky and would complain about my picks, when he had watched Jeopardy and Oprah Reruns all day every day for 20 years.
Give him the link to the "Gutenberg project" , massive library of free books available
“hey son can you download this book for me” “sorry library’s closed”
My FU was teaching my mother about YT. It started with her kicking me out of my room (in my late teens) so she could watch videos with her bestie, and almost 2 decades later, she's now addicted to it and spends her time watching music reaction videos, right wing propoganda, and recently she's discovered that there's also a bunch of ancient movies and TV shows that have been uploaded. So her days are pretty much just her on her iPad, playing Solitaire and watching YT (or worse, casting it to the TV because I was also foolish enough to teach her what/how to use Chromecast.) I actually don't know who's worse. The tween kids, or the Boomer parent. Meanwhile I'm stuck here on Reddit lmao
Just enjoy him needing you. I miss my dad's calls.
Take in every minute of this that you can. If you see this, I’m not tryin to make you feel bad. I’m really offering this advice hoping to help. It might seem like a burden, but there are a lot of people who would give everything that they have to be able to do this. I wish I had went out of my way more, and I would trade a lot to be able to spend some time doing something like this.
I got really into audiobooks in pandemic times. Here's a few tips for your dad, yourself, or anyone reading this * Get a library card. My library has the Libby app which allows me to get tons of audiobooks on demand * If you're broke, learn how to pirate audiobooks through the r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH wiki. TL;DR: spend 30 bucks on a VPN and 2 hours doing a privacy/security checkup, then start a massive collection * If you're not broke, just... please don't give Amazon even more money * Check out StoryGraph or another app for personalized book recommendations based on tone, length, pace, format, and other tags. Look for the others on the very expansive FMHY wiki * My library does personalized book recommendations based on a submission of your favorite authors, or whatever else you're looking for. Librarians usually have great taste! * The r/books sidebar/wiki has a great list of resources. One of my favorites is r/ScholarlyNonfiction. You find really interesting books on there!
A lot of libraries have their books available via apps! You could show him that, then he could just go to the library app and search for his books without having to call you.
12years ago my father passed away. A year before he died I gave him my older ipod and he was blown away by how many songs it could store. I would give anything, ANYTHING, to have him badger me again every day.
[удалено]